Book Review: The Lunar Chronicles, Winter by Marissa Meyer

The closing book to the Lunar Chronicles is action-packed, emotional, and well written with a fairytale ending. Once again Marissa Meyer shows off her skills in retelling a classic fairytale story with a science fiction twist.

In Winter, we get to know a little bit about Levana’s stepdaughter. Winter’s physical beauty is natural and her kindness to the Lunar citizens and its animals is known throughout Luna. Unlike most Lunars, Winter refuses to use her Lunar gift, which has a side effect of losing her mind. Hallucinations plague the princess, making her seem crazy. Queen Levana, who can see how much people adore Winter, considers her a threat to the crown and tries to have her assassinated. However, the loyalty of Jacin and the Lunar citizens is the very thing that saves Winter from the assassination attempts.

Meanwhile, the planning and execution of a revolution that could affect Luna and Earth takes place. The entire Rampion crew, Cinder, Kai, Scarlet, Wolf, Cress, Iko, and Thorne, seek to dethrone the manipulative Queen Levana and liberate the citizens of Luna from their isolated and oppressed lives. The crew use Winter’s grace to recruit and inspire the people of the outer sectors of Luna, and even the mutant wolf army, to join their cause. Will their numbers be enough to overwhelm the royal guards, the thaumaturges, and Queen Levana? Will Princess Selene actually become the rightful Queen of Luna? I can’t give away this ending!

While I had hoped that Winter was more about the name-sake character and her background, as the other books were, I was not disappointed with the vivid scenes and characters. This installment of The Lunar Chronicles is full of action, suspense, and a dash of romance. The previous books of the series of full of strong female characters that shred the idea of a fairytale princess in need of saving, and those characters continue to be strong in Winter. However, Winter’s character is in constant need of her personal guard, Jacin, or support from Scarlet. Even though Winter is independent enough to accept Lunar sickness instead of using her Lunar gift, it is Jacin that has to come to her aid when she has hallucinations.

I was disappointed that this book did not have more about Winter and her life in the palace with her stepmother. The scars on Winter’s face, growing up with Jacin and the hallucinations, the accumulation of the animals in the menagerie, her accepting Lunar sickness. These things all could have been included in more detail. The battle scenes of the revolution and the aftermath could have been saved for a separate book.

Winter is the creative and skillfully written conclusion to The Lunar Chronicles. Vivid scenes and emotional roller coasters keep readers engaged. Since the character of Winter is neglected a little in this book and does not follow the theme of strong female lead characters, this is not my favorite book in the series, but that does not mean it is not a great conclusion.