Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles)

I know I typically post stuff like this all the time, but I always mean it when I say I really loved this book. It wasn't the typical "in-between" novel while you wait for the next book to come out. In a way, it felt like it's own series. I can always tell that a book is a good one when I finish it within the day I got my hands on it!

This is the sad story of a sociopath. Your supposed to feel sorry for her, but she's a delusional sociopath. Why would I care, I just want her dead. I don't have anything redeeming to say about this book.

Fairest is a great tale into the world in which a young Levana grew up! Her parents seemed selfish and distant. Her sister was a greedy, who're. And all Levana wanted was a real family but she was to stick in the head to truly get what she wanted. She truly is evil.

This book didn't disappoint! I love finally knowing Levana's story and what made her her in the previous Lunar Chronicles books. Her pain, bitterness, and delusional self bled through the pages. I wasn't sure if I should dislike her more or feel bad for her.

This book was a MUST have for my teenage daughter..after she read the book i guess it explained the rest of the series and once she finished reading it she re read the entire Cinder, Cress, etc books...

That Levana wasn't so bad and I've been trying to imagine what Levana looks like. That's really sad and Channary was really ticking me off. But the two things I Can't CANT forgive is when she tried to kill Selene by fire and how she had Evert assassinated.Thats really messed up

It is a terrible book. I am 3/4 through and unless something good happens this will be a waste of money. I read the other books in the Lunar series and enjoyed them. It seems like the author wanted to make more money so she just through words together. And now there's a 4th book-give me a break.

I have to say, I love, love, LOVE the first 3 books in the Lunar Chronicles, but this one was a HUGE disappointment! Definitely will be getting/reading Winter, but wish I had saved my money and skipped Fairest (sorry, Marissa). FYI - I own both the hard copies and audio versions of Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, and consider it money well spent!

I spent the first half of the book writhing in embarrassment for Levana. I had no idea this book would be so short when I paid $10 for it. I agree that there is too much discussion of sex for a series that I let my teenage daughters read. I hope the next book will be better and longer.

Most inappropriate book. Someone needs to have a rating for books that are "so called" children's books. If there was a lower rating than 1 star I would have given it that. Not for teenagers. Nasty book!

It was...interesting. finding out why Levana is the way she is. A twisted mess. Not all her fault. But there's still something twisted in her soul.
It'll have to do until we get the final story comes out in November. But it was good to understand her a bit better.
I felt rushed and incomplete. Quick read.

This is not in the same category as the rest of the Lunar Chronicle series. I loved the previous three, but this one was dark, and full of sexual situations, murder, and intrigue, and I won't be putting it with the rest of the set in my middle school classroom. I am disappointed, and so are my students. The series didn't need to go there. I will be previewing the rest of the series before I purchase anything, instead of buying it sight unseen. Learned my lesson

Although I loved the first 3 books in this series, as an avid reader I feel cheated with this one. Story was just ok and Kindle was at 79% when story abruptly ended. I was really looking forward to this novel but it was quite a disappointment. I won't be eagerly awaiting the next one.

While I love M.Meyer's other books, Fairest was a miss for me. I kept waiting for the magic to happen....It did not. Both Levana and her sister were completely unlike-able, making this a chore to finish. My daughter will not be reading this because of the sexual undertone that was not in the previous books.

I was so disappointed in this book! I could not put down the first three books. They were engaging and fun, and the author clearly knows how to spin a great tale. The first 3 books were also very clean. My problem with this book is that it is so inappropriate for young readers!! Much of the book is about sex! There is no way I can feel good about letting my fifth and sixth graders read this. It is unfortunate, they were really into this series. I was also hoping that the storyline would continue, but you don't hear anything about Cinder hardly.

I have thoroughly and completely enjoyed each of the previous books in the Lunar Chronicles. Sadly, this book wasn't even close to the same caliber as the others. To me, the book continually replayed verses of the same song about forced sex and murder. I am still eagerly awaiting the upcoming book, Winter, with the hopes that it will be on par with the first three. (Additionally, this is the first of any series that I have purchased all the books as I have liked them that much...but I did regret purchasing this one.)

Why do all mean girls have to have a sob story? Why can’t a bitch, just be a bitch? Why does her bitchiness need to be justified? I mean, I get everyone has a reason for being the way they are, but does the reason always have to be the same?

I already knew the plot of the story before I even picked up the book. Once I knew there was a prequel, I knew what was coming, so I didn’t feel any ounce of sadness for Queen Levana. Well, maybe I felt a little sad for her, but not really. The person I felt bad for was Evert Hayle, he sacrificed a lot for his daughter, Princess Winter, and I felt bad for Winter, as well, and little Cinder of course. Queen Levana’s actions towards them, were horrible and regardless of her damaged childhood, it doesn’t justify her actions. I thought the point of the past was to learn from your mistakes? Her older sister, Queen Channary, is the reason why her childhood was horrible, but did she have to make matters worse and follow in her footsteps? She hated her sister, so why try to be like her?

However, I did enjoy the story, I just hate that every evil queen has the same sob story. It’s repetitive and really annoying at this point, but I still love this story and I was never a fan of Queen Levana, and I never expected to like her more. I may feel a little bad for her, but that’s it, I still think she’s an evil bitch, regardless of what happened to her in the past, because she doesn’t have to repeat it, but she did and she doesn’t care. Queen Levana is just hungry or more so desperate for power and beauty and love that she will sadly do anything to get it, regardless if she has to commit a few murders along the way. It’s horrible and it’s almost like a sickness if you really think about it, but none the less Queen Levana, will always be an evil queen in my book.

~ Reviewed by Lametria @ Lazy Book Lovers

I do my reviews in the form of questions

What made me pick this book up:
I had read the first three.

What did I like about the cover:
I love that it shows Levana with her veil on. It matches the book well.

What made me read this book:
Like I said, I read the first three and loved them, and I really wanted to read more about Levana.

What did I like the most:
I really loved reading about Levana and what made her... well Levana.

The story is really interesting, just being able to read about her childhood, and her life. And how everything came together.

You also get to read about Cinder's mom and how she came to be.

Of course with reading Winter, you wonder how Winter came to be, and well, Fairest will answer that for you.

At the point of me writing this, I have read all except Stars Above and honestly Fairest is my favorite.

And I think it's really important to the story, because everything that you could possibly wonder about Cinder, and what happened to her, and how Levana became queen, it all comes together completely.

What didn't I like:
This book made me so sad though, because of everything that Levana went through, it's all so sad, no wonder she's the way she is.

Other than that, there wasn't anything I didn't really like.

Would I read the rest of the series/more from this author?
Of course!

Cover: *****
Story: ****
Pace: *****
Writing: *****
Characters: ***
World building: *****
Ending: *****

“But no. She didn't want to be Channary. She didn't want her beauty, not if it came with her cruelty and selfishness as well.”
― Marissa Meyer, Fairest

Who is Queen Levana?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Levana as the woman who terrorizes Cinder and her band of heroes in her pursuit of world domination, but who is the woman behind the veil? What is her story? Was she always so cruel? The first three books in the series provide very little insight into Levana’s character, but Ms. Meyer drops tantalizing clues throughout the series concerning Levana and her history. My curiosity was piqued and I jumped at the opportunity to read more about this enigmatic character.

I knew before I began reading that Levana’s tale would not be a happy one, but I had no idea just how tragic it would be. Her parents neglected her and her monstrous older sister, Channery, abused her. Even after I learned this, I still have little sympathy for Levana, but I have a better understanding of her motives and the dynamics of her relationships with other characters in the series. Reading this book made Levana more than just a typical evil queen. It made her very realistic.

It is rare to come across a villain as complex and developed as Levana. She is a truly twisted individual who uses her exceptional talent with glamor to manipulate and control those around her, even those she professes to love. There are many times in Levana’s life when she was at a crossroads, and she consistently made bad decisions. Levana deludes herself into believing she is better than Channery. However, I think Levana is actually worse in some ways. At least Channery didn’t try to disguise her actions under the guise of being for the greater good.

It was interesting to finally learn more about Lunar culture, and I have to say it is pretty disturbing. I understand how villains like Levana and Channery could emerge from a world like that. I still would like to know more about the origins of the Lunars’ power and why some are born without it as well as how Lunar society developed.

I highly recommend fans of the Lunar Chronicles read Fairest. Levana’s story is intriguing and adds depth to this captivating series.

originally posted at long and short ya reviews

3.5 stars.

Listened to this on audiobook. The narrator was really good and I enjoyed her reading of Fairest.

The story itself was ok. The writing, as with other Marissa Meyer books, is wonderful and why this is rated as high as I rated it, but the actual story wasn't necessarily needed. There were little moments with Evret and Winter and anything involving them that were interesting but I didn't need a story about Levana.

**Spoiler Section**
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For a few pages I felt sympathy for her, she was ignored by her family and those around her, she was horribly burned from childhood so she never shows her true face, and she has a crush on a man who is married with a child on the way and only sees her as the royalty he must guard but that feeling quickly disappeared and turned to disgust. Levana uses her abilities to make Evret, a man she claims to care for and love, fall in love with her. She glamours herself into being Evret's recently deceased wife, a wife he deeply loved, thinks (in her crazy ass mind) that he is lying to himself and her when he says he just wants to be a friend. She manipulates his mind and forces him to kiss her and have little touches here and there. Then she messes with his mind again and rapes him. This all happens when she's 16/17. Then all her horrible thoughts toward everyone, her ease at killing a toddler and a nanny, just floored me.
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**End Spoiler**

I read this for any Winter bits that we might not get in Winter's book but Levana's story is one I could have skipped.

By the time of the Lunar Chronicles series, Queen Levana is a monster -- a icy, cruel creature who brutally murdered her own niece and seeks to conquer the Earth.

But in "Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana's Story," Marissa Meyer travels back in time to explore how a lonely young princess became the monstrous glamour-wrapped queen of Luna. It's a dark, bleak story that deftly avoids the problems that usually come from "how a villain became a villain" stories, instead giving us a compelling story about how a woman's slow descent into darkness -- and how the road to hell is paved with a princess' good intentions.

After the brutal murder of her parents, Princess Levana Blackburn finds herself an outcast in the Lunar Court. Her cruel, debauched sister Channery is now the new queen, and she never passes up an opportunity to torment her little sister. The only person who shows Levana kindness is the guard Evret Hayle; Levana believes herself to be madly in love with him, craving a lover and family, but is riddled with misery and jealousy when she finds that he has a pregnant wife.

When his wife dies in childbirth, Levana uses glamour and mind control to slowly sway Evret into a relationship -- and though he resists her at first, eventually they are married. But her married life does not bring her the happiness she craves, as they are still haunted by the specter of his first wife. When her sister dies unexpectedly, Levana finds herself in control of Luna... but only until Channery's baby daughter Selene comes of age, in another twelve years. To be a true queen, Levana will do something truly terrible...

Writing a villain's backstory is a tricky business. They need to be expanded as a character so readers can understand what makes them tick... but that very act can demystify them, or make them too "likable." See "Maleficent" for a prime example. So it's a testament to Marissa Meyer's skill that she does this so well in "Fairest," making Levana more fleshed-out, sympathetic character without diminishing the monstrous things she has done over the years, climaxing in murders that she feels no guilt over.

It's a story as cold and bleak as the pale surface of the moon, and Meyer's strength is that she spins up a story that is essentially a slow descent into true evil. In a way, this is the antithesis of most young-adult fantasy and sci-fi -- the "love" story is empty and meaningless, the heroine's ascent to power is riddled with horrifying actions like bio-warfare and genetic abominations, and it's painfully obvious that this fairy tale will not have a happy ending. Many scenes that have the sheen of a happiness are painfully (and deliberately) hollow, like the wedding ceremony.

It also helps that Meyer's writing is stunningly beautiful and atmospheric, painting a court as exquisitely beautiful and empty as the glamours the courtiers employ. The biggest weakness is that occasionally something important (like Channery's illness and death) are skimmed over in passing, when they could have been explored in more detail. I know this is a novella spanning a decade, but it's a bit disconcerting at times.

Levana herself is the masterful stroke in this story -- at first she seems like another mildly-damaged young-adult heroine who wants true love and freedom from a mean relative. As it begins, you pity her. But as the story unwinds, Meyer reveals that her romantic streak is a desperate, almost sociopathic craving for love and acceptance, a black hole that grows as it consumes. What made her pitiable and identifiable is warped and twisted, and her desperation slowly calcifies into full-blown cruelty. And as she's comparable to the wicked queen of "Snow White," Meyer cleverly weaves in mirror imagery and a reason for the queen to want so much to be "fairest of them all."

"Fairest" gives a clever twist to the tale of Snow White -- a story of the wicked queen, and the terrible events that turned her into a murderous monster. It could use a bit more fleshing out, but the elegant writing and the masterful exploration of the villain make it a must-read for fans of the Lunar Chronicles.

Here’s the thing–

Giving a backstory to an evil character is hard. There are so many things that you have to account for in order to have one that makes sense, and that alone is difficult. You not only need a credible story, but you also need a little something more. Typically, when one writes the story of their villain, I don’t expect a whole lot. Too many times writers tend to go with the cliche that makes you suddenly feel terrible for the villain and suddenly you start loving them. If the author has come up with something I can accept as reasonable, they’ve got my attention, but I don’t hold high hopes for anything too impressive.

This novel went well above and beyond any reasonable expectation I had.

Once again I find myself astounded and impressed by Meyer’s work, and really, at this point I should just stop thinking her books will disappoint because they never have.

The idea that a writer must have a reason for a character to be evil has been so overdone that it’s gotten to the point where most books have the most obvious, cliche, and ridiculous explanation imaginable. With Fairest, Marissa Meyer took a character who grew up in a manner which held her to a certain predisposition to become the person she did. Nothing about what Meyer wrote for Levana was “typical.” Nothing about Levana was overdone or cliche.

Readers weren’t introduced to a woman who had one bad experience that shaped her cruel and harsh nature. Readers weren’t given one simple explanation for Levana’s cruelty. The personality of the Lunar Chronicles’ villain was corrupted from a very early age and as she grew into her life, she experienced more and more to shape who she would become. But let me be clear; Levana was selfish from the start. She may have acted in ways which she believed were nice, but her own personality told us better. With or without the trauma she experienced, Levana was always going to be someone ruled by her own clouded beliefs.

She was a girl born of privilege to a family where cruelty was second nature. Levana was not someone who could have truly been wholly good in any circumstance as her personality alone led her to be greedy and entirely in possession of the ability to take what she wanted and needed when the time came for it. All it takes is one look at the ways in which she was jealous of Solstice and how she responds to the situation of taking over her appearance. Levana, ultimately, was damaged psychologically into believing that she was something she was not, that people felt things for her that they did not.

And in the most fascinating way, that was the most beautiful and captivating part of the story. She was intelligent enough to believe she knew better ways of ruling the moon than her sister. She was able to grow confident enough to take everything she needed and wanted and even managed to delude herself into believing things were different than they actually were. She made choices and sacrifices that no person who could have truly grown up to be especially moral and good could have made.

And in an ultimate statement of her character, Levana was never truly capable of standing up to her sister. She bit back her hatred–a feeling which was always somehow veiled over by her fear and an incredibly small speck of familial feelings–and in no way would have been capable of killing her sister. But her sister’s child? That was much easier. And while she grappled with the decision in her attempt to be someone whom she felt deserved love only to push past that and truly accept and approve of who she was through her delusion in order to allow herself to believe that her actions were exactly what should be done. She thought, by doing the wrong thing, she was doing the right thing. And this delusion existed for her throughout her entire life.

Levana is the villain who believes with every speck of her being that she is doing the best and the right thing–she deludes herself into this constantly. With her actions regarding Solstice, Winter, and Evret–Levana was brilliant in how she convinced herself that he really did love her, regardless of how many times he repeatedly informed her that he did not, that she was confusing him and hurting him. She manipulated him into a situation which he did not want to be a part of and yet she loved him, believing without question that the world was as she perceived it–or wanted to perceive it–as.

I am nothing if not exceedingly impressed with what Marissa Meyer has done with Levana and even as I try to explain why in this review, I find myself failing to find the proper words and descriptions. What I have written is only scratching the surface in a dismal way of describing how brilliant it was.

Meyer did not simply give an overly simple reason for Levana’s evil nature nor did she shove too many bad experiences into the reader’s faces. She gave us a flawed character from the beginning with a cruel sister and a horrible childhood experience that only exacerbated who she was and who she would become when the time came for her to make choices based on what she wanted out of her life.

And I am so impressed that it baffles me that the rating of this book isn’t even higher.

Levana is beautifully just that sort of villain that you LOVE to hate.

*Marissa Meyer continues to impress.
*Unquestionably love her writing.
*5/5

Sometimes the villains are more fascinating than the heroes. Queen Levana has been the boogie-woman in the dark with nearly ultimate power since the beginning of The Lunar Chronicles series and she has not been afraid to wield the power to get what she wants. I was all on board for this book that takes a dip into her dark and shadowy past to see what came before and get a glimpse inside the mind of such a calculating woman.

Fairest falls between Cress and Winter in the series. I think it was a good place for the series to stop and pull over for this chronological prequel that makes sense to read it after learning the circumstances in the current situation and getting who all the players are before going back to see how it was all set in motion and then going on to get the last chapter in the story. I do not recommend reading it at the opening of the series because there is a feeling that though further back in time, that the reader has a good grasp on the world building. Plus, it's a series spoiler in ways if read first.

So, Fairest, Queen Levana's story and a loose retelling of the Wicked Queen and stepmother of the Snow White tale. It begins when Levana is fifteen, her parents have just died, and her sister is taking the throne. It stays with Levana as the narrator through the whole story.

I felt a certain sympathy for her. She never really stood a chance between a lack of nurture and her own nature. The story focuses on her quest to have something she can't understand or truly grasp- love, being loved, having a feeling of belonging and family, but she snatches for it anyway. She both breaks the beauty of what she had and discovers that it was an illusion all along because she wants two very different things constantly and those things are at cross purposes and can't exist at the same time the way she wants them.

Its a sad story, but the author did a fine job painting Levana as she is under her glamour. I had the joy of seeing how things in the series were set in motion and the significance of the players and their roles. This is a great lead in to the final book, Winter, especially now that I know better the heroine Winter's backstory from this book.

This won't be for everyone and it is cleverly written so a reader can choose to read it or skip it. Worth reading it though.

I enjoyed FAIREST as a look into Levana's past and insight into her motivations, but I didn't find that reading this book was necessary to understanding the rest of the series. And oh, boy, did we learn a lot about Levana.

I'll say right now that this book isn't particularly easy to read. We learn pretty quickly that Levana spent her childhood into her early adulthood being abused by her older sister, Channary. Because of this, Levana seeks validation elsewhere, but goes about it in an entirely unhealthy fashion. While this doesn't excuse any of her actions, it does explain them.

I'd recommend this book if you're super into The Lunar Chronicles, or if you've been really wondering what Levana's motivations are, since those don't really get dealt with much in the first three books, which are the ones I've read so far. While reading this book isn't strictly necessary and can be skipped if you're not into extras, it does give you a little different viewpoint when reading the other books.

"She knew it wasn't real. She knew the holograph wouldn't hurt. But she also knew that fire was dangerous, and illusions were dangerous, and being tricked into believing things that weren't real was often the most dangerous thing of all."

Hmm...maybe Levana should have taken some of her own thoughts as advice. Another disappointment.

I don't see how this story added anything to the series, other that reiterate how horrible the Blackburn family tree is, especially Levana.

Levana is downright horrible. Despite everything that's happened to her, I fail to feel ANY remorse towards her character when she went through "times of difficulty." All-in-all, her character disgusts me. She forces Evret to marry her, and "rapes" him mentally, emotionally, and physically. Clearly, she has some issues.

I don't have much more to say than this was a pointless read, with a few hiccups of interesting information. As I'm drawing to a close with "Winter," I think I will gladly re shelve this series.

I'm sorry, I cannot stand this book. I have read the 4 in the series: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter. I couldn't put them down (Scarlet was a bit difficult to start) and was looking forward to continuing with this book. BUT, it is creepy and I even told my husband how much I hate it. It is disgusting how Levana manipulates the "love of her life." It truly makes me uncomfortable reading it. I find myself clenching my teeth or curling my toes. It's truly painful to read. We all knew she had a different upbringing and was manipulative, but this is dark and awful the way she tortures her future husband with mind games and her inner dialogue is abhorrent. She exhibits sociopathic tendencies that is unnerving to read.

It took me a while to decide whether I wanted to read this book.  I didn’t want to risk upsetting my view of Queen Levana.  Just to be clear… she’s manipulative, crazy, and unredeemable.  Or at least, that’s my opinion of her and I wasn’t sure if reading this book would tarnish that view.   Yep, you read that right, I totally wanted to go on hating Levana.
Thankfully, my love for these characters persevered and I bit the bullet.
Fairest definitely sheds some much needed light on how the evil Queen becomes… well… EVIL.  But she’s still unredeemable in my eyes.  I enjoyed the background information on Cinder’s mother Queen Channary and how Levana ascended the throne.  However, Levana remains a very disturbing character.  While I can empathize with the horrors she survived, it just doesn’t justify her awful behavior.  Marissa Meyer’s imagination and creativity really shines in this novel.  She does the characters justice while also giving the readers what they crave.  Very impressive.  I’d recommend this book to fans of the series, but it’s not totally necessary to read it in sequence.  I read this novella after completing Winter.
Audiobook Review:  Rebecca Soler rocks!  The narration is great.  I’d definitely recommend the Audible version.

***If you have not read the series please be aware of possible spoilers. These books are NOT stand alones and must be read in order.***

I LOVE THIS SERIES!!! While this book technically goes between Cress and Winter I only just read it (3 months after reading Winter which didn't hinder my enjoyment of Winter in the least. However, I DO recommend reading Fairest in the proper order. ). And let me tell you....The moon has been visible every day this week and I keep looking at it and thinking, "Hmmm, I wonder if Levana can see me...."

I do NOT like Levana...AT ALL...And this book did not change that. I do not have compassion for her. I do not see ANY good in her. BUT, this book was REALLY REALLY well written, and it gives us SO MUCH INSIGHT into Levana's past. Although I DO feel bad for the whole reason she wears a veil. Knowing that if that event hadn't taken place that maybe she would have turned out nicer, but it is doubtful. She is a cunning queen. She knows what she is doing, and sees the long term goals. Too bad she didn't have at least a smidgen of good in her. Although she does raise her step-daughter...But let's not get into my feelings on that...Levana is the epitome of evil. Yet the world that Marissa Meyer has created is spectacular.

I borrowed the audiobook copy of Fairest from my local library. I was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

I couldn’t get enough of The Lunar Chronicles story and once I found out about this companion book I needed to read it. This was the first book that I read by Marissa Meyer I listened to the entire series. I enjoyed reading this book. I feel that Marissa’s writing comes through no matter if you are listening to the book or reading it so it was perfect.

This book tells the story of Levana and how she became queen of Luna. I got to read this book right before Winter so it gave me an entirely different perspective of Levana and I feel it shaped my opinion of the last book.

Levana is an interesting character to read about, we don’t get much of a background of her in the series so this was the perfect book to expand upon her. We got to follow Levana during her teenage years into adulthood. We got to hear about all the events that shaped her into the person that she is today. I felt like this book is a must read for the series it gave me an entire different opinion about Levana and gave me a lot more depth.

The author does a great job creating Levana as a meeker child and showing how she developed into the ruler she is today. I loved to hear about all the struggles that Levana has experienced because she didn’t just become a ruthless leader for no reason. The background helped me with understanding Levana as a character. The author goes into great details and makes Luna come alive in this book just like the rest of the series. Marissa has a way of writing that brings that characters to life and leaves you wanting more.

I would suggest this as a weekend read. It was very fast paced and an easy read. I would highly recommend reading it right before Winter since we get a lot of Levana in the last book!

Please be warned, while I think Fairest could be read before Cinder, it does have some spoilers! This review will maybe spoil things for you so BEWARE! *creepy music* Maybe you should read Cinder, Scarlet and Cress since this is book 3.5 :) but do what you will!

I LOVE The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, I mean come on a science fiction fairy tale re-telling? Could it get any better than that? Seriously though, that’s pretty awesome and unique which are two things I love reading! As much as I love The Lunar Chronicles (haven’t read Cress yet D:) I didn’t like Fairest! Don’t worry though, a lot of reviews I read loved the book, it has an average of 4.11 out of over 6,400 reviews. This is just my opinion though, so here I go!

Levana doesn’t have a reason for being evil, she just is pure mean. Her family is nasty, her sister was terrible, and Levana was just as bad! In this story, we get to see basically how Levana becomes Queen, and burns little Cinder. The majority of the book was about Levana’s love for Evret, a guard, this is basically the only thing that made me not like the book. As you may, or may not know, the people of Luna have the power of Glamor and can change their appearance and emotions of most people. Levana used her power to manipulate Evret, this wasn’t a case of insta-love but a case of fake love. I’m not really sure Levana ever really loved him, which may be the point, but it really irritated me for some reason. The story just felt like there was too much Levana manipulating him, too much her trying to break his mind away from his wife. There just wasn’t a whole lot that happened in this, not a whole lot of climax, just a bunch of evil, evil thoughts and death O_O!

“She was suddenly angry. Angry that this woman was so effortlessly pretty. Angry that tonight she would sleep beside her doting husband. That soon she would hold a wrinkled, wailing baby in her arms and that child would never question whether it was loved, or whether its parents loved each other.

Nothing Levana wanted had ever come that easily.”

I like back story, getting to read about Levana and life on Luna was enjoyable. Marissa Meyer really gave Levana some personality, and did a wonderful job showing us more about life on the moon :)! Although I felt like the love story wasn’t all that mind blowing, this was a really interesting look at Levana and what she did to little Cinder!

*Note I am calling her little Cinder for a reason….. gosh I feel like this has a bunch of spoilers! SORRY IF I SPOILED IT FOR YOU D:*

When they first announced Fairest, I was extremely worried. I mean, I didn't want a book about Levana, I wanted Winter. I wanted to know what was happening with the characters I loved. I didn't want a story about the villain I already hated.

"They could all be anyone. Why couldn't she be anyone? Why couldn't she be the one person she wanted to be? Perhaps the trouble was that she could never quite figure out who that person was."

TURNS OUT, I NOT ONLY WANTED THIS STORY, I NEEDED IT.

Levana was one of those bad guys that no matter what they did or didn't do, you were always going to be opposed to them. But as it turns out, it is entirely possible to pity her at the same time. Because she could have been any one of us, if we slipped down the drain of insanity.

While Fairest may be a prequel novellay, I think it is perfectly at home being read after Cress. It may only be 220 pages long, but we learn so much. We learn why she wears her glamour, when she hates mirrors, and how she became as deranged as she was.

"She cried for the girl who had never belonged. A girl who tried hard, harder than anyone else, and still never had anything to show for it."

POOR YOUNG LEVANA WAS JUST DOOMED FROM THE BEGINNING.

Distant parents, a witch of an older sister, and an entire city preoccupied with beauty. With her scars, a permanent reminder of her physical imperfections, Levana retreated into her glamours. Into her world of illusions. I think anyone could identify with this young girl.

"It was a very complex fantasy, which frequently left her even more depressed than she'd been before."
BUT THAT'S WHERE THE STORY REALLY GETS TWISTED.

There was no doubt in my mind that Marissa Meyer can create fabulous characters. All you need to do was look at Levana. She created this pitiful creature that didn't understand concepts like love, and then lets her inner psycho out.

All Levana wanted was the love of a certain palace guard, and to help her people that were suffering. What's the saying, the greatest evil was evil that wanted to be good? Levana truly believed she was capable of being the greatest queen the moon has ever seen. There were just a little things standing in her way, and because Levana was completely mental, there were no lines she wasn't prepared to cross if she could justify it.

"Love is conquest. Love is war."

FAIREST WAS THE CORE OF THIS INTERCONNECTED LUNAR CHRONICLES WEB.

The thing I loved the most about Fairest was how it tied back to all the other books, and yet somehow declared it was its own story. I honestly could believe this was the moment that started it all.

There were so many names dropped and future plot lines hinted at, that it was like finding tiny Lunar Chronicles Easter Eggs scattered about.

Overall

I'm really glad Levana got to be the focus over her own story. (No, she's not controlling my mind and forcing me to say that.) Fairest added a whole lot of necessary information to The Lunar Chronicles series, all while giving us a more in depth look at one of this year's greatest villains. (Okay, maybe my mind is not my own.)

But there were several times while I was reading Winter where I began to fully appreciate this novella. I don't think I would have viewed Levana the same way as I did, more like Cinder does, if I never read this book.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When I first picked up this book, I honestly thought it would explain a lot. It would show that Levana was deserving of at least the tiniest bit of pity. The only time I pitied her was when Channary forced her into the fire. Everything after that point was of her doing. Levana continues to be the villain you love to hate. She is manipulative, untrustworthy, and really just downright despicable. In today's world, she would definitely be the crazy ex-girlfriend- although on Luna, there is no way she would allow herself to become that. Levana uses people's tragedies to further herself. After her parent's untimely death, she uses pity to her advantage. When the man of her dream's wife dies, she uses her glamour to her advantage (which I was truly disgusted by!). I will say this, for the company that Levana kept, albeit her family, she really did not have too great a role model to look up to. I really thought once Channary became queen, and had Selene that there was an ounce of humanity to cross that girl- when Channary died, that's the only time I felt sorry for her, it seemed motherhood worked well for her. To me, it seemed that Channary was the last hold for Levana before she really went crazy. Knowing what happened at the ball in Cinder, readers already have an inkling as to how ugly Levana is. I was on pins and needles waiting to read what actually happened to her. When it's finally revealed every detail what happened between Channary and Levana, the only image in my head was the people on fire in Silent Hill- now every time I read Levana's name that is the image that I have for her. All in all, a great book, answered a lot of questions that may have been brough up in the previous books. And this definitely has me excited to finish the series with Winter.

It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for the release of Winter, and knowing that it still won’t be coming out until much later on this year is excruciating. But I was glad to see that this novel would be coming out in the meantime. I was even happier to see that it was going to be a physical book rather than just an e-book like most novellas are. The art of Levana’s castle on the moon inside the cover is absolutely stunning. I’d never want to live on Luna myself – because of its lack of natural resources, its sociopathic leaders and the fact that it’s crawling with beastly wolf-like soldiers – but I can definitely appreciate the beauty of the palace. The cover, too, excellently represents the story, just as the rest of them do in the series. All in all, it’s a gorgeous book, and with my previous experience with Meyer’s writing, I expected the contents to be equally mesmerizing. I wasn’t disappointed.

To be honest, the way some of the characters were related and connected escaped me a little at the beginning of the story. But I was easily absorbed back into this beautiful world, because the complexity of it is one of its best qualities. I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from Levana as far as personality goes, but watching her evolve into the terrible person she is in the main Lunar Chronicle books was fascinating. She apparently has always had somewhat of a hard life, and it’s not surprising at all that she was traumatized by some of it. Her sister was terribly cruel, and she was deformed in a fire that cost her basically all her self-esteem. I’m not making excuses for her or anything, but in the beginning of the book – before she does anything too terrible – it’s easy to feel bad for her. At that time, what she went through wasn’t her fault. She was just a very lonely girl.

It’s the decisions she constantly makes afterward that make her a true villain. As the reader, you see her selfishness and her delusions grow and grow on a grand scale in only a few hundred pages. She goes from being a somewhat innocent person into a conniving witch who schemes and manipulates people into getting her way constantly. It’s really a shame she is the way she is, because if she was a nice person she would actually be a pretty good Queen, because she cares about Luna a lot. But it doesn’t work out that way; she instead plots to murder her own niece in order to keep her power.

A lot of the plot had to do with a man named Evret, who Levana was extremely fond of. She loved him, but he did not feel the same way. The whole situation was sick, and for me the real turning point into Levana’s madness. He repeatedly tells her that he does not love her, that he does not want her, and she refuses to accept it. This is the difference between a sane person and Levana:

Sane person: “Oh dear. The person I have feelings for doesn’t love me back. Obviously I’ll just have to respect their decision and move on, even though it pains me.”

Levana: “Oh dear. He doesn’t love me back. Obviously, I’ll have to manipulate him with glamour into thinking he does, force him to marry me, force him to sleep with me.”

I know that we’re following the villain, and therefore their choices don’t really have to make sense, but she was so incredibly frustrating. In the end, I think she realized that their forced union was for naught and he would never love her. I felt so incredibly bad for Evret and Winter. The climax of the story is rather abrupt, but obviously something like it would have to happen if Levana was going to marry Kai (again, forcefully) in Cinder. Overall the entire tone of the story was dark and compelling. It was the perfect prequel to the series. The only drawback was that time would move extremely fast – we skipped over years very quickly. Ten of them passed in about five pages. But it’s a novella, and it’s understandable. It’s still excellent – and its made me want Winter even more, something I didn’t know was possible.

5 stars

While I didn't like this as much as the rest of the series, it was interesting to see Levana before the events in Cinder and everything that lead her to where she is in the main series. I did enjoy reading from her POV; I really liked her take on her sister Channary and the people around her as well as Solstice Hayle and Evret Hayle himself. Her view on Winter and Cinder as children was also wickedly great to read. I feel like we really got a more in-depth view of her character in this novella.

There is a trigger warning for a few instances of rape in this novella. They aren't descriptive by any means, but Levana does use her powers to manipulate Evret a few times in this book.

Overall, if you aren't really interested in Levana's story, you can pass over this one. It doesn't add any depth into the main series save for how Levana got to where she is in the Lunar Chronicles and the events that helped the main story unfurl.

This was a well written story about Levana before she became queen. It's basically the story of a princess who was doomed from birth to become a horrible, selfish queen.

Don't read this book if you haven't read the other books in the series, unless you plan on reading them right after. It's a sad tale, and not something I'd say is entertainment. It's more of a filler, so those who are reading the series can know why Levana is the way she is.

If this was a standalone book, I'd give it 2.5 stars because she's such a sucky character. I hate her, but we're supposed to hate her. It's very well written and gave me just enough of her background to know why she's doing what she's doing in the main books of the series. It gets a 4 cause it's the perfect addition to the series, but not a full 5 cause I don't like Levana on principle.

I'm glad I'm finally through it so I can get onto the final book!

I really didn't even want to read this. I NEEDED Winter desperately and I just really wasn't interesting in reading Levana's story, but I finally decided to pick it up before finishing Winter and OMG I'm so glad I did.

I don't think this book is even necessary. But it is certainly both very good and interesting.

I was absolutely sure that this would be the book where we all felt bad about Levana, felt sorry for her knowing her tragic story and the reason why she is the way she is... how she turned "evil"; I was sure I'd end up liking her and wishing things could end up good for her... and I honestly didn't want to feel that for her!

Then I got to a point where I realized that the famous guard we heard so much about at TLC would have a presence in this story and I just KNEW I'd have to read a tragic love story with her and her guard and it would be beautiful and sad and I'd ship them and... you get the point.

And the thing is... this book surprised me a lot. Because none of those things happened.
Yes, we do get to understand Levana in this story, we get to understand more of why she feels that way towards Cinder, and we just get inside her head which honestly was super interesting. But we also find out what a twisted person she is, and always have been, and the lengths she'd go to get what she wants. You don't feel bad for her, you just get how horrible she really is.

I was super surprised with her "romance story" with Evret. And there was a certain moment at the end where I was simply SHOCKED, gasping and putting the book down because I couldn't believe what had happened even after everything, my heart actually hurt with that.

I just hate Levana SO SO SO MUCH and that's exactly the reason why I love her as a character.

I obviously can't wait to finish Winter and I think Fairest is totally worth reading too - and before Winter.

So in addition to Levana being evil, conniving, and manipulative, this book has fortified the fact that she is insane. Like she could benefit from some psychiatric help.

It’s so hard to just deem her evil and call it a day because she is truly, truly, delusional and crazy. Why? Perhaps because her sister is the embodiment of Satan himself. In the Lunar Chronicles, we learned that Channary did something horrendous to Levana, but now we were actually able to meet Channary and see this occur. Yes, it is as twisted as it sounds.

We also get to meet Levana’s late husband, Evret. And boy did that throw me for a loop. Her commitment to wearing her wedding band during the Lunar Chronicles really made me think that Levana had lived happily with a man she loved before becoming evil. Yeah…yeah no. Very much no.

Levana’s relationship with Evret was horrifying to watch unfold. I didn’t know if I should call the police or the psychiatric ward.

We’ve been inside Levana’s mind before (I think during Scarlet?), but this is so much deeper. We see her justifying her actions, her delusions, her insecurities and fears, her hope and despair.

Did this book change my opinion of Levana? Not really. I still hate her, but now there’s also a shred of pity in there. I want to say that I feel like I understand Levana better, but I’m not sure I do. She is just truly an unsettling character. Good job Marissa Meyer!

I wanted to read something that I knew I could finish in one sitting. This was the last book in the Lunar Chronicles I needed to read, so I thought it was the perfect timing for this one. I normally will skip novellas, but I loved this series so I am glad I gave it a try.

I do have a better understanding of Levana, but I still do not feel bad for her. I actually do not get why anyone felt bad for her. I was expecting a very sad backstory around her, but it really just showed how evil she was since she was a teen. This started with her not even being sad about the murder of her parents (there is no explanation on why she was not sad.) I really enjoyed hearing more about Cinder and Winter as children and their stories more than anything.

Overall, this was a great addition to the story and I am glad I finally picked it up.

Well, I have to say I found Fairest to be...unexpected. Fairest is Levana's story before she became the queen was interesting, but not sympathetic, as I had expected it to be.

Fairest begins at the funeral of Levana's parents. Levana is the younger sister of the new queen, a self centered, vain, cruel young woman. Levana is almost invisible in the court; she is young, insecure, and very self conscious. As a young child, Levana suffered a terrible thing (which I won't give away), which causes her to always glamour herself so no one ever sees the real Levana. But Levana wants things...a palace guard who is already married; to be beautiful; to have her intelligence recognized...to be important. Her sister doesn't help her in any of these areas. But eventually Levana becomes queen.

I wanted Levana to be a sympathetic character who suffers something to cause her to become the evil queen she is in the other books. But Levana is not a good person at her core, and she is excellent at rationalizing evil deeds. So I didn't enjoy this book as much as Scarlet, Cinder and Cress. The good news is that now I know why she is how she is, and besides, Fairest is short and a fast read, so I enjoyed it (just not as much as the other books) and it's still worth a read.

For those of you who enjoy bad characters as leads, the fourth title is dedicated to Levana, whom fans will quickly recognize as the wicked queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. What do I like about Fairest? In a word: Levana! In Levana, Meyer has created perhaps her most complicated character. Levana wants to be loved but grows up in a poisonous family. Her rich and powerful parents don’t have time for their daughters and they soon disappear from the picture when murdered. Her older sister is not only cold but also pure evil, being the one responsible for Levana’s hideous looks. Sadly, as the relationship between Levana and a guard who shows friendship to her fails to ignite, we realize that her distant and abusive family has left Levana incapable of knowing what true love is. Mayer makes me feel both sympathy and disgust towards Levana, which shows great craftsmanship.

If Fairest left me with one wish, it would be to even better understand this family and their planet. How did Luna become an undesirable place to live? Why would Levana’s parents so distant? And why did Channery constantly torment her sister? Mayer has already written several short stories about The Lunar Chronicles and I can see fans continuing to desire more of these long after they finish the five volumes in this mesmerizing series.

This was a quick, fun read. After reading Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter), I had to read Fairest. Fairest is another retelling of Snow White (as was Winter), but this time tells the tale of Levana, the evil Lunar Queen and stepmother of Winter.

Meyer does a good job of taking Levana, a character whom we dislike from the earlier books, and making her at least somewhat sympathetic as we learn about her dark past and the torture she endured as a child. Add in a loveless marriage to a man who is the only man she has ever loved (ie, he doesn’t return her love), and you can almost feel sorry for her and understand her evil ways. Almost. I still, of course, can’t condone the behaviors she engages in, but it was wonderful to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of her earlier life and what might have twisted her to become who she is.

This was an enjoyable addition to the Lunar Chronicles and when I reread this series in the future (as I’m sure I will), I will be rereading this one as well. I haven’t decided yet whether I will read this book before Winter (as this one is called book 3.5 in the series) or not. I strongly recommend this book to lovers of YA science fiction and those who like fairy tale retellings.

Before Levana became Queen, before she became hell-bent on taking over Earth, she was just a tortured Lunar girl in love, dreaming of a certain handsome guard, and avoiding her sadistic older sister, Channery, who became Queen after their parents were murdered by a 'Shell'. Fairest is the dark and twisted part of the story that we don't usually get to read about first hand.

My biggest thought about this book was "Wow, these people are psychotic."
This novella is just plain dark. Channery is cruel and it really shows, but Levana isn't any better. Worse, even. We really delve into her strange personality and you can try to sympathize with her but there is really no atoning for who she becomes and the horrible things she does. The manipulation is strong with these royals. There's a cycle of cruelty in this family but we don't get an answer for why this is beyond Levana and Channery's terrible behavior.

Fairest starts out with Levana around age 16, right after the death of her parents. We find out why she wears a veil, how she became so evil, how she became queen, and why she decides to take over Earth. This novella answered questions I've had since Cinder.

This is probably the only book I've read from the villains point of view and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Levana is one of those diabolical characters that you can't help but hate and this book didn't change that one bit. Instead it made me despise her even more. This woman is straight messed up in the head and always has been. What can we expect from a race that has the ability to manipulate others with their minds. This is definitely one world that I would not like to live in.

Excellent. I'm reading this between Cress and Winter as recommended so I've yet to finish the series and am just about to start Winter (as soon as I finish this) so I'm even more excited to read it now having the background on Levana that wasn't there before.

Knowing a little more about how Levana grew up and what made her how she is, well that's pretty darn interesting. My jaw may have detached and smashed on the floor a time or two while reading this one. Just the way everything was justified in her own mind... WOW. I'm not going to say a thing more about any of that though! I will not give a thing away about the book, you really should read this one! It was mind boggling. I loved it.

You get to meet a lot of new characters in this book and learn quite a bit more about Luna as well. I highly recommend this book if you are reading The Lunar Chronicles. I'm not sure if it fits best where I'm reading it in the series or not, but as it is right now before reading Winter, it seems like it might. Terrific book regardless!

I very much enjoyed the previous books in this series, and really was expecting a great read frm this one. But this VERY OVERPRICED MINI-NOVEL disappoints.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead

In the back (short) story, we are expected to feel sorry for the evil queen, who was scarred by a fire as a child. Instead of having proper medical treatment, including skin grafts and plastic surgery, she deceives everyone with her glamor into believing she is an attractive princess. She develops a crush on a married man, glamors him, deceives him, manipulates him, and forces him to sleep with her (rape). She takes on the appearance of his beautiful young wife who dies in childbirth, marries him, and begrudgingly takes his child into the court. When her older sister has a child, Levena sees that she won't be queen, so she gets rid of them.(murder).

Aside from the fact that this is a backstory, very little insight is offered into characters we know from earlier books.

I had to force myself to finish this book. It was exceptionally disappointing from the very beginning. The storyline was dark, no light moments anywhere in the book to give the reader even a small smile of relief from the oppressive tone.

The best thing I can say is the agony doesn't last long in this overpriced novella.

Oh.. Again, it seems necessary to tell a "professional" author whose book was professionally edited and published: there is no such word as "ahold". One grabs hold, one catches hold of another. One does not get "ahold" of another person because there's no such word. Sheesh

I am sorry to have to write such a review, and sorry to have wasted my time and money on this short story.

Having finished Fairest, a novella of the Lunar Chronicles, I do feel as though I have more insight into Lunar Queen Levana's behavior as we see it in the other books. Fairest follows her from the time she's sixteen and has just lost her parents to assassins; her sister Channary has been named queen. That's less problematic to Levana than the fact that her crush, palace guard Evret Hayle, is married and unavailable. When his wife dies, Levana uses her gifts to ensnare him, but obviously that's not the way to make a happy relationship. The relationship between the two is the main focus of Fairest; the way Levana chooses to ensure that she becomes queen and remains that way is the second, lesser sub-plot. In a short novel, it's easy to see where the plot is going but it's the insight into Levana's thoughts that make this more than just a throwaway story.

All that said, I really wasn't all that thrilled with Fairest. Levana is, of course, the villain in the Lunar Chronicles, but her own self-delusion is really pitiful and her mistreatment of others places her on the same level as the sister she dislikes. I'm aware that I'm not supposed to like her (and I don't) but there was almost a time when I felt sorry for her. It seems whatever she wants, she cannot have, and she takes all this out on the situations and people around her. By the time I was done with the book, I definitely wanted to see her destroyed, not just redeemed (not that I think that's possible). This is a fast read, but not really one that made me think, "Wow, so there's a whole, well-rounded backstory to Levana." I wish it had given me a more multi-dimensional feeling for Levana, because that would certainly have made for a conflicted, exciting next installment. Instead, it simply reinforces my low opinion and makes me ready to get to Winter...which, I suppose, was the author's intent all along.

If you haven’t read The Lunar Chronicles yet, I strongly encourage you to drop everything and go grab book 1, Cinder, NOW!

Fairest is the story of Levana, the Evil Queen. I love to read the villain’s side of the story, and while I don’t think Levana was ever a GOOD person, I also don’t think she was given a fair shot in life to even have that option.

Let’s add up all the factors stacked against her:

1. Parents who didn’t really love or care for her, after all, they already had an heir in Channary, Levana was simply the spare.
2. A sister who was cruel beyond words, so cruel as to physically harm her and use mind control against her as a child, despite it being forbidden to mind control children because it messes with their developing brain function.
3. Unrequited love. All she wants is the love of her guard, even though he’s just a guard, and she’s a princess. Oh yeah, and he’s married and his wife is pregnant.
4. She’s severely disfigured.

Children learn by what they know, and Levana was surrounded by people who were cruel. She was born into a world with glamour, where everyone could appear exactly as they wished, further adding to her self-consciousness about her physical appearance. All of this led her to become who she was. The thing about Levana is that she never once thought she was doing the wrong thing. Okay, maybe once, when she tried to kill her niece, but even then the ends justified the means for her. In her mind, nobody else had the Lunar people’s best interest at heart, and her niece was bound to grow up to be exactly like her mother, Queen Channary, and Levana could not allow that to happen.

Levana is a fascinating character and I really enjoyed listening to her story, and in the end, I still don’t feel sorry for her, but I do better understand her.

Fans of The Lunar Chronicles should absolutely check out this book.

True rating: 3.5 Stars

I wasn't aware of Fairest when I initially read The Lunar Chronicles, so instead of reading it between Cress and Winter as suggested, I read it a few months after I finished the series. This novella is well-written, as is everything that Marissa Meyer puts out, and it did a great job of filling in the story gaps I'd noticed between the third and fourth main novels, but I can't help but wonder if it was really necessary. There isn't a lot of new information presented here, mostly just details of events strongly hinted at in the other books.

I am impressed, however, with how Meyer is able to handle such a complex character. Given our current cultural tendency to create sympathetic villains, I was pleased to see that while we do see Levana's vulnerabilities and doubts in Fairest, we don't for one second forget how crazy evil she is. Has she been through Hell? Yes, absolutely--but that doesn't justify any of the Hell she creates for other people.

Through this novella, Meyer sets up a juxtaposition between Levana and Cinder, which is very similar to what J.K. Rowling did with Voldemort and Harry in the later Harry Potter books. Both characters have suffered greatly at the hands of family (and stepfamily), and they share the same bloodline known for harshness and cruelty. Fairest shows more clearly that it is the characters' choices, not what happens to them, that defines who they are. Levana chooses to embrace bitterness and hate. Cinder fights back. This is an important distinction that makes the end of Winter that much more meaningful.

By the time of the Lunar Chronicles series, Queen Levana is a monster -- a icy, cruel creature who brutally murdered her own niece and seeks to conquer the Earth.

But in "Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana's Story," Marissa Meyer travels back in time to explore how a lonely young princess became the monstrous glamour-wrapped queen of Luna. It's a dark, bleak story that deftly avoids the problems that usually come from "how a villain became a villain" stories, instead giving us a compelling story about how a woman's slow descent into darkness -- and how the road to hell is paved with a princess' good intentions.

After the brutal murder of her parents, Princess Levana Blackburn finds herself an outcast in the Lunar Court. Her cruel, debauched sister Channery is now the new queen, and she never passes up an opportunity to torment her little sister. The only person who shows Levana kindness is the guard Evret Hayle; Levana believes herself to be madly in love with him, craving a lover and family, but is riddled with misery and jealousy when she finds that he has a pregnant wife.

When his wife dies in childbirth, Levana uses glamour and mind control to slowly sway Evret into a relationship -- and though he resists her at first, eventually they are married. But her married life does not bring her the happiness she craves, as they are still haunted by the specter of his first wife. When her sister dies unexpectedly, Levana finds herself in control of Luna... but only until Channery's baby daughter Selene comes of age, in another twelve years. To be a true queen, Levana will do something truly terrible...

Writing a villain's backstory is a tricky business. They need to be expanded as a character so readers can understand what makes them tick... but that very act can demystify them, or make them too "likable." See "Maleficent" for a prime example. So it's a testament to Marissa Meyer's skill that she does this so well in "Fairest," making Levana more fleshed-out, sympathetic character without diminishing the monstrous things she has done over the years, climaxing in murders that she feels no guilt over.

It's a story as cold and bleak as the pale surface of the moon, and Meyer's strength is that she spins up a story that is essentially a slow descent into true evil. In a way, this is the antithesis of most young-adult fantasy and sci-fi -- the "love" story is empty and meaningless, the heroine's ascent to power is riddled with horrifying actions like bio-warfare and genetic abominations, and it's painfully obvious that this fairy tale will not have a happy ending. Many scenes that have the sheen of a happiness are painfully (and deliberately) hollow, like the wedding ceremony.

It also helps that Meyer's writing is stunningly beautiful and atmospheric, painting a court as exquisitely beautiful and empty as the glamours the courtiers employ. The biggest weakness is that occasionally something important (like Channery's illness and death) are skimmed over in passing, when they could have been explored in more detail. I know this is a novella spanning a decade, but it's a bit disconcerting at times.

Levana herself is the masterful stroke in this story -- at first she seems like another mildly-damaged young-adult heroine who wants true love and freedom from a mean relative. As it begins, you pity her. But as the story unwinds, Meyer reveals that her romantic streak is a desperate, almost sociopathic craving for love and acceptance, a black hole that grows as it consumes. What made her pitiable and identifiable is warped and twisted, and her desperation slowly calcifies into full-blown cruelty. And as she's comparable to the wicked queen of "Snow White," Meyer cleverly weaves in mirror imagery and a reason for the queen to want so much to be "fairest of them all."

"Fairest" gives a clever twist to the tale of Snow White -- a story of the wicked queen, and the terrible events that turned her into a murderous monster. It could use a bit more fleshing out, but the elegant writing and the masterful exploration of the villain make it a must-read for fans of the Lunar Chronicles.

I was actually curious a bit about Levana's story. What exactly was her upbringing so that she became this monstrous tyrant later in life? So I quickly bought Fairest curious just what it was going to give me. What insights to Levana that turned her into the woman that she is in the first three books of the Lunar Chronicles.

However, I was disappointed. Firstly, you pick up as Levana is all ready a teenager. She's very gifted with her glamour and constantly changes it. Her parents have passed and she is not really effected. Apparently her parents never really cared nor spent time with her or her sister. Both Levana and her sister are quite void of any humanity what so ever. Except that Levana desires nothing more than to be loved. It's one of the main threads in the whole novella is that she wants to be loved. She even picks a man she wants but he's all ready married. Levana lives in a dream world where he surely loves her he just doesn't know it yet.

The only true back story you get that you don't all ready know about Levana is why she wears the veil. And even then it's a flashback and it's short. I felt like overall there were so many missed opportunities in this book. I felt that there were whole scenes that could have really made an impact but weren't because the author glazed or skipped over them entirely. The greed of Levana for the crown made little sense, it came on so suddenly. Her sister was lazy and so Levana stepped in to help out and turned o ut she was good at it. I think it technically stemmed from the fact that she wanted to be loved (once more) this time by her people.

What I did also like was the background on Cinder and a brief introduction to Winter and how she came to be. However, overall I felt that the story had little to offer. Even in most stories the villain has something.. redeeming. Or something that happened in their past to alter them into the people they become. Levana was just a flighty, self absorbed girl, that grew up to force herself on people and make terrible things happen out of greed.

I'm excited to read Winter and I don't regret reading Fairest it just could have been so much more.

I finally got to this book and finished it. It's very short and reads quickly. The only thing I didn't like is that it is not as interesting as Cinder, Scarlet or Cress. The beginning starts off promisingly enough. However, I found Levana to be unsympathetic. I would rather she be completely cruel and cold and calculating from birth rather than a lonely person who was abused and warped in her own self-destruction. There were many shocking plot twists though, which I did not necessarily see coming. However, because Levana was so unlikeable I found this difficult to read. I found that I could not have much empathy for her because of her poor decision making. To me, she seemed to be the architect of her own misery. AND - in real life, I hate people like that.

Queen Levana as you know her in the other books is much more interesting. She is cruel and barbaric. She is calculating and shrewd. I see that many people like this book because it fleshes out her backstory and gives rationale to her behavior. But I think it would have been more interesting if Levana had some redeeming qualities -- ruthlessness or cunning. To me though, her ruthlessness was stupid. In that she would do things that didn't really help her achieve any of the goals that she desired. I would have liked to see her either have more dimension or be depicted as unstoppable and someone to fear.

Instead, I felt like she was just a tragic monstrosity. She seemed to have been victim to bullying and abuse by a cruel sister. Possibly, she suffered some kind of mental damage as a child. And, she always felt sorry for herself. I mean--- the same exact thing kind of happened to Cinder but Cinder decided to be a good person instead.

So, for me I would rank the book in the series in the following order:

Cress
Cinder
Scarlet

Fairest

Although Winter has not come out yet, the first 4 chapters are included in this copy of Fairest. I would say that Winter and Jacin have a very promising storyline. I look forward to that still although I was unfortunately greatly underwhelmed by Fairest.

Marissa Meyer is a brilliant writer. She can weave an amazing story filled with character development and feeling into only 200 pages. Typically, short stories and prequels only get, at most, four stars from me, as it seems like there’s never enough time for the story to reach a true peak, but Meyer’s Fairest blew me away despite the short page count. Telling the story of Levana, starting with Levana’s parents’ death when she was only 15, the story is just as powerful and gripping as the full Lunar Chronicles novels but in half the pages.

Levana’s story is heart-breaking, terrifying, and creepy, but in the most delightful way possible. Levana’s backstory gives more understanding of her character but never takes away from her role as an antagonist. She is sympathetic, but still a villain in her decisions and cruelty, however, the story allows us to see the innocence and youth and what Levana could have been if she hadn’t let her troubled childhood and superficial society shape her into the evil queen that reader’s know and love.

The story is very impressive, a strong character study of Levana’s decline into madness and ruthlessness. I devoured the book in one sitting, thoroughly engaged and involved in the previously untold story of Lunar’s Queen and Cinder’s most deadly enemy. Marissa Meyer’s writing talent shines in this short novel, leaving it a must-have for any Lunar Chronicles fan.

Reviewed by Annie and posted at Under The Covers Book Blog

It’s always lovely to return to the Lunar Chronicles world. But this time, we visit the darker side of Luna where we learn how Queen Levana became so crazy. While this story technically takes place before the events of CINDER, I would suggest either reading this book between CRESS and WINTER or do what I did and read it after the entire series.

Now I am one of those people who love to hate Levana. She is an excellent villain in the series so I was curious about her backstory. It starts off quite sweet actually. Levana is young and vulnerable like most YA heroines are. She is mistreated by those around her, especially by her sister who seems to take pleasure in her suffering. I found myself feeling sorry for her at first because she didn’t seem all that bad in the beginning. But when she develops a crush on a guard, that’s really when things take a turn for the worse.

Levana becomes so obsessed about this guard that it takes over her entire life. She becomes so fixated on him that it makes her manipulative and frankly, it changes her. Her jealously consumes her and when she doesn’t get what she wants, her tantrums create serious consequences for those around her. In this, you cease to see her as a person and more of a monster. This continues on as you see her as an adult, making selfish decisions that eventually make her into the monster you see in CINDER and the rest of the series.

I’m glad I read this book because it does give better insight into Levana’s crazy mind, but I also enjoyed Meyer’s take on this well-loved fairy tale.

Lastly, I want to mention the narrator of this series. I read some of the books but also enjoyed CINDER and this novella in audio. The narrator, Rebecca Soler, absolutely slays this series. She excels at accents and adds so much personality to the characters. My favorite choice has to be Iko who remains as my favorite character of the series.

So as you can tell, I am absolutely in love with this series and if you haven’t read this yet, you really need to. This world and its characters simply blows me away.

This book is a prelude to the Lunar Chronicles about how Levana came to be the Queen of Luna. It was a decent read, not as good as the rest of the series but okay. The 4th (and final) book in the series Winter is scheduled for a November 2015 release.

Levana is the second daughter of in line for the throne of Luna. When her parents die her crazy eldest sister takes over, her sister has no desire to actually run the country of Luna. Poor disfigured Levana is left in her sister’s shadow, helping to run Luna from the sidelines when she can. Levana forms an unhealthy attachment to one of her parents’ guards and is convinced she is in love with him. The story follows Levana as she takes more and more desperate actions for love and for country.

This story explains a lot about Levana. She is horribly disfigured (you find out how as the story progresses) and hates mirrors; she pretty much lives underneath glamor and no one actually ever sees the real Levana. This is a character with some serious mental issues. We get to follow Levana as she develops from a needy and unloved child to a domineering villain. What is scary is how she continuously justifies her actions as being for good. That is the scariest type of villain you can have; the one the believes that they are doing good.

There were a couple problems with this story for me. First of all it's hard to actually engage with any of these characters; they are all very selfish and shortsighted. Everyone in this book makes one poor decision after another until they build to disaster.

The second problem was that the story was so focused on Levana and her craziness. The book doesn’t give very good insight into Lunar culture and, while politics are mentioned some, they are often more in the background than forefront. So we do hear about how/why the virus was developed that ravaged Earth, but all this is overshadowed by Levana’s personal drama.

Lastly I thought the whole thing was very predictable. You can guess how this story will end up from the moment you start reading it (I guess it doesn’t help that we already know what Levana does later in her life). I would recommend reading this in the publication order because there are some spoilers in this book if you haven’t read the previous 3 books.

All the above being said, this is a short, well-written and it was interesting to read about Levana's background. However it definitely didn't help me understand her better or like her anymore as a character. This book also does introduce the character of Winter, so because of that it is a good prelude to the 4th book in this series.

Overall an okay addition to the Lunar Chronicles. It was interesting to see more about Levana’s background and learn more about the origin of the virus. However, I was hoping for a bit more insight into Lunar culture. I also had a lot of trouble engaging with these characters...they just weren’t all that likable and were hard to sympathize with. I would recommend reading this if you are a fan of the series, but don’t be too upset if you miss reading it before Winter comes out.

The woman you love to hate in The Lunar Chronicles takes center stage in FAIREST. Levana, the cunning queen of Luna, has a very interesting back story which is uncomfortable and shocking on so many levels. Since this is a bridge between all of the books so far, it's going to be hard to keep this truly spoiler free. So, **Spoiler Alert**

Levana is known for her extreme beauty, crafty plots which she uses to get what she wants, and ideals which mean stepping on a lot of people. But she's doing it for the well being of Luna. However, there was a time when she was a princess living with a secret, second in line for the throne next to her sister. She was in love with a man beneath her station who was already married to someone else. She beat the odds and got everything she wanted--with a price.

I didn't know what to expect with FAIREST. As a sort of prequel to the Lunar Chronicles, it does give you a glimpse into Levana's past. The reader gets a better understanding of why she's driven to rule the worlds of Luna and Earth. It also presents a young woman who is dealing with some very real mental issues. Yes, this is where the book became an exploration into delusion and deception. Levana convinces herself that the man she loves really loves her back and does some things to get this delusion to become real. It's hard, but what was even harder was discerning if I was actually feeling sorry for her, or if the book wanted me to feel sorry for her. I felt like I was being gaslit by her glamour. Do I feel sympathy for her, or don't I? I'm leaning towards "no".

The glimpses into the Lunar court, plus seeing Cinder (than Selene) and Winter as children, were well thought out. Marissa Meyer obviously lives and breathes her worlds. The pages simmer with the fairy tale ideas she has reworked. It does a great job setting the stage for WINTER, the final book in the series.

If I had things to quibble about, the first would be the price of the book. About $18 for a 220 page work. Yikes. Also, the pacing of the story started off a nice pace; as we're going along with the workings of Levana, things then skip-hop-and-jump to a rushed ending. I feel like there is still a piece or two missing, but maybe that will all come to light in WINTER, which cannot come fast enough for this reader.

Wow this was a pretty surprising read for me! It has really been awhile since I could really enjoy a Lunar Chronicles and I am glad to have enjoyed this book. I always thought that Levanna was evil and Fairest really basically screamed in my face that Levanna was a lot more evil than what I thought. (Surprising? I think not!) Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book and loved reading about Levanna's evil glory.

I think the only problem I have with the book is that I can in no way connect to the characters or relate to them and honestly that is totally okay because it didn't hinder my enjoyment towards it. I have probably only read one book where the main character was evil (Hello the Young Elites!) and I definitely do love that change and unfamiliarness when you're not reading from the protagonist. Of course, Levanna see's herself as doing the right thing, every antagonist does. One thing I admire about her though is how devoted she is to her country. She did all these evil things just so Luna wouldn't die and collapse. Of course, measures did a get a bit extreme but her dedication is great. Levanna definitely comes from a not very positive family. I mean as a princess, your parents may not have exactly wanted to marry each other and I can totally see how that rubbed off of Levanna and her sister, Channary, because they're both sooo evil it's kind of scary.

If it's anything I love about prequels its getting to know more about a character and learning more about Levanna was great. I feel like the big bads of books are never familiarized enough and we never get to read about their past so getting to know more about them is always a treat. I loved the way Marissa was able to kind of incorporate some of our main characters into the book. Throughout the book, Winter is in it and Princess Selene as well! For the people that are pretty caught up with the series, we got to see glimpses of Jacin and some hints towards Cress. I loved all the easter eggs! There is this one passage that I will never forget from when I first read Cinder (which was about 2 years ago?) and it really was the first introduction to her.
They said she’d murdered her older sister, Queen Channary, so she could take the throne from her. They said she’d had her own husband killed too so she would be free to make a more advantageous match. They said she had forced her stepdaughter to mutilate her own face because, at the sweet age of thirteen, she had become more beautiful than the jealous queen could stand. They said she’d killed her niece, her only threat to the throne. Princess Selene had only been three years old when a fire caught in her nursery, killing her and her nanny.
I went into this book so excited to see and read more about Levanna killing her sister, husband, and being a jerk to her step daughter. (I swear I am not sadistic or anything, I just really wanted to see how she did it hehe) I got 3/4 of those events that were mentioned in that passage and I enjoyed every part of that.

I gave this book 5 stars because it was a great prequel read about Levanna. I enjoyed the characters plot writing, everything! Super excited now to read Winter.

Full review: http://next-page-please.blogspot.com/2015/10/lets-talk-fairest-by-marissa-meyer.html

Levana is a spoiled princess who thinks only of her needs and wants and what she thinks is best while thinking that other people want the same thing. Her mind is very twisted. She was likable in the very first part of this story, but as it goes on you can't stand the girl, and the book was written so well because of these emotions stirred up while reading her story. It is rare we get to see a side of a villain and get into their minds in such a horrific way. This definitely was more adult compared to the rest of the books, by the way.

The whole time you will feel sorrow for Evret, Levana's love interest.

What I loved about this is that finally a young adult story where the most beautiful of characters is not white, but dark skinned. I hate how most book characters seem to be predominantly white, especially with fairytales, so thank you for that Marissa Meyer! This really pumped me up to want to read Winter more, so I am excited!

My husband has been reading these books before I have been and said, "I don't feel so sorry for Levana anymore after reading this." I said to him, "Wait, you felt sorry for her while reading this series in general?" Haha. She is a naughty, jealous, manipulative, and possessive lady with apathy running in her veins!

I read the beginning of this book. It is interesting and deep at times but very depressing. I think the description is misleading. It is like reading a murder mystery (creepy enough) from the warped perspective of the murderer (as in The Murder of Robert Ackroyd.) It is a look into justications of evil, something I've often wondered about. For me at least it is morally grating. I am ashamed to have read this book. As others have said, if it were a movie, it would be rated R. There's definitely more warning on movies v.s. books... I would never watch this as a movie but was lulled into library copy by the description and a fair enjoyment of the other books. The book is full of rape, murder and heartlessness. Sympathizing with the anti-hero is a gut-wrenching feeling. I did like her (married) "love interest," whom she raped. He was good and loyal, everything a man should be. Levana's feelings were lust, not love. I understand the author never endorses Levana's actions, but find them sickening nonetheless. By today's standards this book probably deserves a grade 11 plus rating. Personally I would not recommend it to anyone.

Levana is one evil Queen. There had never been questions about that throughout the Lunar Chronicles and then comes the novella 'Fairest'. The connecting book between 'Cress' and 'Winter' that affords us that rare look into Levana's roots and bring to the front what really happened to her to make her the way she is. What we find is downright creepy and twisted and sick obsessions of a lonely girl looking for love in the wrong place.

I almost empathized with her circumstances. A disfigured face, absentee parents, abusive sister who ranks higher than her in everything and everyone else who don't know what to do with her. I can only pity her for what she couldn't get from others. But learns to get it all by controlling and manipulating others from behind a glamour. Fairest clearly re-images the story of the evil Queen and Snow White (which i'm pretty sure we'll see in full in 'Winter') down to horrifyingly darker shades.

Levana proved a fascinating villain on her steep downward spiral to evil. She is determined to attain what she desires. Be it besting her sister, or trying to ensnare the already happily married palace guard Evret Hayle by taking the form of his then dead wife and manipulating him into loving her. Showcasing clear sociopathic tendencies, Levana clearly lacks humility and is rather abusive of basic human rights.

Poor Evret. The romance was definitely the most disturbing of the ordeal. Levana clearly doesn't know that you can't force emotions out of anybody. She manipulates him into loving her and then does some very cruel things to serve her purpose. Cinder, Winter and Jacin make appearances and we get to know the environment they came from. What I felt best about this story, the author isn't looking to paint Levana in a good light but show the picture as it is painted. With Meyer's succinct words and the fast pace of the tale, Levana's story was simply fascinating albeit in a sick and a very very disturbing way.

Oh, no. I knew what the point of this book was when I was getting into it, but I wasn’t expecting to feel this much. I actually needed a break for the first time in this series. I can’t say I love Levana, but I pity her more than I’ve ever pitied anyone before. She’s lonely, depressed, naive, impressionable, damaged, abandoned, and delusional. Yes, delusional. I feel for her and I think if she just got a real, meaningful, loving hug, everything would’ve turned out okay. But then again, I think hugs make EVERYTHING better…

The whole time, I questioned who was to blame for how she turned out, because she’s not responsible for her actions up until a certain age. Sure, her parents didn’t show affection for her or Channary; being ignored or ridiculed was normal for her. When did her actions become her responsibility?

I decided to read this in it’s proper place, between Cress and Winter, because I think it will give me better insight on the conclusion of this epic series (yeah, epic). I thought it was important to know where Levana came from, what she went through and what was going through her head before she turned completely evil. I didn’t believe she could kill anyone, I hoped it was a rumor we didn’t know the truth about until this book, but alas…

Meyer’s writing is beautiful in this novel. I felt I could burst into tears at any minute because the feelings hit hard and fast. Being abused by her older sister and shunned by her only friend and lover, it’s totally understandable why she goes to extreme lengths to get what she thinks she deserves.

One thing I really picked up on, is how much she and Selene (for spoiler’s sake) have in common. Both are neglected/abandoned by their families, both are physically damaged as well as emotionally. The difference is Levana turned to manipulation and fear–alone, where Selene worked for what she thinks is right with people she trusts. Two similar people, with similar situations, who took completely different paths to achieve their goals.

Okay, I’m done. I loved this. The tone and backstory were great and the cover is beautiful.

This is a huge series! There aren't six books to this series but eleven! Four are mostly short stories, but they're fillers. They fill in the gaps between the novels. I read on Marissa Meyer's website, that the stories could be read in three ways. First was as the books came out; easy enough. Next, as the novels released, with the short story fill-ins or in chronological order. I chose chronological order, so I read Fairest first. Then... well, you'll see as I review. I have to say though, Meyer's a cool storyteller! I really enjoyed these books. All of them.
(Lunar Chronicles original banner found on Google and edited by me.)

This is a brief summary. I refuse to say a lot because it's almost a novella instead of a novel. It's an excellent story, told by Meyer in a simple, yet enthralling voice that keeps you hooked until the very end. You discover Levana's nature, why she is the way she is and how she rises to the throne, crushing ANYONE who could possibly stand in her way.
Anyone!
For the full review: [...]
**Book series is from my personal library.

Ok ok I will tell you all the truth I was kind of iffy that I was going to like or even read this book. Because I so despised Levana and I think I would not feel bad for anything bad that happen to her when she was younger. But since Winter was coming out I wanted to give this book a chance, so I check it out from the library first too see if I like it or not. And Oh my I am so glad and happy that I did check it out from the library because I really did love and enjoy Fairest. I loved reading Queen Levana pov and getting into her mind when she was younger. But Levana has always been doomed to become an evil queen since she was a child. Unfortunately she had terrible parents and I think her older sister Channary Cinder mom was even more evil and worst than Levana is. But I did feel bad for Levana for what Channery did to her when she was a child. But other than that, that's the only bad feeling I had for Levana. I learn a lot more background and more about Levana life when she was a teenager until she was a grown adult. Through the time in the book Levana becoming more worst and evil each day that past for her. She always only thought about her and what's good for her kingdom and she always multipulate people minds for her own shellfish reason, and make them do things they do not want to do. And of course she treated people horribly. All and all I was really surprised on how much I really did love and enjoyed Fairest that I do recommend it to my fellow readers. Now I can't wait too read Winter soon. When I can check it out from the library soon!

As much as I wanted to read Winter right after I finished Cress, reading about Levana's backstory was very interesting, and did help flesh out the world of the Lunar Chronicles much more. It's hard to think that Levana from what we have come to know about her in the previous three books, could be in any way sympathetic, but the author does give that to her in Fairest. But, it's still true to the character we have seen now, because Levana is not a complete innocent, and her skewed morality becomes increasingly off-kilter as the story proceeds. It's a fascinating character study, and a completely believable origin story for a villain.

Fairest also introduces a character I absolutely loved - Evret Hayle. Of course Levana also loved him, and that love was not conducive to his health at all. I thought that slow downward spiral into which Levana's obsession takes her life as well as his, was just so well written, and ultimately tragic because it did seem that Levana and Evret had good intentions. It just went so wrong. Evret was a wonderful character though - so honorable, noble and kind. Despite what Levana puts him through.

This is a short story, but so much detail was packed into it - finding out more about Levana's family, about what happened that led to Cinder's story in the first book, and about how Winter must have grown up, just made this series richer, and I'm sure will make the last book an even better reading experience.

While I couldn't wait to read the other 4 books in the Lunar Chronicles, I put off reading this book because of some reviews I had read. They said the book was dark and not as appropriate for a young adult audience as the others. I often recommend books to kids so an honest review is apprecited. I do agree that this book has a darker vibe, but it is about the villain after all. I might not recommend this to a 12 or 13 year old either. But I would say the same for the book Winter which had some explicit violence. Nevertheless, I find this to be an excellent addition to the series. It is a tale about the evolution of a villian. We see how Levana becomes the evil queen we love to hate. We learn that she wasn't also so bone-deep evil, but it didn't take long for the sefishness to take over and morph into something so terrible. It is worth the read and a book I would readily recommend to a more mature reader.

It's a giant train wreck. You know how it ends, but you can't look away. It's also one of the strongest entries in the series, second to Cress.

Part of it has to do with how off Levana is and the mystery behind what her sister did to her. Let's be honest, either Levana was made that way because of those events or she just was that way. Either way it's comforting to know Levana was off her rocker before she went evil Queen, and it's even cooler to get a look inside her head.

It's also heart breaking to see such a noble and amazing character, Evret. Oh, seeing him being tortured by Levana was sooooo painful. And I loved every moment of it. (Yeah, I know. I need help.) It was amazing that he could still be such a good man as Levana drives him to madness. Well a lesser man would have went mad. 10 years. Wow.

Not only that but Fairest actually gives readers some world building!!! Why is the moon colonized? Why because earth wanted a docking port there to make exploration and space travel easier! Cool. Now what about ALL my other questions. At the very least let me know if other planets are colonized!!!!!!!

In the end I think fans should definitely read this. Some might be scared. Some might be like me and gleefully want to see this disaster implode! Either way it's good for the series and a setup for some of the leads in the next book. Such as Winter and Jacin. Either way this really isn't a short or something to be skipped. Besides I love it when I understand and can see how the villain ticks. It makes everything better.

Sexual Content: Alludes to some bedroom scenes, and definitely has some slightly more adult themes then previous books.

4/5- Great! Really enjoyed it.

Originally reviewed at Book Whispers.

This probably hovers more in the 3.5 range for me. It's not an amazing story, but there were parts that I enjoyed. Of course, it's always interesting to get more backstory on villains, but I don't think this one really worked. Partly because there are things that don't add up in the grand scheme of the series and I can't tell if it's because the author was trying to use an unreliable narrator (which doesn't really work when you're using third person) or if they're just plot holes.

Anyway, it wasn't a stand out story, but it was a decent read the first time through.

(As a side not, I'd like to say that I agree with most of the 1 star reviews, although I still loved this book).

My Thoughts: I came into this, reading the first few chapters, and thought that this book would make me understand Levana and her possibly harsh childhood. I will start by saying that this book didn't make me understand her - it made me understand how cruel and twisted she really is...
Oh, I'll just kill my niece and I can be queen forever. That's not heartless, not monstrous, I'm doing Luna a favor, or Oh, how terrible, my parents were assassinated, all that blood will look nice on my lips.
Everything Levana does, she finds an excuse to say that it's for the good of Luna. Conquering Earth by killing millions? Luna will thrive with all those extra resources.
The writing, as always, was incredible - like with Cinder and Cress, I was reading this book the entire day and finished it in one day (Cress took 2 days, as did Cinder). Levana's love life with Evret went a little overboard - I would have liked to see more of the story centered on Levana's past. I got the idea that Channary was a terrible, cruel sister, but I think I needed to see a little more of her and Levana together (in cases where Channary was doing horrible things to her) to really grasp what Levana felt. There was a lot of hints, but besides the whole fire scene (which was a little confusing) I felt that Channary and Levana's hate for each other was kind of pointless. I might've missed something, but that's just my opinion.
Overall, incredible book, however some things I felt Meyer went overboard on and others I felt weren't stressed enough on us readers.

Ah! I am so happy with this book. It’s not technically a part of the Cinder canon (aka Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and [I’m so excited!] Winter), but it gives you insights into the past three and most probably into the third…Let me scratch that, it will give you insights into the third. I had so many “Oh, wow so that explains it” moments. Let me tell you what I think about this book.

The Good:
First off, the cover. The cover is amazing in a “I can’t tell if this is creepy or beautiful” type of way. The iconic mirror. The creepy yet totally symbolic veil. The crown of wire and sinisterness. And the flames, eh? They won’t mean anything to you until you read the book.
The characterization of Levana. Ah! I realize I keep saying “Ah!” but it’s my real reaction and I cannot tell a lie. Anyways, the characterization was so good. I love seeing different sides of the story and in this we literally get to see the face of Levana that has been hidden in the other three novels. She is this evil, hidden queen that does not really have a personality in the first three books. All we know is that we hate her. AND NOW I KNOW WHY I HATE HER. I literally hate her so much. But I also strangely sympathized with her in some parts…and then I hated her again. Mostly I hated her. Anyways, you get the point. Meyer had my feelings about Levana wrapped around her finger.
Also, I was worried about it being some Maleficent type of evil character (don’t get me wrong, I love Maleficent), where you think she’s evil, but really she’s just misunderstood and we come out to love her. Not the case. Misunderstood? Yes. Still a crazy, evil lunatic? Also yes.
Winter Preview. Uh, yes. They have the first few chapters of the final book of the Cinder series, Winter, at the end of the novel. You see Winter, some first friendship-turned-love, and, of course, you get an execution by the one, the only Queen Levana. All in this excerpt.

The Bad
There isn’t much to say about the bad in this book. I think I’ve given four stars to all of the Cinder series, but I can’t completely place why they’re not fives for me. I think in this one specifically what holds me back is the lack of a real plot. This novel is supposed to be more of a character analysis than a real part of the series (I totally get that), but it did lack the action that the other novels held. Personally, I really enjoy character development so this didn’t bother me to a point that it lowered my rating significantly, if at all.
Also, just a small thing but Levana’s older sister, Channary, kind of drove me crazy in a way that was never explained. The sisterly cycle of craziness? I don’t know.

Read the book. If you’ve enjoyed the Cinder series, you’ll love this book. If you haven’t read the Cinder series, then you need to kick it into gear because they’re fantastic. And for those people that didn’t like the Cinder series…let me know in the comments because I want to know why!

Bravo, Marissa Meyer! Bravo!

[Side note: Even though this is technically a prequel, I don’t recommend reading it before you read the others in the series. It would give away major spoilers and I think it’s supposed to be read in the order they were published in.]

I’ve been a fan of Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles for a while, so I’ve become resigned to getting one book per year. No more, no less. So imagine my surprise when I found out that not only is “Winter,” the final book, going to be published this November, but a prequel, “Fairest,” was coming out too! Since the first three books in the series tell us very little about Levana’s side of the story, I pounced on this book (so far as a very long waiting list at my local library would allow) and was not disappointed. “Fairest” is an engrossing, intriguing read that will satisfy almost any question you may have about the queen that started it all.

Well, maybe I shouldn’t say Levana starts everything. The crazed shell that murdered her parents may have had something to do with it. Her party-animal big sister, Channary, may have had a hand in it too, especially when you account for how careful Levana is never to show anyone her real face – and why Channary seems to know exactly why she does it. And, of course, there’s Evret Hayle, the object of Levana’s hopeless first crush, who happens to be happily married and expecting a child. Levana has a hard life, as you can see, so is what happens after really her own fault?

In part, no. But mostly, yes. It still is her fault. But that doesn’t mean she gets none of my sympathy. If you’re expecting Levana to be totally redeemed, you’re looking in the wrong place. However, you will get some important insight into why she acts the way she does. Some of it will surprise you, but some of it you will definitely see coming. That, however, isn’t really a bad thing. If there’s anything better than discovering a new villain, it’s spending more time with a villain you already know and love – er, hate. If you take pleasure in the latter, Levana’s your girl.

Was this a perfect book? Well, no. I wished that characters other than Levana and her closest family members were given life on the page rather than a few mentions and mwah-ha-has. Although Meyer does a pretty good job of bringing up events that are important in other parts of the series, she doesn’t touch on one very important part – but I won’t spoil things by telling you what. And likely as not, you won’t even care. “Fairest” is a fascinating take on a villain I thought I already knew, and I’m chomping at the bit to read the final book.

Fairest by Marissa Meyer (Lunar Chronicles #3.5) is a small novel that is actually a prequel to the series. Fairest tells the story of Queen Levana, the all powerful ruler of Luna and the heartless villain of The Lunar Chronicles, her childhood and rise to power. How Levana came to be the terror she is.

"...She was lying on a burning pyre, hot coals beneath her back. White sparks floated in her vision but the mercy of unconsciousness wouldn't come. Her throat was hoarse from screaming. The smell of her own burning flesh invaded her nostrils. Smoke stung her eyes. Blisters burbled across her skin, and entire swaths of flesh peeled away, revealing raw tissue underneath.
The pain was relentless, the agony never ending. She pleaded for death, but it never came.
She reached out with her good hand, trying to drag her body from the fire, but the bed of coals crushed and collapsed under her weight, burying her, dragging her deeper into the embers and the smoke.
Through the haze she caught a glimpse of kind eyes. A warm smile. A finger curled toward her. Come here, baby sister..."

Luna, Earth's moon, is in mourning. An assassin has attacked the palace and murdered the King and Queen and now the crown goes to the eldest daughter Channary. The younger princess, Levana, works her glamour to change her disfigurement, from a childhood accident that she has never healed from. It is the funeral day and Channary is to rise to the throne. But Levana knows that Channary is not the ruler Luna needs but there is nothing she can do about it. Her sister's petty will doom and scar her home as it has done to her.

Added to Levana's concerns is the palace guard, Sir Evret Hayle, a beautiful caring man who has stolen her heart. Only Evret is married to the most beautiful woman Levana has ever seen. But when Evret's wife dies in childbirth, Levana sees her opportunity to steal him away.

The Princess Levana rises to power, marries the man she loves and rules her world better than any other had before. But there are secrets that Levana must keep and the world she has built around her is as false as the glamour she uses to hide who she truly is.

Fairest is a terrific short novel as in it stands completely on its own. It gives us a little of the backstory that plays into the series of the Lunar Chronicles but mostly it serves as a vehicle to allow us the reader, to glimpse for a short time behind the glamour that is the mask of Queen Levana of Luna.

Levana is a tragic figure, unloved and misunderstood. Horribly treated by her sister and dismissed by the Palace Court. The one person she loves cannot get past the love and mourning he has for his dead wife to return her heart. All this contributes to create the monster we know in the Lunar Chronicles.

A wonderfully told tale that must be read by all fans of the Lunar Chronicles and may bring new ones into the fold.

A very well written tale!

I'm such a huge fan of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series so when I first heard about Fairest I knew I had to read it. Although a lot of the events in this story take place before the beginning of this series please be aware that it does include spoilers for the first three books so I wouldn't recommend reading it until after Cress. In fact, I'm going to assume that you've already read that far so please don't carry on reading this review if you haven't or you may pick up spoilers for the previous books.

We all know how evil Levana is, she has committed some horrific acts and she isn't the kind of character I feel any sympathy for so I was really interested to see if Marissa Meyer could make a story from her point of view work. I didn't go into it expecting to like Levana, there is no way she's going to suddenly change from bad to good at this point, but I was looking forward to finding out why she is the way she is. What caused her to become so obsessed with power? Why is she so determined to destroy Cinder and her allies? Is she completely crazy or is there a motive behind her madness? I'm glad to say we got answers to all of those questions and more.

Fairest isn't an easy read, Levana had a difficult childhood and I was surprised to find myself feeling somewhat sorry for her during her earlier years, but that will never excuse the things she went on to do as an adult. Reading about her as a child it is quite obvious that Levana has never been "normal", she doesn't understand emotions and she has no concept of what is considered acceptable behaviour. Her sister treats her appallingly but that doesn't give Levana the right to punish other people. I quickly lost sympathy for her because of the way she treated the people around her and her husband Evret in particular. It was just horrifying watching what she did to him and I'll warn you now this is much darker story than the rest of the series has been.

This story gives readers and all access pass into the mind of one of the creepiest villains I've come across in a long time and trust me Levana's head is not a pleasant place to visit. She is so far beyond sane that I doubt anyone will be able to connect with her but I found it absolutely fascinating to see how her mind works. Levana is broken, she is hurt, scared and completely twisted and she goes to incredible lengths because she is desperately looking for love and acceptance. Unfortunately the lengths she goes to make it impossible for anyone to do anything other than fear her and she managed to terrorize anyone who ever showed even an inkling of kindness towards her. Fairest is a dark and fascinating story and I enjoyed every minute of it in a really uncomfortable kind of way. It's kind of like that feeling you get when you see something absolutely horrific, the one where you desperately want to look away but can't quite bring yourself to.

Levana isn't a good person, and this won't leave you hoping she gets a happy ending to her story but it's not supposed to make you sympathise with her. I think this story is purely to help readers understand quite what level of madness Cinder and her allies are up against and what lengths Levana is prepared to go to in order to win. This has made me more desperate than ever to get my hands on the final book in the series, Winter, and I'm sure our favourite characters are in for an even rougher ride than the one they've already survived!

Let me just tell you that when I read Cinder, I hated Levana on sight (when I read her in the first book Cinder, I mean)! She really felt like some weird, ugly crypt keeper-like Lunar with the veil concealing her face from the public, and even from us, the readers.

So, when I heard that she was going to have her own story, I was excited! This novella would be the answer to all the questions that had been on my mind. Like: What’s with the f-ing veil? or Why do you insist on marrying Prince Kai when you are so f-ing old? and What made you the way you are? You know that sort of thing. Fairest answers all these questions and we also get a glimpse into Levana’s mind and psyche.

Without sharing a lot of spoilers ahead, I just want to flat out state that [spoiler]Cinder is indeed Princess Selene, Queen Channary’s daughter (father unknown) and Winter (the heroine in the next book of the same name), is Queen Levana’s step-daughter.[/spoiler]

Fairest tells Levana’s story from when she was fifteen years old to her rise as the Queen of Luna after her sister Queen Channary dies from natural causes and her daughter Princess Selene dies from a fire (set by you know who). Unfortunately, her backstory did not endear her to me, which I hoped it would. It did not change my initial thoughts on her. Levana IS a selfish and spoiled brat who will do anything to get what she wants. Ok, so I do not blame her because it was Channary who was evil and Levana was the one who wanted to be loved and accepted by her family and it was Channary's fault as to why Levana became twisted. But still, this does not mean that she can act the beeeaatch that she is just because she had a lot of baggage, right?

I actually felt a little bit sorry for her initially when it was revealed that she did not really have a loving family. Her parents were killed by a shell who did not like their rule (which is one of the reasons shells where hated amongst the Lunars), and her EVIL sister Channary was instrumental in her disfigurement. Because of that incident, she was scarred for life and she hid behind her glamour (which also explains her hatred for mirrors). However, despite pitying her, her actions did not endear her to me. She was cold and calculating and I actually blame Levana for what happened to her in the end. I really love reading that pivotal scene with the mirror when Levana just about lost it and banned all the mirrors in the palace. Classic!

Fairest is also a retelling of Snow White (well, the Queen’s side ) and I am expecting Winter to be a full-out Snow White Retelling.

I love that I was able to read about a few characters from Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress like Sage Darnel, Jacin Clay, and Cybil Meera.

Fairest was a quick listen for me and I really enjoyed it. It was the perfect filler-story to the whole Lunar Chronicles world. I am definitely looking forward to Winter in the fall!

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

‘Levana had not seen the bodies, but she had seen the bedrooms the next morning, and her first thought was that all that blood would make for a very pretty rouge on her lips.’

Fairest opens on disaster from the very start with Princess Levana and her older sister Channary attending the funeral of her recently murdered parents. Channary being the older sister ascends the throne despite the fact that Levana would be the far superior ruler. It could be said that the beginning of Levana’s mental breakdown happened after a childhood tragedy left her scarred and disfigured. Levana became obsessed with physical beauty which she can only personally obtain by using her Lunar glamour to change how others see her. Whether this knowledge of her past allows you to forgive Levana her actions or not, her story is full of shocking revelations that will nonetheless change everything you thought you knew about her.

We all knew Levana was psychotic before we got her full story, but finally we find out why. We also find out that Levana wasn’t always this way, that particular circumstances set her on this path of madness and it’s far more sad than I ever would have expected. Taking us back to a time before Cinder even existed, Meyer gives us a spin on the story of the Wicked Queen from Snow White: the story of Levana and the path that led her who she became. I’m not sure what it says about me exactly, but this story of the villain we’ve all come to despise has been my absolute favorite installment in the series. What I found most impressive was how Meyers introduced Levana as a good character and in just 222 pages had her character arc come so far as to make her transformation to the Evil Queen one of complete authenticity. The focus on character development lessened the amount of ongoing action but it was still a moving story. Also, in terms of the plot originality we’ve come to expect from other installments, there was less variation from the original fairy tale but while the conclusion seemed far from unexpected it still managed to leave me astonished.

It’s always an exciting switch to be inside the mind of the villain and Meyer doesn’t disappoint. We may be more informed as far as Levana is concerned, but her methods of ruling are still drastic and often extreme yet having this knowledge of her will certainly have me looking at her with a closer eye when we see her again in Winter.

"Fairest" by Marissa Meyer is a compelling and imaginative look at the rise of the villainess in the Lunar Chronicles and begins with a malicious, sadistic sister who terrorizes young Princess Levana. With only a "glamour" to cover the scars of her disfigurement and hating her sister the Queen, the Princess yearns for love and a happily- ever- after with Sir Evret Hagle, a handsome royal guard. But although Sir Hagle is a caring friend to the lonely sixteen year old he's in love with, and married to a sweet and pregnant seamstress. As happiness eludes the young royal a darkness grows inside her as she craves but never gets what she hungers for. With her delusions intensifying a sinister opportunity presents itself that has the Princess using her power to make her dreams reality. This unique and captivating tale mixes love, hatred, war, betrayal and death in preparation for a final showdown in the upcoming novel "Winter".

The plot is well-written and stirring as a broken and delusional Princess who wants nothing more than to be accepted and loved rises to power. In this story the reader is thrown into a society where monogamy, faithfulness and true love are a fallacy in the court of Artemesia where Queen Channary rules after the assassination of her parents Queen Jannali and King Morrok. It is a time of political unrest and cruelty as the Thaumaturge urges his Queen to look at developing a disease and antidote in their conquest of Earth as well as bio-engineering an army of vicious animalistic soldiers. In this society Princess Levana pursues her dream of ensnaring the good-looking guard she has a crush on, only to have her heart broken and her lust for power grow. The plot flows swiftly with Princess Levana's heartbreaking account of her desperation, pain and tragic loss as sadness and loneliness transform her.

The characters are well-developed and unforgettable; like Princess Levana Blackburn who's scarred physically and emotionally by her vicious, domineering sister. At sixteen she feels invisible and unknown, clinging to any offering of affection and building a delusion of a love that's unrequited. Determined, resourceful but empty inside she covets the throne as darkness and heartbreak overwhelm her humanity. Queen Channary is the spoiled, self-absorbed sister who's cruel, selfish and arrogant. Sir Evret Hagle the royal guard is intelligent and cunning on duty, in love with his beautiful but fragile wife Solstice and protective of his daughter Winter. Weak-willed, duty-oriented and frightened of the young royal he succumbs to temptation rather than fleeing his life in the city. All these characters and more add to the drama and energy of a story that will lead to a reckoning in the next novel.

I enjoyed "Fairest", a fascinating look at the destructiveness and cruelty that moulded a vicious Queen who wanted a happily -ever- after only to be swept into a nightmare of her own creation.

***4.5***

Note: Please read Cinder, Scarlet and Cress before reading Fairest.

Oh Levana, Levana....you are one sad, pitiful, twisted, manipulative, jealous, shrewd, conniving, devious woman ummm Queen. That pretty much sums up how I felt after I finished with her story.

Levana's story begins with when she was a 16 yr old girl living in the shadows of her older sister Princess Channary and soon to be queen. It was very interesting to see how things were for Levana when she was a mere girl and just a princess. Life was not easy for her and actually quite sad to put it mildly. However, to what lengths will she go to achieve what she truly desires - to become a Luna queen. This is the story of a shy, sad, a bit twisted princess to her rise to become the most revered queen. We definitely find out what she actually looks without her glamour. How she came to become all about her "beautiful" glamour. How Winter came to be a princess and become her step daughter.

I do have to give it to the author for making me feel so many different emotions while reading about Levana. This is one seriously twisted royal family. Queen Channary, Levana's sister, is one sick woman. We get to find out about how she became queen, birth of Selene aka Cinder and how she ended up on Earth.

*****Spoiler*****
[I think Selene was better off without Channary. Just sad what Selene as a toddler went through though. Especially after we find out about Levana]
*****End Spoiler*****

I felt this book was a nice addition and actually gave me a peek into Levana's mind. Although, can one truly get a glimpse into her mind?? Who knows? But, we definitely get to see how she came to be. At the end, there's a brief intro to Winter - the last book in the series.

I definitely recommend reading this book as it explains a lot about Levana and her obsession with Luna and Earth.

(This is not a full size book as Cinder, Scarlet or Cress. It is more like a short novel.)

The origin story of Queen Levana – you may end up feeling a little compassionate for her… but not for long.

“I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way” a quote from Who Framed Roger Rabbit springs to mind when I think of Queen Levana, knowing that nobody starts out bad, they usually are shaped through events. In other cases, some are born with a little evil and embrace the darkness within until consumes them. You’ll have to make up your own mind which category Levana falls into.

Marissa managed to write a great story with the same magical tone of Cinder. New surprises are uncovered, the world/moon is explored a little more, everything moving to enrich the Lunar Chronicles Universe. Ultimately building an antagonist more terrifying than any Disney baddie.

The prose is easy to read and fierce on pace, it’s definitely a book you can blaze through in one sitting. It doesn’t double dip either. I could see how some topics could have been a big trap, like the virus, or the genetic hybrids – but seeing how they were major plot points in other novels, they were merely mentioned in passing… which is fantastic because my interest would had wavered if suffering repeat information.

There is not much else to say – it was a fun read, and definitely fueled my intense dislike for the Lunar Queen – in a good way. So I highly recommend you add this title to your collection if you are a Cinder fan!

I loved Fairest, it was unlike anything I expected. I can’t believe all the details we got about Levana herself, her family but also about Luna itself too.

It was just so cool to see how Levana was as a young girl and then growing into the fearsome and evil queen she is in The Lunar Chronicles. I’ll try to keep this review as spoiler-free as I can, but I make no promises.

So we learn that Levana was burned as a child and left severely scarred (and two guesses who is responsible for this), so she uses her glamour to hide everything, and she’s actually pretty skilled at it. With her older sister, Channary, still alive and her parents now dead by an assassin, Channary is set to take the throne, but Channary is a selfish, vain and cruel Lunar and I still can’t believe that that was Cinder’s/Selene’s mom.

So anyway, most of the story shows us exactly and in great detail, how Levana became queen and how she got rid of Cinder and also where Winter comes from. And I seriously feel sorry for Winter, growing up with a psychopath like Levana is not easy.

On the other hand, I still think Levana being who she is as we know her in the books, is mostly Channary’s fault, for all the cruel and sadistic things she did to Levana as a child and mocking her almost her entire life about her looks, after the “accident”. So, yeah I did feel a bit sorry for Levana at one point in the book, but that quickly disappeared as I read on, and how insane, selfish and cruel she became in the end.

All in all, it was a pretty great book and gave us a lot of insights into Levana’s life and into how life works on Luna. And the few spoilers we get for the last book Winter, are awesome.

Book: Fairest: Levana's Story (The Lunar Chronicles)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Grade: 4.65 out of 5 stars

**This review may contain spoilers, as I have not read any of the other books to know what is and isn't going to give something away.**

Fairest: Levana's Story is the first novel I have read of the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. It is an engaging look into Levana's backstory and how she became the villainous queen of the series.

At the beginning of the novel, Levana and her sister, Channary, must attend the funeral of their parents, who have been brutally assassinated. Channary, the eldest and soon-to-be new queen of Lunar, is strangely competitive with her sister and takes every opportunity to point out Levana's flaws and inadequacies. Levana, who must use glamour to hide gruesome burn scars on her face she suffered as a child, is both insecure and a hopeless romantic, desperate for the love and acceptance she's never had.

Right away, Levana sets her sights on Evret Hayle, a palace guard, who has shown her nothing but kindness since she was a little girl. Then, she discovers Evret is married and the happy couple are expecting a baby. Levana believes she and Evret are meant to be together, which is only reaffirmed for her when Evret's wife does not survive the birth of their child, Winter.

Levana uses her glamour to look like Evret's late wife, and manipulates Evret into marrying her. At first, Levana is happy with their arrangement, but then she grows increasingly annoyed by Evret's lack of affection toward her. Levana is also frustrated with how much of a doting father he is to Winter, especially since Levana does not seem able to give Evret a child of her own. She believes she has sacrificed much for Evret, and that the least he could do is love her in return. She does not see her manipulations of him as wrong, or how cruel she is to use his dead wife's face to make him stay by her side.

Before Levana's frustration with Evret can turn to rage, her sister becomes ill and dies. Levana is then crowned ruler of Lunar until Channary's daughter, Princess Selene, comes of age to take the throne. Levana thrives as Lunar's monarch, and quickly sees Princess Selene as a threat to her personal happiness and the kingdom's success. She implements a devious plan to get rid of her niece, confident that she is only doing what is best for the kingdom.

Marissa Meyer does an exquisite job in telling Levana's side of the story, where everything nefarious Levana does is not only justified but absolutely necessary for the success of her kingdom. Levana's reason and rationale are so skewed that she cannot see how cruel and inhuman she is as she wields her magic and power at those closest to her.

Ms. Meyer also explores the age-old question of nature versus nurture with Levana, and it appears both nature and nurture contribute to Levana's failings as a compassionate person. Levana suffers greatly at the hands of those who should care for her, but it is her own choice to let her painful history twist her into something dark and sinister. She sees everyone as a threat, from her beloved Evret to his innocent child to her own niece, and Levana does not hesitate to use her power to get rid of them and everyone in her way.

Overall, Fairest: Levana's Story is an intriguing read into a complicated character's past and machinations. I did find Levana's Machiavellian nature disturbing and a little over-the-top at times, but then again the novel is from her point-of-view. As this is my first contact with The Lunar Chronicles, I am definitely interested in the rest of the story and how Levana's history shapes her future. Regardless of how many books you've read of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles, I definitely recommend Fairest: Levana's Story.

// Marissa Meyer, as usual, did a phenomenal job in piecing this short narrative together, and I feel this is what separates Meyer from other teen fiction authors in my book: the invisible tone in which she narrates her stories. She makes it look so effortless too, as she tells the reader every emotion, feeling, thought, and event as it unfolds, but yet she is careful about not fully unveiling the premise; its breathtaking and almost feels cinematic. Which stands to reason, I love her writing style so so very much

// Fairest accomplished something similar to what Frodo’s antagonist Gollum left me feeling: a sense of mourning and despondency which oddly enough, entertained without seeming shameless. Even the narrative’s most gruesome and depressing scenes end with a laugh, but yet somehow do not cheapen the material. Rather the cynical banter is used in a way to break the tension of the desperate psychotic scenarios found in this prose; it was all so eerily engrossing to say the least

// Fairest doesn’t contain many surprises since we pretty much know what to expect, but it does have its share of chills; it is a wonderful piece of work and a fine update to the series

// The story line remains fresh as you read on; it’s fast paced and reads very much like a film

// Indeed, Fairest will stay with you for a long while after you’ve read it; especially when you decide to complement it with the Lord of The Rings: Two Towers soundtrack gah!

WHAT I LIKED:
(+) Oh my word! I may very well be alone in this, but Queen Channary to me, stole the spotlight with her cynical and relentless self, and if truth be told, I would have loved for Channary’s success as a villain to have been applied to Levana’s character arc instead. Channary’s evil persona to me, has all the elements that leave you in a shell-shocked sort of paralysis as she carries out the most unthinkable treacherous acts ever! She is over-the-top brilliant, scary, deranged, funny even! Needless to say, she drove the story line with her hysterical and abrupt psychotic mood swings too; she is not subtle nor quiet, she is deliberate and relentless in her pursuit to rule and oppress everyone and everything around her. In fact, I venture to say, very few novels out there succeed in torturing their readers like Marissa Meyer’s Queen Channary did. She is absolutely terrifying, and unforgettable, and so very perfect for this role, and I loved her; oh how I loved her

(+) I love, love, loved how Marissa Meyer weaved in all our favorite characters and their unresolved personal conflicts into this short narrative. I was seriously blown away with how she accomplished this task, and how not once did it feel forced or crammed

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKED:
1. Hmm, I’m not quite sure how to put this main quibble into words, so I’ll just put it plainly: Queen Levana, to me, did not live up to the villainous role I anticipated. From my point of view, it felt as though Marissa Meyer built sympathy for Queen Levana’s character: her loneliness, her “morality” and her infatuation to be loved; thus as a reader, I cared deeply for her, and not threatened by her. Please allow me to justify my sentiment, but before I do, we somewhat have to agree to disagree, in that our definition of a villain will more than likely vary ;)

Okay, now that we’ve established that, here is the gist: in my opinion, a villain is hardly a villain when that said villain does nothing but sit on a throne all while handing out cold-blooded orders all day simply because they can. Thus, to my way of thinking, a villain is defined as one who leaves you with a sense of hopelessness, gloom, pain, trial; someone who intimidates and paralyzes you with fear and terror, because you know for certain that you may very well lose your life, your friends, your family even!

Take into consideration these villains: The Joker, Sauron, Lord Voldemort, Darkseid, Lucifer, Hannibal Lector, Professor Moriarty, and The White Witch. Each one is relentless in their own way, fearless and determined to destroy and dominate all that is good with an added desire to suppress the free wills of others. Similarly, these villains get their hands dirty too, in that they personally dole out their torture and actually enjoy watching their wicked schemes play out before their very eyes. Thus, on that account, when you take these horrid villains and compare them to Queen Levana, she just falls short

***SPOILER***
While I do recognize that:

a. Yes, Queen Levana did in a sense evoke a threat to Evert’s well-being and that of Winter’s life; Evert was just not intimidated by her, it is even perceived in the bitter tone he addresses her with later in their relationship. Needless to say, it felt as though he just empathize with her dreadful misfortune; plus, the pay-off was right! He settled with living in the castle even while Levana cloaked herself as his DEAD WIFE! and his precious Winter is now a princess; thus, this prose did not leave me feeling frightened for Evert or Winter in the least bit

b. While Queen Levana’s ultimate aim is to become the greatest ruler in all the galaxy at the cost of releasing a deadly virus on Earth, to me, this action comes across as a sore hysteric. The truth is, Queen Levana loves her life way too deeply, whereas the aforementioned villains do not. They are on a whole different level of tyranny. They are ruthless in their pursuit to overthrow humanity and again, all that is good. Levana loves excessively: her throne, the people of Luna, Luna, Evert, the honor to her family’s bloodline; she holds compassion and fondness, she craves approval and some sort of worth, she’s too focused and obsessed with herself to say the least

2. I am fully aware that Fairest is meant to be a short story, however in light of this, I greatly disliked the absence of the climatic conditions that are essential to eliminating a character wholly. I’m not quite sure why I feel so strongly about this one quibble, but to me, many of the character deaths in this narrative provided a sense of inconsistency and paradox. In short, they felt rushed and in a sense dishonorable and detrimental

***SPOILER***
Take for example, Channary’s and Levana’s parents, I really wanted to uncover more about the qualities and fortitude of their ruler ship. Even more, why they were so brutally assassinated. Was it Channary’s demise? What was their response to Channary’s evil ploy against Levana?

Also, is it just me or was Evert’s death just heartless and unfair? I would have loved to have seen Levana grant him his freedom since she loved him so much, and pretty much revealed her true self. He didn’t deserve the fate he received, but then how would Winter’s role come into play right? And what would make Queen Levana “truly wicked”?

Woe is me, “the world is not a wishing factory.”

3. Morally and personally, this novel is not suitable for younger teens, which is a bummer considering how lighthearted and amiable the companion books are. But then again, it’s expected, since every fairy tale must have the vicious queen lurking in the background, therefore the story’s ambiance should be dark

***SPOILER***
One last thought: Why does Marissa Meyer keep pairing these girls up with older dudes?

For instance:

a. How old is Wolf compared to Scarlet? And Thorne compared to Cress? And Levana compared to Prince Kai and Evert?

b. And did anyone else feel utterly disturbed in the way Queen Levana would make her persuasion and mind-control look innocent? Particularly during the scenes where she and Evert would shared sexual relations; isn’t this borderline rape? Ew! So demented, but engrossing all at the same time! :P

PERSONAL RATING:
Plot | 10/10
Setting/Mood | 8/10
Moral Value | 5/10
Cover Art | 10/10
Overall | 8/10

CONTENT:
Violence | Heavy
Profanity | None
Sexual Content | Mild
Drugs & Alcohol | Minor

Originally posted @ http://www.mysoulcalledlife.com/2015/02/10/sparrows-book-review-fairest-lunar-chronicles-0-5-marissa-meyer/

I wasn't planning on re-reading this book as well. I just finished re-reading Cinder, Scarlet and Cress. But it had been over two years since I read those books. And I read Fairest this February. But I couldn't resist reading it again. And I'm so glad I did. I feel like I had forgotten some things. And oh, how much I love this book. I probably shouldn't love it as much as I do, but I can't help it. I just felt so badly for Levana. Reading about her life. Sure, she's evil, but I still kind of love her. I really loved reading about her life.

I know that Levana is a horrible person. She manipulates a lot of people, including her poor husband. She has people murdered. But even so, I couldn't help but love her a bit. She was so broken. Because of her older sister. Because of her sister burning her when they were young. And I just. I cannot. My heart is breaking for Levana. She's alone and unloved. She just wants to be loved. I don't agree with things that she did, not at all, but I cannot truly hate her for it either. I know that others do that. But I cannot.

The writing in this book is gorgeous. I adore how well Marissa writes books. Ahh. I cannot wait to read even more from her. So excited. And even more excited, because Winter is almost here. I cannot wait. But unsure about what I want from it. I liked Levana in this book. But I hated her in the other books. I sort of want her to die. But at the same time I don't. Oh. I cannot decide. But either way, I'm so excited. This is a book that you need to read after Cinder, Scarlet & Cress. Not before. Just so you know that :)

The idea came to her slowly. At first, it was merely a horrible, guilty fantasy. That there was no Selene. That Channary had died, alone and childless. That Levana was already the true queen.

There is so much I love about this book. Even though it is very short, I felt like I got to know so much. And I loved it. I just wish it had been even longer. Fairest is a sad story. The life of Levana is a very sad story. And I loved reading about it all. I know people think Levana is bad. But I figure that her sister was even worse. What she did to Levana as a child. What she did to her seamstress. It was so evil. She was awful to everyone. Except for her new baby. I think that she loved Selene. She seemed to love her child.

The story in this book is so exciting. We get to read about Levana as a teenager, first at age fifteen. When her parents died. I'm not sure I liked the little we got to know about them at all. They seemed cruel. And then we learn about Levana's crush. A guard whom is more than ten years older than her. He is married. With a child about to be born. But Levana wants him. And she convinces herself that he wants her too. Especially when his wife dies in childbirth. Oh. It was pretty heartbreaking to read about.

I'm not going to say much about it all. But she gets the man to be with her. To marry her. But he does not love her. And she makes him pretend to love her. It was so heartbreaking. Not only that she ruined his life. But also because she just wanted to be loved, to not be alone. And I understood her about that. But yeah. What she did was not right. Not at all. I liked reading about Evret. And his child, precious Winter. Oh, reading about her as little was so adorable. I cannot wait to know her more in Winter. So excited.

The guilt and the horror and the memory of that awful smell might stay with her forever, but she was the queen.

I'm not saying much more about this book, as I have already done so once before this year. I just. I cannot deal with how much I love Fairest. It is an amazing book. Levana is a villain, sure. But she is a villain that I love. I can't help it. I liked her a lot in this book, despite all the horrible things that she did. I'm so glad I decided to re-read this book right now too. It is just so awesome. If any of you haven't read Fairest yet, then you really need to do so before Winter comes out. It is a must read book. I promise.

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I first read Fairest on February 8th 2015. See my review here: http://carinabooks.blogspot.no/2015/02/review-fairest-by-marissa-meyer.html
I read Fairest for the second time on November 5th 2015. See my book recommendation here: http://carinabooks.blogspot.no/2015/11/book-recommendation-fairest-by-marissa.html

MY THOUGHTS
I was kind of upset about this book coming out at first. Not because of the book itself, but because of the timing. I wanted Winter to come out instead (I'm still in denial that i have to wait until frexing November!). I was dead set against not reading this book just out of spite, but I can't resist more Lunar Chronicles.

This is a very short book, around 200 pages, but it's from Levana's perspective before the events in Cinder. It starts out from a 15 year-old Levana and goes onward. While this is a prequel, it does have a few spoilers for the other books in the series. Though, you may not notice them if you haven't read the other books. If that makes any sense.

It was very horrible reading the mind of Levana. She's not as horrible in the very beginning as she is in Cinder and other books (still horrible), but, oh, does she grow to be more and more horrible as the book goes on. It was also very interesting to see into her mind and I can understand, even though it's no excuse, why she became so horrible. Her parents, who just died, never loved her and her sister is a horrible being (much like Levana, but I believe Levana actually grows to be worse).

Because she's never been loved, she doesn't really know what love is. She has had a crush on a guard, for a while now, even though he is much older and married. She obviously hates his wife, too much to be considered normal, and she sees his friendship as love. She fully believes that he loves her and wants to be with her and she actually ends up using magic to get him, still believing that this is love. It is all so very very horrible and I really felt sorry for Evert, the guard, at how horrible he was being treated.

Really, this book is very tragic. If you read the other books, then you know what will eventually happen and it is absolutely awful seeing them from Levana's perspective. Seeing how she see nothing wrong with what she was doing.

IN CONCLUSION
This book isn't really necessary for the series, but I do strongly recommend it. It was very interesting to get both Levana's backstory and a look into her mind. It was horrible and tragic, but it was still a very great read.

You have to admit, we’ve all been curious to find out more about Levana, and what’s behind her veil. We find out in this book, which travels from when she was fifteen to five or six years after she “killed” Princess Selene.

You get introduced to Levana’s older sister, Channary, who’s Cinder’s mother. Channary is everything Levana doesn’t want to be…yet ends up as anyway. Channary is cruel, selfish, and vain. The only difference is that Levana is quite a bit smarter than her sister.

You also see how Levana’s downward spiral wasn’t brought about by hate or loss or jealousy…it was brought about by love. The love for one of her guards, Evret. Who happens to be already married, to a beautiful, very pregnant seamstress named Solstice.

Most of all, Levana just wants to be wanted, to be loved. And, unfortunately, as much as she loves Evret, she doesn’t get that love in return. She’s so used to being looked over, that she wants to be in the spotlight for once in her life.

This book, while engaging as the others, is missing the bits of humor we’re used too from Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress. And, unlike the other three heroines, Levana isn’t instantly likeable. You will feel sorry for her…but you won’t like her, especially as the book goes on.

There are also little cameos of Cinder, Winter, and Jacin Clay, who played together as little kids. I couldn’t help grinning whenever they were mentioned, and I wish there had been more of them in the book.

This is a relatively short read…a little bit less than three hundred pages, but that just makes it easier to finish if you have a busy life. All in all, this is a fascinating, compelling prequel that just makes the wait for Winter seem that much longer.

I LOVE Marissa Meyer and the Lunar Chronicles, so when I discovered I would have to wait nearly two years for the conclusion after reading the beautiful book that is Cress, I was heartbroken. However, we had this book in between and I’m so glad it exists.

The thing about Levana is that she is the bad guy. She is the villain. She’s the one we’re spending all these books fighting. Its hard to ever think that we could get behind her point of view. But that’s kind of what this book is for. Not necessarily to get you on Levana’s side, but to give you the background on how she began the queen that she is.

When the book first starts, I actually felt really bad for her. Her sister, the way she’s treated by others, the accident that left her…well, desperate to use a disguise all the time…you actually feel sorry for her. For a moment, I felt confused that I wouldn’t know how to feel about her, especially with Winter releasing this fall.

But it didn’t take long for the things to go opposite of how Levana plans them and the character that we’ve grown to know in the books surfaces. But so much worse than we could have imagined. She is sick in the head, the ideas that she has and the measures she takes in order to fulfill her own desires and to quench her own insecurities….its insane! This book is short, chronicling Levana’s life until what we know now and it just blows my mind. You wonder how this little girl that you felt so sorry for just became so misguided and cruel. Her cruelty comes mostly from her insecurities and its sickening. Marissa has created an incredible villain in that even when you’re reading her side of the story, you’re still blown away at what she is capable of.

I think it was a great story, and it really added to what we already know in the series. I think seeing Winter and Selene (aka Cinder) was incredible as well, because we see them under Levana, and what she really truly thinks of them, and its just…ugh. Its gross. Its hard to imagine someone so insecure, so unsure, that they go to the lengths that Levana does.

But it also made me even more excited for Winter. Seeing Winter as a child, seeing what she and her father went through, and her poor mother…its just heartbreaking and I can’t wait to see how this series ends. Marissa Meyer creates the most compelling characters and this is only further proved in Levana’s story.

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Queen Levana Blackburn of Luna is easily the most intriguing character out of the Lunar Chronicles. Fairest offers the chance to discover her backstory, and see things you've never seen before. As a loyal fangirl to Meyer's writing, it didn't take very long before I started reading this book. It therefore didn't surprise me that I enjoyed every page I read. Be careful: this is a story about how an innocent girl turned into a vicious and ruthless leader, and does what it takes to get what she wants. In other words: it's heart-wrenching.

Because of this book I got to see a side of Levana I'd always dreamed of seeing. When the book starts out she is a weak, naive and sensitive little girl with dreams too big for this world. She dreams of love and being loved. We all know she eventually ends up being the ruler we are all familiar with, yet her character development throughout the novel is simply fantastic and wonderfully done. There are reasons behind her behaviour I didn't expect to encounter in a lifetime. It was fantastic and not-so fantastic to see. Even after all the insane things she does, Levana remains that kind of villain I adore. Clearly she is the kind of character one either loathes or loves. As it's love for me, I loved being in her head to read her thoughts and feelings. After a while I couldn't help but pity her, and I know I'm not the only one.

Besides Levana, there was nothing but love for all the other secondary characters. Even Channary, who I have an extremely complicated love-hate relationship with. For God's sake, she was the most cruel being there is and I cannot imagine the amount of lives she'd destroyed. I could never understand the things she did, and quickly labeled her as the complete psycho who was still, in a twisted and sick way, a captivating character.

As Fairest takes place before the events of Cinder, we now see what caused Levana's hatred for both Winter and Selene and witness the relationship they had with her. Levana's motivations for causing the supposed death of Selene made of course no sense, and I now wonder what could have happened to Winter after being taken in Levana's custody. All in all, the appearance of the two young princesses in this book added another layer of foundation to Meyer's world, and therefore made my love for The Lunar Chronicles grow even more. As if that was even possible.

Even characters I'd never heard of before Fairest, made it quickly into my heart. Solstice was a mysterious and definitely a compelling character. It's like I almost experienced Levana's jealousy towards her, but especially her love for Evret. I don't know what to feel when it comes to these two. There were a lot of scenes in this book that dealt with their complicated relationship. So much I eventually became more stressed out and anxious than Levana herself. All the way through she kept trying to make their relationship work she eventually drowned in their so-called love. Quite depressing, yet absorbing to read.

The story of Fairest has to be the best thing about this book. Although a lot of scenes were already known, I loved how those played out before my eyes, and gorgeously written at that. On the other hand, this novel contained a lot of other background stories from Levana's life I had no clue about. Some even brought actual tears to my eyes and made Fairest a beautiful read.

In a nuthshell, Fairest was exactly the kind of book I needed in the anticipation of Winter. It tore my heart out and made me feel all kind of emotions, but I don't regret anything.

A trip into Levana's dark and twisted mind? Yay! I'm on board, count me in!
I've read the negative reviews and I'm actually surprised. 1 or 2 stars because of sexual situations, murder, intrigueas and graphic scenes? Double yay for me!
By the way, you think that Levana is bad and evil? Well, meet her sister Channary. She's the one who's really twisted and cruel.
Be warned that this book is darker than the Lunar novels. But, let's face it, Levana is a dark protagonist. I would be surprised if her story was sweet and innocent. Psychos are made, not born, I believe, and this books shows it perfectly. It shows that tricking someone into relationship never ends well, and I think that's a lesson we should all remember. Another important lesson - being ambitious is slightly different than being power obsessed. and this, also, never ends well.

Levana is this ultimate overly attached girlfriend and she doesn't even get it. She suffocates Everett with her idea of love and she hasn't got a clue, maybe because no one showed her how real love looks like.

The only thing I didn't like is that this book is too expensive.

I want to re-read this series now. I read them all so long ago that I feel like I don't remember all that much. I also think if I did re-read them I would pay a little more attention to Levana. Basically every massive Lunar plan/conspiracy mentioned in the first three books are all ideas you see spawned/implemented within this novella. If I re-read the books, I think I would pay more attention to the details about her and the references that she makes. Also, I am curious if she continued to use the Sol influenced glamour because I don't really remember how she is described in the books in terms of specific features.

This novella did make me understand Levana a little better. Not sympathize with her, just understand her. Channary was pretty evil and Levana definitely made a better Queen that her in a certain sense, you couldn't really argue with her there. Levana was just always so twisted. I don't really think anything specifically made her that way, I just think it's how she and her sister turned out. It was clear their parents weren't good people and neither were they. But I'm not sure they would have necessarily had any possibility of turning out any other way.

To be honest, one of my biggest thoughts is that Cinder was lucky to have gotten away. Even though she didn't choose that, obviously. To have been raised by such a horrible person for a mother and to be around such terrible people in general, who knows how she would have turned out. I don't think she would have stood a chance.

The whole relationship with Evret was incredibly awful and uncomfortable. It definitely demonstrated how selfish and manipulative Levana's nature truly is. And also how little understanding she has of simple decent feelings, such as love, having never genuinely experienced love or many other good feelings during her life.

This showed that Levana is willing to go to very extreme lengths to achieve her ends. Which has me more excited than ever to see what Winter (the book not the character, but her also) has in store for all of our favorites. It will be epic. I don't want to wait nine more months!

Before Queen Levana of Luna sought to conquer Earth through deceptive means, she was the youngest daughter of the King and Queen of Luna. When the reigning rulers are found murdered, Levana watches as her sister, Channary, inherits the throne. It isn’t easy living in her sister’s shadow and constantly having to hide her ugliness behind various glamours. Levana isn’t satisfied with her own circumstances and is determined to find happiness through any means necessary.

Marissa Meyer’s Fairest provides an insightful look at the Lunar Chronicles’ antagonist Queen Levana and one I will not soon forget. Levana as a teenage girl is a combination of loneliness, envy, and unhealthy fixations. As her gifts for glamour and manipulation grow, so does the danger for those in her way. Levana’s character isn’t simply shaped by unfortunate circumstances, from the very beginning Levana exhibits questionable behavior. Her reaction to her parents’ murder can be described only as apathetic. Watching the young Levana transform from a confused girl into an evil ruler was both fascinating and shocking.

My emotions were all over the place with this book. On one hand, I felt sorry for Levana, her sister uses every opportunity to belittle her and much of Levana’s actions are motivated by the lack of love shown to her and her fear that people will discover the ugliness beneath her glamour. What makes Levana so interesting is that her ugliness isn’t just physical. She can be vindictive and is all too willing to exploit others’ weaknesses for her own gain. I didn’t know whether to pity her or hate her and I spent most of the book doing both.

If you are a fan of Marissa Meyer’s the Lunar Chronicles, I highly recommend picking up Fairest, what you don’t know about the evil Queen Levana will both surprise and frighten you. This slim volume also draws together several characters we’ve already met through the Lunar Chronicles and now I am even more excited to get my hands on Winter!

I purchased this at The Book Depository but will still post a review here. I literally decided to get out of my reading slump around midnight this morning by trying to read this book. Best decision ever. Oh my God this story is what the Maleficent movie could have been (still love the movie but this was so much better). Marissa does not try to force you to feel sorry for this character or hides the good or bad side. Instead you get a true flawed character who makes decisions based of certain causes and beliefs. Levana loves, she aches, she has a strong desire to rule. If you wanted the Evil Queen in Snow White to have a deeper story this is for you. Hell if you a really good story to knock your socks off, this is for you too. Even for the slow or pseudo readers among us since it is also less than 300 pages long. Don't worry big readers this book is attached to The Lunar Chronicles series so there's lots more to go read to your heart's content. So yeah I finished this book by after 2 a.m. in the morning and it was spectacular. I plan to reread this baby and go in dept into Levana's story. There is no other option.

This book includes a preview of the final book, winter. So, I'll spend the next 6-8 months patiently waiting for it to come out and then probably forget half the plot.

The book just before this one left so, so many unanswered questions on the table so I'm glad from the preview that it sounds like we will be skipping back forward to the present.

This book in the series is all set in the past to give us a character background on the queen, her husband, and the two princesses.

Some is expected but most is not. I want to day more but would hate to spoil the book. I enjoyed the mini story but wish this was book .5 and not placed where it is but then again it's good to have a little mystery and this would ruin too much of that for book 1-3.

Disappointed that I still don't know what happened next other than the winter teaser. Now begins the waiting game.

Reviews published at www.itsjanelindsey.blogspot.com.

Fairest was published back in January, and I somehow kept overlooking it. I finally freed it from my never ending TBR pit, and was rewarded with a villain story unlike any other. It is a truth universally acknowledged that I love a good villain. "Good" serving as a measurement of quality and not of morality, of course. I often root for the bad guy, and nothing warms my cold, dead heart like a villain with a devastating backstory. So I was more than excited to read this prequel and finally learn what's going on under Queen Levana's veil. A whole lotta crazy, it turns out.

I felt frenzied the entire time I read this book, anxiously waiting for pieces to fall into place, to understand the method to Levana's madness. But as the story progressed, it became all too clear that Marissa Meyer had no intention of crafting a villain that people like me could champion. No spoilers here, but whilst the reader is made aware of the queen's painful childhood, true likeness, and foray into love, ones thing becomes abundantly clear. Levan is insane. I kept waiting for there to be a line Levana wouldn't cross. Surely there was a limit to her cruelty, her evil? No. If there is, it certainly can't be found in Fairest. And that was a huge revelation for me as a reader.

By the last page, I found myself shocked by her seemingly complete lack of humanity. Whether it was Meyer's intention or not, it shed such a light on the villain trope. Readers like myself want to find something in villains - but sometimes, the bad guys truly are deplorable. Looking back, that's why I enjoyed this book so much. Levana is evil, and ruthless, and it was brilliant to publish this character study before the final book in the Lunar Chronicles comes out in November. Readers need to understand that Levana is no easy adversary. Cinder and company won't be handed a victory, by any means.

Fairest is a great addition to the Lunar Chronicles series, and it enriched my understanding of Luna. Plus, there's an excerpt from Winter! I have a feeling she might become my favorite character, so excitement is high for the final installment.

NOTE: Audiobook review

The likes and dislikes:
~I nearly felt sorry for Levana...yes, shocking!
~Definitely a good book to show not all the baddies are that bad...from the beginning.
~WHAT! Very real life...I think.
~So it is safe to say that Cinder's real mother was God-awful!
~I HATE LEVANA!
~The pendant...oh, my hell!
~The fact that such an 'advanced' civilisation had used matches was weird.
~I was once more FRUSTRATED by this book, but it was good.
~I LOVED THE WINTER SNEAK PEAK!!!

Notes on characters:
Levana - Utter b... I wanted so badly to feel sympathy for her, but hell, she isn't even trying. Batsh*t this one!
Channary - Sounds like Levanna's family for sure. I thought Levana, Adri and Sybil were the bad...but hell no, this lady was terrible.
Evret - He is so hot in my mind! I felt quite sorry for him.
Solstice - She is a sweet woman...shame.
Winter - Baby! I want the book!
Jacin - ahhh, so sweet!
Sybil - I suppose she always was an unkind person.
Garrison family - They are a really cool family.
Cinder - AHHH! The excitement.

I loved this once more and I can't get over the fact that this series really is awesome when it comes to diversity. Now, I'll read the shorts and bite my nails in anticipation for Winter...*sobs*

Are cruel people born? Or are they made?

Fairest may not be the book to answer that question, but it certainly made me wonder if Levana would be a much different person had she grown up under the care of loving parents and a supportive sister.

Sadly, she did not, and as a result, we will never know the Levana that could have been.

I fully read this story not expecting to feel even the smallest twinge of anything that could be described as sympathy for the cruel Queen of Luna. How could I for a woman that would attempt to murder her niece, and in such an absolutely heinous way, in order to gain control of the crown?

And towards the beginning, when we see her burgeoning manipulative character begin to take shape, I thought that I would end the novel hating her even more than I did at the end of Cress.

But of course, Marissa Meyer just wouldn't be satisfied with that kind of result.

Let me stress, I do not love Levana. I still want to see her defeated and possibly even dead. I still totally despise her...only now, it is just a tiny little smidgen harder to do so.

What Fairest does so brilliantly is it makes this vile, veiled, villain a little bit more human. We see the choices and circumstances that have culminated in the evil queen we love to hate. We wonder if we would be different if we had to endure what she has. Hopefully we would.

But we also wonder if she isn't so far gone that redemption isn't totally out of her reach. Personally, I think it is...but it still makes me wonder.

And I can't wait for Winter.

As the self-proclaimed number one fan of this series, there's no doubt I loved this book. Although I wished Winter had been released, it was nice to get a look into Queen Levana's head.
"Mirror, Mirror Who's the fairest of them all?"
Title Page
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it was semi short because it was pretty hard to be in her mind. She definitely had some crazy going on, but seeing why she was that way opened my eyes a bit. Not to where I sympathize with her (because she did some cray, cray things), but to where I can at least see it wasn't her fault.
"Being queen is a right little sister."
page 12
What I loved most about this book was the way Meyer was still able to weave everyone's stories into one. Although they did not know each other, the entire gang from the series makes appearances in this one. It was very interesting to find out facts about each of the character's background.
"Love is a conquest! Love is a war!"
page 92
Another thing I loved about this was all the FEELS. For this to be so short and for it to be just a "bridge" book, it really showed a lot of emotion. I felt my heart break a million times for Levana, but then I got pissed off at Levana for someone else, and then I was scared for everyone's life when she started finding out who everyone was and what she may be up against. It felt like a kick in the gut.
"A good queen was a well informed queen."
page 209
Marissa Meyer has done nothing but solidified my love for this series with this book. I never knew how bad I needed to know Levana's story until I got it. And in my opinion, those are the best kinds of stories.

If you haven't read the first three books in the Lunar Chronicles don't read this book until after you have read them as it has spoilers and will impede your enjoyment of it.

This is Queen Levana's story. It is not a happy story or even a pleasant story. I found myself equal parts angered,horrified,and disgusted with the character of Levana. I found her more deranged and twisted then I ever imagined. While reading this book I felt I was getting a look into the mind of an evil,unstable,delusional killer. Getting a look into the mind of the villain is never easy or pleasant. It is not a mind I wish to visit again yet at the same time I do. I have always been fascinated by evil become I can't understand it. I doubt anyone who isn't evil themselves can.

The more Levana tried to justify her actions the more I despised her. She reminds of every killer I have ever seen on T.V. telling their side of the story but she is more truthful and open as you are inside her head in way you can never be inside their's. I enjoyed getting a closer look at the Lunar Society and let's just say they are the kinda people I would never want to meet. Seeing the characters from the first three books younger was my favorite part. There are some likable even lovable characters in this book but they are being seen throw the eyes of the heroine who is an insane psycho so some of their goodness is sometimes lost.

Overall I highly recommend this book to fans of the Lunar Chronicles. You will see Levana in a way you have never seen her before. More heartless and soulless.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Content Rating: PG-13

It is impossible to say that I haven’t been fascinated by Luna and Queen Levana since the beginning of the Lunar Chronicles. She is definitely the biggest enigma of the series, and readers have only really heard accounts of her actions through the point of view of other characters. So when I found out Meyer wrote a novella tracing Queen Levana’s life and ascent to the throne.

First thought upon closing the book: WOW. It is no wonder she is as calculating and cold as a queen. So basically readers learn that Levana was basically neglected by her parents as a small child, and tortured by her older sister. Fire is a very consistent theme in Levana’s narrative, as it is obviously the way that Princess Selene was “killed,” and it was apparently the cause of Levana’s own low self esteem and supposed constant use of glamour/veils.

We learn that Levana was a girl searching and desperate for love, which almost makes me sympathize with her as a character, but I think Meyer did such an excellent job of showcasing how a Lunar’s abilities to glamour and control the mind and emotions can really do more harm than good. Not only do we get to see how painful and frustrating for people on the receiving end of this manipulation, but how it can lead to delusion and hurt on behalf off the impressionable person utilizing these powers.

Something else I really liked was that, no matter that this narrative was definitely focused on Levana, readers were given an adorable look into the childhood friendships between Selene, Winter, and Jacin.

If anything else, I can’t believe how long we are going to have to wait for the conlusion to this brilliant series, but I am so excited to see where Meyer is going to take the story. I do hate Queen Levana but I love her story.

4.5 Bards

I read a lot of mixed reviews on this book. A lot of reviewers warned readers this book was only for diehard series fans. I will say that this differs from the first three books in the Cinder series. Absolutely. It kind of has to, right? I mean, it's a book completely written from the villain's POV. I won't lie. There was a lot of sadness. Levana's life was pretty sucky. Her family life, the "accident" that left her disfigured, the tragic love of her life. All of it was horrifically sad. Unlike the other books in the series, there was no humor... no light, heart-warming banter. Nope. And on that count, those reviewers would be correct. This was not like her first three books in the series, but if it had been, Levana wouldn't have turned out to the be villain she'd come to be. As always, Meyer's writing is exquisite, and I found myself completely pulled back into this world. This series is in my top five all-time favorite YA series. If you like YA, if you like refashioned fairytales, or if you like even the slightest bit of science fiction, you should check out these books!

If you’re new here let me just say I have read Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress. The Lunar Chronicles is a series of five young adult fantasy novels by American author Marissa Meyer. Each book entails a new take on an old fairy tale, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White. The story takes place in a futuristic world where humans, cyborgs, and androids all coexist. Fairest tells the villain’s side of the story. Queen Levana had some things happen between her and her sister that would make anyone cringe. Her “love” story is heart breaking, but through it all you can never feel sorry for Levana. Some people would take the opportunity to overcome a dark past and be kind, gentle, and loving. Levana choose a different path. One full of glamours, greed, and power. I am happy Meyer kept Levana as the villain rather than making us love her. Again Meyer did an excellent job with the characters. Fairest more than any of the previous books was completely character driven. It lacked action, but we got a great story. the biggest downfall however was the setting. In each of the previous books we get hints to what Luna is like, and now we finally have a story that takes place on Luna in the palace and I have no better sense of that world. I was completely bummed out because the amazing illustration inside the covers was breathtaking. With that being said it was still an amazing story which I want to recommend to people who have read any of the previous books or are wanting to start the series.

Characters-5 Setting-3 Plot-4 Conflict-4 Resolution-5

4 Stars!

I do not have words to express how captivating this story is. I do not have the words to express my love for this story It was that perfect.

But before I go spewing into my review of the plot elements and the characters, I would like to talk about how easy it was to read. Now, I find it hard to find a book that is so easy to jump into, that does not leave the reader questioning every single detail, nor does it require the reader to re-read several sections of the book more than once. Fairest satisfies all of these ideas. Fairest contains a story that is easy to jump into, and (if the reader has read the other novels in the series before reading this one - which you should) extremely easy to understand characters, their motives, and how certain events connect between Fairest and the other books in the series. You will find Fairest extremely hard to put down; it will almost be impossible.

On top of the ease of reading the story, I absolutely adored the plot. Queen Levana's story is dark, and readers of the Lunar Chronicles knew that from the start of the series. While I loved the darkness and the depth to Levana's story, it was not awkward to read. Levana's story was dark, but it wasn't scary or a thriller. I think that this contributed to the ease of reading it as well. It takes true skill to write a dark story that is not necessarily a thriller. There are tons of horror elements and events with in the story. The terror that Marissa crafts into this story will make your skin crawl. I will probably have nightmares about this story. But that doesn't make it scary. The story was extremely dark, but I still found the ability to pick it up and keep going. I wasn't scared that the story was going to be "too much" for me to handle. Marissa Meyer has a way with words that is hard to explain. Marissa knows how to write a dark story with a flawed character, that will keep both your mind and your heart captivated until the very end.

If you have been following the Lunar Chronicles Series since the beginning, you likely already know that Marissa Meyer has a gift for writing flawed characters, and this gift shines in Fairest. Levana is one of those characters that is flawed from the start, and that her flaws only begin to make her life worse as the story continues. Levana does not seem to have a good bone within her body, and that is one of the reasons why I love to not like her.

But, I have to say that Ms. Meyer does an extremely good job of making the reader "pity" her, even if the reader knows her actions are inexcusable and what she does (in the future in Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, etc.) is horrible. Levana is broken, and she had an extremely rough up-bringing. Her sister, Channary (which means "full moon") is extremely rude to her about her glamour and does not ever care about Levana's input in any situation. Levana is clearly suffering from a mental disorder due to the trauma of her childhood (explained later in the book). Personally, I felt absolutely terrible that Levana had to live through these things, and so I feel for her in respect of these events. But, when it comes all of her irrational actions in the second half of the book, all of that pity disappeared. It was no longer about trying to live a normal life, but trying to get revenge on the Kingdom for making you suffer in the first place.

The introduction of new characters to the series was one of the best things about Fairest. Evret Hayle, a castle guard, and Solstice Hayle are introduced within this new story, and these characters do a ton to drive the plot of the novel. Levana finds herself obsessed with these characters, I really found her obsessions and interactions with these characters unique - and it was really hard for me to put the book down even after the chapter breaks, because I wanted to see how Levana's obsessions and planned events would play out.

In terms of these new characters themselves, I am really happy that they do not fit the general "mold" of YA characters. These new characters are older. They are not teenagers like the rest of the characters in the story. They have completely different experiences and thoughts than any other character. They have a different way of perceiving the struggles between Luna and Earth. These characters are adults. I loved these characters so much because they were already set in their ways, They already went through the troublesome phase of being teenagers, but they are still struggling as adults. I loved seeing this new cast of characters because it shows that, even when a person is an adult, there are still some things that they are discontent with or have to abide by in order to not be punished. While they are adults and have different viewpoints and experiences, they are still connected to the younger characters in the book. Marissa Meyer does a great job of making sure that every reader finds a character that they can connect with.

This also comes into the personalities and physical characteristics of the characters. There is a large diversity of characters in her Lunar Chronicles Series (not just in Fairest). Winter is a person of color, Cinder is of mixed ethnicity. Scarlet is curvy. Wolf appears to be more middle-eastern. Cress is slender and has pale skin. (If you don't believe this, it is coming straight from Marissa Meyer's website). Fairest, by bringing out even more new characters, contributes to the physical diversity as well as the diversity due to age.

Overall, I really loved Fairest. Fairest is extremely well-written and had me hooked from the first page. Marissa Meyer once again crafts a unique story. Fairest leaves the reader guessing and awe-struck after every turn of the page. Fairest is full of struggling characters, the kind that Marissa Meyer writes the best. I am so excited (and sad) to see how the series will wrap up in Winter. I don't know if I can wait until November!

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars :)

Thanks for the background on Levana, Marissa, but she is still crazy.

Beginning with the funeral of her parents, we meet Levana when she is still just an insecure princess hiding behind her glamour and living under the watchful eye of her sister, Channary, who is cruel just for the sake of being cruel.

Nothing in Fairest is really a surprise. We know Levana becomes queen, marries, and her step-daughter is Winter. We know the she approves to release the disease on Earth and is holding the cure "hostage" for the right time. We know Levana is responsible for the death of Princess Selene. It's watching it all unfold in front of us that is the true story.

While Levana was never truly innocent, it's easy to see her sink deeper and deeper into her evil crazy self we all know and hate. With each hurtful word for Channary and with each moment she influences Evret into her arms she slowly looses that tiny flicker of any good she has within her. I will give her this, she does make a worthy queen - espeically if you're end game is to conquer an entire planet through deceit in a bid to have phenomenal cosmic power. (Wrong fairytale, but you catch the drift.)

Fairest is wonderful insight into what made Levana Levana, but it didn't cause me to feel any sympathy for her. If anything, I'm more excited to see Cinder and crew take her down.

Because it's going to be magical.

Listened for Fun (Audible)
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 4.00
Character Rating: 4.00

Audio Rating: 4.50

First Thought when Finished: Fairest by Marissa Meyer is a story I felt needed to be told!

Overall Thoughts Did I feel bad for L after this story? Nope! Granted her back story did have me pitying her just a bit. Everything she does is for one reason only: it is what she wants! She is very self-tunneled visioned (I know not a thing but it is the best way I can describe it)

Did I like getting her history? Sure! She is an evil queen and Marissa did a great job of showing that there are layers to even the most evil of characters. Granted they may just be more layers of evil but they are layers!

Did I like the sneak peak at Winter? You BETCHA! Can't wait! Though I am going to have to do a total re-listen before the final book! That will happen closer to release time.

Audio Thoughts:

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler /Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins

The series is narrated by Rebecca Soler and she does a wonderful job. The only one I did not listen to in audiobook was Cress. I missed Rebecca's narration while reading. She adds layers and emotions to the wonderful words that Marissa Meyer has written. If you have not given these a whirl on audio, you should!

Now We Wait

A break to the plot line of the Lunar Chronicles, in order to learn more about the EVIL of the series.

"Fairest" is about Levana's story. We get to see the insides of Luna's Royal Court and honestly, I saw only rot and betrayal. No wonder everyone hodes behind their glamour, wanting, needing to look beautiful. And what's more you get to have a nice message passed through the prequel.

Levana has suffured much because of her sister and thanks to her life as a teenager, she becomes... well psychotic, murderous and hungry for power. Through her we get to see the young heroines, Cinder and Winter as also learn more about Winter's family. No wonder she almost looked crazy at "Cress".

The character of Levana is the type which got abused, looked down upon and grew to become the very type of the evil stepmother which would place the one from Disney to the 'good'ones. Despite the author's attempt to soothe Levana as a character, I didn't like her.

She used her powers for evil in the end and tried to justify her love through evil and bad thinkings. The book overall was marvelous on descriptions which stayed at the top of Meyer's writing but Levana as a character didn't even faze me, jugdging by what she did to the other books.

I will enjoy it cery, very much when the girls and company will kick her ass on "Winter". :)

There really are no words for how much I love this series. I love re-tellings, and this is the hands down my favorite re-telling of Cinderella and more ;) to date. It's so fantastic.

I listened to this book on my audible account and the narrator was fantastic, and I felt like I was right there in the castle with Levana the whole time. Which could be seriously creepy at times...but you will have to find that out yourself ;).

I love learning how the "bad" girl in this case becomes the "bad" girl. Levana has been interesting to me from the beginning. I never did like her but now I know why!

I can't say too much because I don't want to give any thing away, but I loved Levana's story. She is one messed up chick. This book explains just HOW messed up she is.

It was fun to see how Winter comes into play in this book. I was excited before for Winter's story but now UGH! It needs to be out NOW!!!

This is such a great addition to the Lunar Chronicles. I love being able to understand each character in books that I love so much. I wish there could be a novella for each character I like or dislike ;). Which is weird for me because I usually don't "love" novellas. BUT, I love this one.

If you have liked the Lunar Chronicles so far this is a wonderful addition to it. Wonderful.

SO BASICALLY THIS WAS INCREDIBLE! I was so curious about this book because Queen Levana hadn’t had copious character-development so far.

Fairest made me pity and loathe Levana all at once! Ohhhh, but the romance is CREEPY. It’s written so so well and you can nearly see both sides. But Levana is downright creepy. At 15 she becomes obsessed with a palace guard. He sees a miserable little girl (glamours hiding something horrible??) and he offers simple friendship…except she sees it as LOVE. It’s a miserable tale of brainwashing and manipulation and emotional torture. And since it’s from Levana’s point-of-view, I totally understood WHY she did it. But it was oh-so-wrong and clearly awful.

It twisted me in a incredible knot of emotions and it’s only 222-pages. I was so sucked in. I read it in a few hours flat. And while I pity Levana, I still hate her. She is a gloriously wicked villain with a completely tragic backstory and warped intentions.

They say there are two sides to every story. Ever wonder what the other side is, well here is your chance to find out. Marissa Meyer author of the Lunar Chronicles has written the side telling the villain’s, Queen Levana, side. As from my other reviews of the three of four books published as far as yet, it’s not surprising as to why I like these book and Fairest is no exception. It is a haunting, warped and extremely well written story told from the opposite prescription of Meyer’s other tales. This story depicts the untypical setting, where the heroine does not live happily ever after. Rather, this is a story about hostile beginnings of unhappy endings, and of the inner workings of the mind of a villain.
Those who have read the first three books in the series know of the evil and manipulative Queen Levana. But what if Levana isn’t what you thought she appeared to be and what could possibly be beneath the Glamour of her beauty. This is a psychological analysis above all else, one that will explain all that Levana is. Seeing the horrors of Levana’s childhood truly make us understand how she came to be the evil, power hungry queen is in Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and hopefully in Winter (the 4th book in the Chronicle).

Her childhood and early adulthood is not an easy one, filled with unimaginable terrors, and you soon find that you understand and even sympathize for her. Although you can understand what molded her to become such a villain, her actions are still unforgiveable. Despite the compassion you may gain for her by reading about her upbringing, she is still the villain and Meyer never lets you forget that. From her motivation in needing an Earthen alliance to the backstory about the origins of Princess Selene, everything is told in a way for you to see the whole story unfold.

Much like I have said before if you love the classics or the first three book, you need to pick this one up as well. It will not disappoint.

I felt a lot of things with this book... I felt anger towards both Levana and especially her older sister Channery. I also felt sad because this book was pretty much the road to Levana's craziness and how she totally spiraled downwards.

There were some things that were quite creepy to me while being inside Levana's head. One thing being her obsession with one of the palace guards who she ends up marrying due to some really disturbing manipulation. But we also got to see how everything with Cinder got started. And of course a little Winter and Jacin made appearances as well.

I have to say that I never sympatized or felt bad for Levana because she's always been pretty crazy and not to mention obsessive. But I do see where she's coming from with the way she was raised and how she was tormented by Channery.

Fairest was the sad, eerie yet intriguing story of Levana, the Lunar queen. Although it was pretty much what I expected, I really liked reading Levana's back story. It always interesting knowing where a villain is coming from.

When you read the Lunar Chronicles you can’t help but wonder why the heck Levana is such a freaking crazy pants dictator. Was she born that way or did something make her that way? It was interesting to finally get a chance to see where she came from. I’m still not 100% sure, but I think she might have been both born to be crazy and then forced to show her crazy by the things that were done to her. I do have to say that there were times that I felt bad for her. Especially when it came to Evret Hayle, but only early on because she truly showed her crazy pants during most of the situation with Evret.

Levana’s sister Channary was also pretty dang crazy, which is why I’m fairly certain that the crazy was mostly genetic. It was Channary that helped Levana down the path to get to who she is in the rest of the series. It is Channary’s earlier actions that gave Levana the idea to take things too far with the princess. There was never any hope for Levana. It was nice to finally get the story behind the ruler, but now I hope that Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter take her down.

I have the entire series and I'm not a teenager. I have it on audio and listen to the series as I walk for exercise. Each audio book is very long - 23 hours or so. So it is great to listen to while walking or exercising. The series order of books is: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest, and lastly Winter. Fairest takes you back to the beginning, before Cinder so it does seem a little strange and a little confusing to go back to pre-Cinder, but it works.

Well, that was disturbing.

If you've ever wanted to understand the mind of a villain, I highly suggest Fairest. Levana rapes through mind control--Evret didn't want to marry her, but he couldn't resist-- and tries to burn a child (hence Cinder. Spoiler alert, she doesn't die in the fire). She institutes all sorts of horrible plans for Luna, and yet, for most of the book, she's as calm and cool as a cucumber. She's sickening, but not insane.

I wish we had gotten a little more of what happened to Cinder though. Fairest is set before the Lunar Chronicles, so we get to watch as Levana lit the playroom on fire. The doctor said there was still a heartbeat, but then she died. Was this doctor one of the ones who helped bring her to Earth? You'd think Levana would wonder where Cinder's remains were. Maybe she was so badly burned, they never opened the casket in the first place, and thus Scarlet's grandmother was able to save her. I guess if Levana sincerely thought Cinder was dead, she would't have bothered about these details though. After all, it's not like she knew someone successfully saved her.

I’ll be honest, I wanted nothing to do with Fairest, a novella telling Levana’s side of Cinder’s tale. It seems all the rage these days to have these .5 short stories and novellas telling another side of the plot. And many times, I find them disappointing as they stray from the characters I like most in a series. (Side of Lord John, anyone?)

Here’s the deal. I loved Fairest. Levana is well-rounded, three-dimensional villain on par with Amy Dunne and Hannibal Lecter. Reading Fairest reminded me of some older episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation when the plot examined the mind of a particularly brutal serial killer. The viewer (or in the case of Fairest, the reader) has a chance to see inside the bad guy’s heart and mind and learn what makes him tick. Queen Levana is stripped of her glamour and the results are telling. Will you feel sympathy for Levana upon finishing Fairest or not? How does a person become wicked? Fairest gives readers a glimpse and let’s them decide.

This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews.

I haven't read any books in this series, but I really enjoyed this story. Levana only wished to be happy with a family that loved her. But because of the traumatic event that happened when she was younger, she wasn't able to feel pretty in result of her older sister. She just withheld envy, anger, hate for everyone around her. She fell in love with Evret who was happily married till his wife passed away during child birth. How can she possibly think that his feelings could change towards Levana over night. She manipulated him in loving her and getting married. She felt happy just knowing he was there with her even though he didn't love her. I was so angry at her for committing such crime on her niece who would have been queen when she became a teenager. She definitely had no heart or any feelings. She didn't feel any remorse when her parents were killed, when sister died and when she planned out her nieces death. I was utterly shocked at how this whole story ended. Would have never thought that she would plan on killing the only person she gave her heart too. Can't wait to read the other three books to see the type of person Levana portrayed.

It was really interesting hear Queen Levana's backstory. Usually in stories like this you hear about how the villian used to be a good person and then something turned them evil, but Levana was a bad messed up girl from a bad messed up family. She definitely had the know how to be a great Queen from early on in life, but none of the heart or compassion. I did enjoy learning a little more about Cinder's back story as well as learning a little more about Winter and where she came from.

4 Platypires for Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Oh Marissa Meyer, how do you do it? How do you create the wonderful stories using familiar characters but making them your own? A round of applause for that.

The Fairest is Levana story told from her POV and lets just say she's missing a few screws. She is truly unable to grasp other people's emotions. At times I thought she must have Asperger. I honestly can wait to discuss that idea with my book club. (yes my book club is reading the Lunar Chronicles cause we are awesome!)
As for the story, I really enjoyed it and thought it was well written. The Evil Queen is truly one of a kind. I liked how even it all played out, even if it was truly horrific.

I would highly recommend this series to everybody.

the tale of queen levana shows the journey of her dark and twisted soul. levana is my very least favorite character in this series but i truly enjoyed this fresh take of the "evil queen". this story had to be told. i do not believe that levana ever had a soul, and what little sanity and goodness she had was lost by the horrific actions of her monstrous older sister. she completely fabricates a fantasy world of love and family taking away the will of any who would stand in her way. the greatest thing about this book was making me question if levana ever had a chance to be anything other than the completely narcissistic, heartless, killing, insane witch she becomes. she completely justifies all her horrible actions. i hate the queen but man what a story and what a critical piece of the puzzle for the world of Luna. i devoured every page and cannot wait for the finale this fall. just reminded once again how damn good this author really is.

I did not enjoy this long novella which tells the back story of the evil queen, Levana, in the Lunar Chronicles series. Levana was always a brat. Her older sister was always a brat. Their parents also sounded like brats. The only things that happened in this story were bad things to good people. I didn't need to know the details of why she was evil because the details provided no excuses. She was a naïve child with too much power and poor influences. I love the real novels in the series (which focus on the good guys) but this novella was dissatisfying and added nothing important to the overall series other than some family tree explanations that could have been done in a few pages during one of the regular novels.

Queen Levana wasn't always the queen she is today. She was once a shy and sweet young girl that fell victim to her sister Channery's cruelty and games. As Princess Levana, she hide behind her glamour to protect herself from further harm. Levana always took her duties seriously unlike her sister Channery who became queen after their parents murder. As Queen Channery became even more cruel, spoiled, and selfish. Levana always seemed the perfect target for Queen Channery. How does Levana become the villain we know in Cinder? Your answers await you in Fairest.

Diving into Queen Levana's past was such a delicious treat for me as reader. I've always wondered about her backstory. I could almost feel sorry for Queen Levana at certain points in the story but not all of them. The characters were real, raw, honest, and intriguing. The story took off from first page to last page. I'm even more excited for Winter now.

MaryAnn's Review:
You know when you read a book or a series, and there’s a character in there that is just so terrible that you wonder what her deal is? What happened in her past that made them become this terrible person?

Fairest by Marissa Meyer, which tells the story of Queen Levana before the start of the Lunar Chronicles is just that. It answered the questions that I had brewing in my mind about her and why is the way she is! And I absolutely loved this book!

Fairest gives the readers the details that are not at all touched on in the Lunar series. Author, Marissa Meyer, shows the reader the tough life that Levana had starting from a very early age and slowly progresses the story to lead up to the going ons in the series.

Levana has a reason that she uses her glamour so much. She is a completely scared up girl who has had to live with the way she looks for as long as she can remember. Why does she not like mirrors, as mentioned in the Lunar series? Because she hated what she saw.

You can’t help but feel for her in this book! You find out early on that she really just wants to be a regular girl, and to the have the man that she loves love her back. But of course, there are obstacles. For one, the love of her life (Evret) is married…and expecting his first child. And as the story progresses her love Evret turns into an obsession. And from everything starts to spiral and starts to form her into the Levana we love to hate.

The writing is true Marissa Meyer style. Addictive and fantastic, and quickly drawing you into this world she has created. The characters, as always, are unforgettable and all written with their own unique personalities. I know that I’m supposed to hate Levana, due to the Lunar novels, but in Fairest, I felt sorry for this lonely girl. And I loved that ever so slowly, Levana’s true colours start to come through, and slowly my hate for her surfaced, and this was all done to perfection.

Of course, once the end comes near, the full evilness of Levana comes to light, but not without a last touch of “pull the heartstrings”. The heinous thoughts and actions of Levana totally had me glued to the pages. Just how far she would go to get what she wanted… Such an amazing character to read more about.

I loved how little pieces of the puzzle (storylines in the series) started clicking together, and how we actually get to “meet” the characters who were just merely mentioned in the other books, or witness how people got the position they are in, in the other books. I did, however, feel that some of the parts were rushed and could have used a little more description, and some things just ended rather quickly.

Fans of The Lunar Chronicles will absolutely adore the story of Queen Levana in Fairest by Marissa Meyer. You will become completely absorbed in everything, even in the littlest details like the colour of a beverage. And also, O.M.G. to this cover! Every time I look at it, I keep expecting the image of Levana to move or shift. It’s so eerily lifelike that this alone will pull people to the book, and hopefully, draw them in to get the other books. And the artwork inside is simply amazing.

And bonus! The first 3 chapters of the next book can be found at the end! I cannot wait for the final book to come out in the Fall of 2015. The story of Winter? Bring it on!

Gabby's Review:
I’m starting to feel like I’m one of the few people who hasn’t picked up author Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles. I’ve heard nothing but good things and have to admit that I’ve been meaning to get around to reading the first novel in the series—Cinder—but never got around to it. But when I was told that I absolutely had to read Fairest because it was insane and incredible and spoiler free for the rest of the series I figured ‘Eh, why not?’ I have to admit that after reading Fairest (and all in one sitting I might add) I am currently dying to read the rest of Meyer’s books. Definitely need to find time for that.

Fairest introduces readers to Levana, a fifteen-year-old princess whose parents have recently been murdered. Through an unfazed mourning period Levana encounters the handsome Evret Hayle and his pregnant wife Solstice Hayle. Beautiful, pregnant, insignificant Solstice Hayle. While watching her unworthy sister ascend to the throne, Levana finds herself growing slowly more and more enraptured by Evret Hayle. As a Royal Guard, Levana sees him everywhere. His kind heart and his kind gestures toward her can only prove what she already knows: Evret is falling in love with her. It’s the only logical explanation. After Solstice Hayle gives birth to her daughter, Winter, Levana is prepared to claim Evret as her own. If there’s one thing Levana will not face it’s the ugly truth laid out in front of her or the appearance beneath her glamour.

As a person who has not read the rest of the novels in Meyer’s series, I was surprised by just how addictive Fairest was. Every chapter felt like it was better than the last. My heart broke. I laughed. I cried. I stared in horror at the story being laid out in front of me. Everything about it just worked. Honestly, it was brilliant. All I could do was read and feel like I was inside the story watching Levana’s transition from bad to worse to wicked. The worst part was that I could empathize with her and I could feel sorry for her while also despising her at the same time. Meyer’s writing has me hooked and I’m sure that I won’t be able to get enough of it. This was just such a beautiful origin story.

For readers who haven’t read the novels like myself, I definitely do feel like this is a good novel to give you a feel for Meyer’s world. Is this a series you want to invest yourself in? Does the genre work for you? Can you and the series click? I definitely feel like this is a good way to gauge the series but also a great way to prepare yourself for what is to come. We’re getting a first look at the series antagonist. Do I feel like if I start reading the rest of the books I’m totally going to be cheering on the villain from afar? Probably. But do I think that will lessen my reading experience? Probably not.

The best part of Fairest for me anyways was seeing what a sociopath Levana really is. From what I’ve learned in school about psychology, she totally exhibited major tendencies. It’s pretty awesome to see how accurately portrayed her disorder is. Levana’s already on my list of badass female characters. Her cunning and ruthlessness are absolutely unforgettable.
I would recommend Fairest to any readers who are considering reading the Lunar Chronicles. To any readers who are already keeping up with the series I’m just going to assume this is already on your TBR list (because seriously if it isn’t what is up?). Any readers who want a beautifully written story that they can easily finish in one or two sittings should also give Fairest a read. Let’s give the Evil Queen some much deserved love.

This was insane. When I bought Fairest, I thought, "Okay. We're going to understand the inner workings of Queen Levana. This is going to be good."
And it was good BUT OH MY GOSH WAS IT CRAZY. I didn't know what I was getting into. From reading Cinder, Scarlet and Cress I had a very strong dislike for Levana and reading this reinstated that dislike BUT the absurd thing is that I really enjoyed her character too. (For that I give props to Marissa Meyer). There were happy moments and sad moments and pitiful moments and gah lee man Meyer made me feel all the feels. Fairest is more enlightening than anything else. It helps you understand almost exactly what is going on and why it is (but that's also if you've read the other books which I HIGHLY SUGGEST).

This book starts off with a horrible dream/memory of Levana’s. Right off the bat, the author yanks on your heart strings and makes you fall in love with this character. Not for long though. Before you know it, you will hate her and lover her and then hate her all over again.

This book is emotional as well as entertaining.

The world building in this book just hits on the surface. I haven’t read any of the other books in the series so I am assuming there is better world building in those. This book just barely scratches the surface of all the questions I have about this world. I will definitely rent the others from the library.

To see my full review, check out my blog AlliesOpinions on wordpress!

Why you should read it: Fairest … wow! The Lunar Chronicles is one of my favorite YA series, and I was so excited to read about Levana. Would I cry with her? Would I feel pity? The answer for me at least was no, which did not detract from this story at all. I thought Levana was a selfish and spoiled brat, not as evil as her sister Channary (at first) but still spoiled and selfish. I mean, what she did to her true love, Evret? *shakes head*

Having said that, I enjoyed every part of it. She was no heroine. Even in the beginning, when she's alone, she has evil thoughts. I absolutely adored that it's hard to like her. It was such a breath of fresh air to be so engrossed with a villain, even though you can't help but feel something for her. I love, love, love this installment. I felt for her a bit with Evret, though I felt even more so for him … And Winter! Gah! I won't say any more for fear of spoilers, but I will say that everything started forming together, everything weaved together, and it makes me that much more excited for Winter, coming in November. There's plotting, planning, crazy insanity, and one sad, lonely and vicious little queen, who will one day bring Earth to its knees.

Head over to the HEA Blog to see what Marissa says about what it was like writing our beloved evil villain!

At first, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to enjoy this fast read; even after seeing many glowing reviews for it on the many blogs I follow. Now, after finishing it and having read the first three books in this series, I can see how Fairest is a necessary add-on to the Lunar Chronicles, as it preludes the next book in the series, as well as the first.

Levana’s back-story, as well as that of Princess Selene, her mother queen Channary, and Princess Winter, all add up to the overall build-up of what I expect is going to be a fiery conclusion in the final book of the Lunar Chronicles.

Overall, if you’re a fan of this magnificent series and haven’t read Fairest yet, please do. It is well-deserving of every positive review and all the praise it has garnered thus far.

*Please note: there will be very small, minor spoilers for the previous books in The Lunar Chronicles. I will not include any details - but suffice to say, I will mention who the main antagonist for the series is. This review is nearly spoiler-free for the series.

The Lunar Chronicles has been a delightful series so far, and news that a prequel was coming had me eagerly awaiting its arrival. In particular, the fact that Fairest focuses its attention on Queen Levana, the main antagonist in the first three books of The Lunar Chronicles and I'm assuming the last one as well.

Fairest is exactly what a prequel should be, as it narrates some of Levana's personal history and she came to be the Queen of Luna as we readers now know her.

As an aside, I would recommend reading this prequel after having read Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress - I also think it fits in well before Winter, but then again I haven't yet read Winter! Basically, I would suggest reading the books in the order in which they were released. I enjoyed Fairest because I was already familiar with many of the central characters in The Lunar Chronicles series, and if you haven't read the previous books I think you'll miss many of the little clues or truly appreciate some of the details.

Reasons to Read:

1. Evilness: nature versus nurture?

At this point in the series, many of us have been horrified by the rumours surrounding Queen Levana and the actions she has taken. And I was deeply interested to read Fairest so I could learn more about Levana's mind and her personal life. I like that Marissa Meyer didn't just leave Levana as a villain - she gave her a back story and made her feel more like a real character than a ghost. But we aren't given any easy answers in Fairest - it wasn't clear to me at all whether Levana's character worsened over time because of events in her life, or if that was just the way she had always been. It's an interesting question though, and I appreciate that Marissa did make it as clear cut.

2. A character-driven story, but also some world building:

Up until this point, we haven't had much information in the series about Luna in general. None of our characters have spent much time there, so this is our first through glimpse into the world of Luna. Even better, we have a historical perspective on it - the events in Fairest take place in the past from the point of the other books in the series. So yes, we have the gift of hindsight but it also makes it much easier to understand why the events in the previous books have taken place. While the story is really about Levana, it can't help but explore some of Luna as well.

3. The best villains in a story are still characters:

I'm never enchanted with books that make a character a villain simply because the plot demanded it. I suppose I view life as shades of gray that I can't make that black and white distinction - a villain is still a person, or they should be at least. There needs to be that depth of the character, and it's a true sign of a writer's strength if they can flesh out the dimensions of their antagonist.

Fairest is as heartbreaking story, and one that needs to be read. When we see people do horrible things, it's natural for us to wonder "why?" This book is the answer to that question in The Lunar Chronicles.

Review copy received from Raincoast Books for review; no other compensation was received.

This short story was needed.. I loved how dark this prequel was. We needed the story of how Levana became Levana!! This novella was the perfect prequel.

This novella shows how the perfect, beautiful villain became how she is. I couldn’t believe that Levana was born this way. But this novella satisfied me as it shocked me. How one little girl can become such an evil being =o This story makes you despise Levana even more, but you get a little sympathy for her as well. Yeah, it’s weird I know. I never believed I could feel sympathy for someone so evil. But, I do…

How can one family be so cold, it makes you shiver? Hers was… A family without compassion, the foundation of Levana’s evil. Of course Levana wasn’t a saint in her youth, made some pretty bad choices herself. But I can’t all blame it on her with parents who don’t give a damn and a sister so selfish and abusive.

“Levana had not seen the bodies, but she had seen the bedrooms the next morning, and her first thought was that all that blood would make for a very pretty rogue on her lips.”

A perfect example of a truly bad choice Levana made. Here is where you can see her true evil. I can’t believe people have such thoughts.. Marissa did an astounding job on making Levana her evil self gradually over a long period of time. She didn’t become evil overnight, and Meyer made a beautiful story of it. That ending though, was truly shocking and horrific!!

We learn why Levana wears a veil or glamour all the time as well. That was a horrific event in her youth. I can see how that scars you, physically and mentally. Her sister had a great part in Levana becoming evil. But the horrific things Levana did after that were her own choices.

What is most interesting about this novella, is that we not only see how Levana became her evil self, but we see the history of the war between Earth and Luna and what part Luna had in all sickly things happening. Think of Letumosis and the Special Operatives send to maul all citizens as a message to Earth to show how powerful Levana really is.

To top all good things about this book off – the story of how Levana became evil, the story of the exsistense of Letumosis and the Special Operatives, Levana’s actions – there is one more thing that is amazingly surprising about Levana. Here comes the sympathy for her, dose 2. She didn’t always have evil intentions for the Lunar citizens and Earth. We see she once truly cared for her people and really wanted to be a good queen, where her sister lacked all ruling abilities. She was hurt to she her sister only enjoying her luxuries, instead of really ruling Luna. Levana tried to be good, but her youth corrupted her, after that her choices became darker and darker. To the point we see her how she is now, The Evil Queen: Levana.

Fairest: Levana's Story takes us into the world, but more importantly the mind of Levana. Delving into the sweet innocence of childhood we see a softer side of a young girl who is so brutalized and unloved that she attempts to create the world of her dreams. Seemingly not realizing the sadness and sorrow she causes with her manipulations of others. There are times that you want to cry for Levana, feeling her heartbreak as if it were your own. Only to next be horrified by her actions.

This book gives us insight into what makes Levana tick. Along with backstory on several characters we see in the the other books in this series. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy/science fiction genre. I do advise that you read this series in the order written, to fully understand the series.

I really wanted to love this series, partly because I enjoyed the first book, Cinder, so much. Cinder was creative, unique, and delightfully clean, with a selfless and smart heroine. I was thrilled that the love interest, Prince Kai, was kind, thoughtful, and committed to his duties as a king. He was a welcome relief from all the bad boys that are so popular in teen fiction.

My enjoyment of Cinder has made me even more disappointed as each book in this series (Scarlet, Cress, and now Fairest) has included more and more inappropriate content.

Fairest tells the back story of the series' villain, Levana, queen of Luna, and her painful childhood, unmet desire to be loved, and rise as queen. The first half of Fairest revolves around 15 year old Levana lusting after and attempting to seduce a happily married man who is ten years older than she is. ***Spoiler warning*** (She eventually uses mind control to force him to sleep with her, in spite of his grief over recently losing his wife and his insistence that she is just a child and he does not love her) ***End Spoiler*** There are numerous references to her older sister's many sexual encounters, including trying to seduce a bi-sexual or gay man, and it is said that no one on Luna is monogamous anymore. Meyer even goes so far as to talk about blood on the sheets the night Levana loses her virginity.

Another problematic issue in the series is violence: characters are stabbed, shot, have their throats cut, die in childbirth, are burnt alive, have their feet cut off, are maimed, scarred, lose eyes, etc. Further disturbing is that a portion of this violence is done merely out the character's sadistic desire to torture others. True, this is the story of the villain, but does that make it content that we want our 13 year old daughters filling their minds with?

It's sad and frustrating, because Meyer is a talented writer. Her portrayal of Levana is very nuanced; you understand why she is the way she is in the series and pity her as much as you dislike her. It could have been a great book to use to talk with teens about complex issues of how cruelty can be motivated by insecurity, the power of compassion and grace, and what can happen when we choose to love unconditionally. It is incomprehensible to me why Meyer chose to ruin the books with so much content that is wholly inappropriate for young girls. So disappointing.

This is a welcome addition to The Lunar Chronicles series although I wouldn't say it was the greatest book I've ever read. The biggest reason I kept reading was because I wanted to see how it all ended up to get some insight into how she is now (and will be in Winter).

Surprisingly, I did feel some sympathy for Levana during some sections of the book. It's clear that she wasn't raised in the best household and that really affected her world-view and her morals. We learn about Levana's older sister, Channery, as well as what happened with the whole family situation to create the dynamic in which Cinder, Selene, and Winter have to live in today. Them and Jacin Clay! He enters the story in... Scarlet I believe (90% sure!) and it was awesome to get some background on him. I was a bit confused by the royal lineage when it's explained in Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress so it was nice to get all of that clarified.

Ms. Meyer's writing is as flawless as ever and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!

The Final Verdict:
The main reason I loved this addition to The Lunar Chronicles series is because of the additional information it gives us on all of the Lunar characters in the series. It helped explain so many things and it actually helps you understand Levana a little bit more. This kind of reminds me of the movie Maleficent (movie review coming soon!) because it shows the story from the perspective of the 'villain'.
4 stars

Quotes:
“The guilt and the horror and the memory of that awful smell might stay with her forever, but she was the queen.”

“Then, on the twenty-first day of December in the 109th year of the third era, Queen Channary gave birth to a baby girl. She was officially named Princess Selene Channary Jannali Blackburn of Luna,”

“I know you must be hurting now, but don't give up hope on future happiness, and all the good things that are still to come for you.”

“At first I thought, why, he might be a perfect little match for my perfect little girl.”

“Don’t worry about her. It was only her birthday, after all. This was only her party.”

“She was suddenly angry. Angry that this woman was so effortlessly pretty. Angry that tonight she would sleep beside her doting husband. That soon she would hold a wrinkled, wailing baby in her arms and that child would never question whether it was loved, or whether its parents loved each other.
Nothing Levana wanted had ever come that easily.”

"Are you still waiting for me to fall in love with you?”

“Maybe the princess could save herself."
"That sounds like a pretty good story too.”

“She cried for the girl who had never belonged. A girl who tried so hard, harder than anyone else, and still never had anything to show for it.”

While I didn't enjoy Fairest as much as the other installments in the series, but I felt it was a valuable companion to The Lunar Chronicles.

We learn so much more regarding the dichotomy between Selene, Winter and Levana. We also gain insight into a few things mentioned, but not explained, in previous books.

Fairest didn't exactly make me like Levana any better, but gave me am understanding of her history. Nevertheless, it confirmed that she is absolutely deranged. She justifies her cruel actions and selfishness with delusional logic. She lacks sympathy; empathy, remorse... It's astounding at how uncomfortably insane she is.

I would still recommend Fairest simple because of the insight gained moving forward into Winter. It's not an overly long read (ending more quickly than I expected), but it's definitely interesting.

Rating: Five Stars for story and writing, Four Stars for content

Marissa Meyer has managed to write the origin story of the villain in The Lunar Chronicles in a way that the reader can sympathize with her on a certain level, but it is still obvious that she is not a good person. Levana's childhood was very difficult, but it is show to us as an explanation, not an excuse for her behaviour.

I thought the story was very well written, and the characters were well developed for a short novella - even the ones that just appeared in Fairest .

And I really loved how all the little connecting pieces to the rest of the series fell into place and have begun to make even more sense. I can't wait for Winter!

I gave the content 4 starts because there was a lot of talk about Levana's older sister, Channary, sleeping with guards and soldiers, and also a huge part of the story revolved around Levana's odd lust for Evert, SPOILER to the point where she forced him to marry her...and it was really awkward...

IT SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED that there is a VERY LARGE excerpt of Winter in the back of Fairest. It's not so large that it cuts into the length of the actual book too much though.

And the inside of the book has a gorgeous illustration of the Lunar palace (the photo I attached is not mine)

I'm gonna try to not spoil anything so read my review at your own risk. I think it's safe to assume most of her life Levana was bullied by her older sister, Channery. Channery was a vapid girl with a very mean streak, and the reason for Levana wearing that veil. And possibly some of Levanas psychosis. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that before Levanas "accident" she was prettier than Channery. But we don't really find out much about Cinders mother aside from she was happy to be queen but cared less about her people. And she did truly love Cinder. Unanswered question is why would she sleek off to the regolith tunnels for affairs? I bet she was actually up to something but we don't ever find out. Yeah I got theories...
Anyway Levana..... Everything she does She thinks it's for the good of Luna. Well almost. She's harbored a crush on a gaurd for years and takes to impersonating his wife.Channery sees and laughs and laughs. Needless to say Levana goes way to far with all that. No morals at all. Yea it's bad. She is a complex character. I didn't feel any sympathy for her at all but I drew my conclusions about her based on how Channery treated her. I wish it was longer and we got more info though. There's a lot of unanswered questions about things. But maybe we get some of those in Winter.

So, I may not be able to provide a totally unbiased review for Fairest because let's face it, Meyer can do little wrong when it comes to writing in my eyes. However, there are secrets revealed that left me gasping and freaking out at work, to the fright of my coworkers, even though I knew what would happen in terms of Cinder, Winter, and the others.

The story follows Levana's life from the day of her parents' funeral until the moment where Cinder nearly begins (give or take four years, I didn't really watch the math). The years show us not only the pain Levana has suffered through, but also the pain she inflicts on others during those years, things that I cannot find justified by the actions others did to her.

Levana is a sad fifteen year-old girl who simply wants to find love, but she finds it in the wrong ways, much like her sister Channery does. Let me take a moment to say that Channery must be related to Maleficient because there is no goodness in her. Like, anywhere. The fact that Levana had a choice in who she became because of her twisted sister is what had me believing in her throughout the novel, but the villain for the Lunar Chronicles had to be formed at some point and by the end, Levana has already made her choice to be ruthless (as we already know from Cinder).

The book is one long scene, something that threw me off a little, especially because the novel is 220 pages. Granted, it didn't take away the focus, and everything flowed into each other like scenes in a movie. The story is never slow and illustrates more of Levana's mind than I ever wanted to know. The love is raw and something I could relate to in terms of passion, but of course Levana is only a teenager and never does anything right.

I was rooting for Levana up until the story caught up with what we learned in Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress and realized she had changed for the worse. Fairest will have you rethinking everything you knew about Levana and still manage to bring forth that seething loathing. I'm still debating whether I feel pity for the person she becomes or anger because she let the cruelty of others change her.

Overall, a great quick read for anyone needing something to get them through the waiting until Winter's release later this year.

While I really enjoyed Fairest in the end, I can't give five stars to a book that took me over a month to finish, not when it's this small. It was a tedious read. Fairest does deal with some difficult subject matter. An abusive relationship and rape are the main focus of the book. Chances are that anyone reading Fairest has already read Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, so the sinister and selfish actions of Princess/Queen Levana should come as no surprise, but they are still difficult to stomach. Despite it's short page count, Fairest is a must-read for fans of the series, since it provides key background information and sort of humanizes Levana, who in the previous books has always been somewhat of an enigma.

Well, Fairest certainly fills in all the gaps: the plague, the Selene/Cinder accident, how Levana ascended to the throne, her interest in Earth. In fact, it almost lays everything out a little too plainly. That said, it's always fun to get the backstory on how a villain becomes a villain. At the beginning, there was a point where I thought I would feel sympathetic toward the young Levana...but I got over that pretty quickly. She's cruel in the most thoughtless of ways. You get the feeling that there might have been a point where she could've been redeemed, but in single-mindlessly pursuing the love she was always denied as a child, she becomes hardened and evil...the Evil Queen we all know and loathe.

While reading this book, I felt some sympathy for Levana...until the end. It's easy to see that she had to put up with a lot more than she should have at a rather young age. But with all of life's challenges, it's not what you go through, but how you come through them that matters. Levana could have taken a different route, I do think she had love in her heart at some point. But she let her experiences turn her bitter and cold and self serving and at that point, I lost my sympathy for her. Definitely a great addition to the series though, it's interesting to see how she came to be the person she is.

It was a very interesting story. I haven't read the books prior to this to know what happened before anything in this book happened, but it didn't take away from the story. I'm not a huge fan of the main character or her sister, but the guard, I loved. Can't really go wrong reading this.

OHMYFABULOUSGINGERBREADMEN, THIS WAS AWESOME. Like, I shouldn’t even have to write a review for this awesome – I mean, if you’ve read the rest of The Lunar Chronicles, then you already know how awesome this book is.

Where to start? In FAIREST, we get to see exactly how far Levana’s evilness goes. Which is, spoiler, very, very, very far. Honestly, even when she was fifteen, she was quite evilly awesomely ambitious. But the best part about FAIREST is that we get to see why exactly she is the way she is.

I’ll admit that in the beginning I was all like, eh, this isn’t as great as the others, and then a few pages later, Marissa Meyer laughed in my face and the book turned epic. I couldn’t flip the pages fast enough and I now love to hate Levana even more.

The romance in the novel is pretty much the sum of every fangirl obsessed with someone famous/fictional. But it’s all the more creepy and I couldn’t help but feel incredibly sorry for the poor guy who obviously didn’t deserve what he got.

To me, FAIREST isn’t all about Levana – we get to see who Winter’s parents are, how she and Selene and Jacin Clay grew up together. We even get to see more of Selene’s mom, Queen Channary, who, it turns out, wasn’t that admirable of a character and even I couldn’t help but wait for her to get out of the way. We learn how Levana gets her scars, why the Lunars release the disease on to Earth, Levana’s extreme hatred for mirrors, and the evilness of Levana’s mind.

FAIREST was everything I was waiting for. As a person who loves knowing the back story of pretty much every character, this was pure awesomeness. When I flipped the last page of FAIREST, I was utterly astounded, until I flipped a few more pages, and read the first three chapters of WINTER. (Which was equally awesome).

Now, that you all know how awesome FAIREST is, if you still haven’t caught my extreme subtleness above – go read this. (Awesome count: 6)

Originally posted on IceyBooks

Not a bad update to the series, but definitely my least favorite. Not sure how necessary Levana's story was, but I guess I'll see when I read Winter. It definitely showed some of why Levana is the way she is, but I almost thought that it was *more* sympathetic than Levana really is in the rest of the series. Granted, it ends several years before the start of Cinder, so she had time to become more heartless, but I felt like, while she was clearly delusional and unbalanced, her cruelty wasn't quiet at the level that it seemed to be in the rest of the series.

I will be completely honest.
I almost shut the book because of how twisted and disgusting Levanna's thoughts were.
This is not a book that will force you to pitty her, this is a book that shows you how she formed and just how rotten her heart truly was. She is far worse than the books make her seem. I waited to read this after I finished the series and I'm glad that I did.
This woman is delusional and terrifying. This book was a VERY interesting read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story that explains a little better why the Luna Queen is so horrible. It was a great prequel to the newest book Winter.
A very young princess, who is disfigured herself, feels unloved by those around her. She is more of an object to be protected with very little emotion involved. Catching the eye of a royal guard, she begins to fantasize that he loves her despite the fact that he is married. Manipulating him to believe that he is in love with her, she asks him to marry her when his wife dies in childbirth. We see the beginnings of this Queendom start to take effect and how her relationship with later characters are effected.

Although I hate Levana, I must say that this character made me pity her just a tiny little bit. I even cried [spoiler alert], just a little bit mind you, when I found out how Levana was cruelly tortured by her sister by fire. Knowing Levana's past helps to understand her character just a bit more. She truelly is a "bad guy" in this book however and doesn't change the fact that I hate her so much! Her mind is very sick with evil thoughts and made reading her story a struggle sometimes since she thinks so differently from the norm (Thank you for that Marissa Meyer! I loved having a character that was different from the norm!). The fact that she thinks so different could be the fact that she uses her lunar abilities so much and each time she uses it I think it made her more and more insane. I would have given this book a four, just for the mere fact that it's a "bad guy" story and I don't really like "bad guys", but there is a special treat at the end of this book that made me change my mind! WINTER!!!! We get to have a sneak peek into the final book in this series and that made me extremely happy and pumped for the next one!!! I can't wait!!!!! Which I should I also mention is a good reason to read this book, because you'll get a glimpse into Winter's history. Anyway, don't miss out on this book fans cause it's a real eye opener into Levana's way of thinking and, trust me, I think it's worth the time to know for the next up incoming installment.

I really glad Marissa Meyer wrote this book so we could see Levena's story. Her story actually makes you feel sorry and sad for her and you get why she is the way she is. Her sister Channary made her evil and resentful. She made him love her because she was worried that she would be left alone and nobody would ever love her. You don't need to read this to understand the series but i suggest you do read it, it was very helpful in understanding her character

This was a particularly interesting read. I always enjoy getting the villian's backstory to get insight into who they are and why they've done what they've done. The dynamic between Levana and her sister, Channary, was disturbing. Channary was unflinchingly cruel and made Levana look like a nice person by comparison.

The dynamic that really interested me, though, was between Levana and Solstice. Levana wants so desperately to steal away her husband, Evret, and take her place that she actually glamours herself to look like Solstice. As I was reading this, a similar dynamic popped into my head, and now I can't stop thinking about it -- Scarlet and Melanie in Gone with the Wind. Seriously. Scarlet is strong and stubborn and wants to steal Ashley away from the weak and pregnant Melanie. Sound familiar? HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Anyway, while I still find myself repulsed by Levana's view of the world and philosophy on leadership, I at least now understand how she came to be that way. Totally worth the read, and also worth a psychological study.

Levana is an interesting protagonist who is evil to the core, but I was compelled to read in order to see how she redeemed herself. She seeks love, but doesn't know what it is.

The future of life on the moon brings us a dynasty with cruel hearts and no morals. Two sisters via for the throne. They will do anything to gain the power.

It's an easy read, short book at 222 pages. They added three chapters of next book at end to beef it up.

#AMAZING
This book was exciting and enjoyable. It realy showed the transformation of the characters from begining to end. I am hoping to be able to read the rest of this series. The part i lliked about it most was how it was a prequal. It was kind of a long introduction to the story/characters.
I highly recomend this book. The way they executed this book made you want to read more.

I purchased Cress for my 12 year old which was sold at her school book store. Her Christian school. This book was more than I expected. It was enlightening clearly Lavana is NUTS. She does to her niece what her sister did to her as a young child. She lies cheats and steals. In the beginning you want to feel bad for her but because she is completely out of her mind you begin to lose empathy. This book does not read like Marissa Meyer the author of Cress, and Scarlet wrote it. It's too mature although very well written. You finally get a glimpse of the author you know and love with the sneakpeek of Winter.

22489107

the store / Goodreads

In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.

Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series.

I'm not necessarily sure if I hate or sympathize Levana.

The character was interesting.
Her motivations seemed to drive her. Her dreams becoming some twisted reality. She pretended things were true and acted upon it. She was so infatuated with Evret Hayle to notice he didn't love her as she assumed. She pretended things and made them come true. If they were accurate or not.
Levana must decide to accept her fantasies. And she does. I would feel for her, but she forces Evret to do things he doesn't agree with. She does this. Without mercy, I might add. She has a terrible backstory. (Not as in badly thought out.) A haunting one. She acts recklessly, though. She buries herself in her dreams and does what she thinks is 'right'.
In short...I don't sympathize with her.

She had a terrible sister. Wow. Channary is terrible. She is such a bad mother to Selene as well. She doesn't know who the father is? Can we safely assume the father probably doesn't know he has a child. I'm not sure he does know. Channary would have been a child a child abuser. Man. I hated Channary. Even if I hate Levana, I hate Channary more. She was so rude to Levana. She treated her baby sister like trash. For what purpose? Her entertainment.

The way Marissa Meyer weaved in aspects of the fairy tale was pretty good. We have the magic mirror for the Evil Queen (Levana.) We also have the sour apple candies Winter likes. (Don't worry if you didn't catch that.) I'm thinking, though. If Levana is the villain for all the other characters in the series, is she the Evil Queen and the Witch who locks Rapunzel up? Or am I missing something?

I didn't like the brevity of the story. I wanted more. Maybe some flashbacks to her childhood. I don't know. If we had gotten more of Levana when she was innocent and uncorrupted, I might feel for her better. That is if Marissa Meyer wants us to feel for her. I'm not clear on that. I just wanted more in general.

If there wasn't all that emphasis on romance... I wanted to get less of Evret being duped by Levana and more of Levana's emotional struggle with her sister. (I really didn't like Channary.) I wanted something else. Maybe less Evret and more Channary? Or maybe a peek into her past where her parents weren't looking at her and watching her grow.

And we still don't know what Levana looks like! Is anyone else wondering about this? I get it. She has scars. But what about her skin color? Her eyes? Her smile? I feel like we were supposed to get that. Instead, we have a sob story to try an make you feel for Levana. (Even though she ends up a rude tyrant.)

Weather:
Sunny with a 50% chance of rain
3/5

I loved this book! I enjoyed learning more about the queen's past and what caused her to become the way she is. I wondered how this twist was going to turn out and I liked it. I grew up with Star Wars and watched it when it first played at the theatre. So, trying to figure out certain things are a little challenging, yet interesting when they're revealed. Sympathy for the queen at first, was the same as I felt for Darth Vader, before he turned evil and what made him that way, too. But just as Vader, we love to hate the queen, just as much. I really like Meyer's twists. Well done! Can't wait to read Winter!

Purchased at Barnes and Nobles:
Fairest has 220 pages, a preview to Winter, book 4, and a whole lot of Queen Levanna. This hardcover book immediately opens to a gorgeous spread of the Lunar Kingdom. The portrait of Levanna on the cover is embossed, and is this beautiful silver-bronze color with flames. It looks more stunning up close than with the picture on the store. The spine has flames on the bottom part, and the whole book looks gorgeous. It's pretty short, but it's all about Queen Levanna-well, before she became Queen.

And it is DARK. Wow, just check out the first line: "She was lying on a burning pyre, hot coals beneath her back." I purchased this immediately after my classes, and I was hooked. We get to see some of Cinder and Winter in this as well, and it's really scary knowing what Queen Levanna did to them. If you want to fear Levanna even more than before, to hate her more than ever, and to really feel sorry for her and understand this poor, twisted villainess, don't let this chance slip by. Especially if you love the Lunar Chronicles.

The novella is supposed to be short-it's a novella. But more importantly, is that it is a character study on Levanna. I thought she was pure evil, but after reading Fairest, I have to say she was one of the most complex villains I have read about in YA. Her culture, her family, everything shapes her, and her delusions on how she believes the world works is pretty sad. Sad because she does a lot of TERRIBLE things to people and doesn't see it as awful, because things should work the way she fantasizes they will. Example: Evret. Levanna is hard to sympathize with completely, but we finally see the "why" she is who she is...and wow, this was a very uncomfortable read. Definitely the darkest Marissa Meyer has written, and quite disturbing and messed up. Levanna is frightening.

The only bad thing, is that not only is this book quite short, but we get teased with some of Winter, and that is in NOVEMBER....why does it have to be sooooo far away??

Fairest isn't bad, but I was a little disappointed. Levana failed to terrify and, though she's definitely dangerous, the whole story left me with a kind of meh feeling. I think my main problem is that Levana struck me as more of a lonely headcase than a villain. She's dangerous, for sure, but...she failed to appropriately horrify or terrify me.

I didn't care about Levana. I didn't even love to hate her. She whines about wanting to be a different kind of ruler than her parents- one who is fair and just and makes Luna great- then she purposely ignores the fact that her tactics are even more extreme than her predecessors'. I don't think I'm a fan of selective self-denial. She's too self-aware (and remorseful) in other areas for this to ring true.

Levana is weak. She's never 100% convinced that bad things have to be done, that it's for the best, no regrets. She understands what she's doing is wrong, she understands there's another way, and she never makes any attempt to take advantage of the many opportunities available to learn about and experience a different lifestyle. You want to ignore opportunities to change? Fine. But quit whining and own it.

Surprisingly, I was more interested in Channary's story. She comes across as fairly one-dimensional, but then you see small indicators that there's a lot more going on under the surface. That intrigued me. So maybe the problem was that I was in Levana's head and everything was being explained to me? That's a possibility. I might have been more engaged if the narrative didn't spell out her every thought, fear, hope, worry, etc.

The book is decently written and a quick read, but I hope Levana steps up her game in the final book of the series. Right now, when I think of her, I think "pathetic." Time to channel your inner Maleficent!

There are no mirrors on these walls

For current fans of The Lunar Chronicles series, Fairest will be a treat to read as we finally get to see Queen Levana's history and her back-story all seen from her perspective. The book spans about ten years, from the time she's 16 into her mid 20's, with some flashbacks from her childhood. I have to say getting this inside view of how she grew up really puts a cool twist on things and gives me more of a personal connection to her character. I think it often happens that the villains of stories are just "evil" for the sake of being evil but with Levana there is demented method to her madness and seeing it first hand from her point of view was great, though bitter and sad as well.

What are we a product of? Nature vs nurture

Levana is an excellent example to use for this old argument of how a person's character will develop based on their nature or how they are nurtured. She had it rough growing up. Unloving parents, a sadistic older sister who left her mentally, emotionally and physically scarred and being the youngest she was always the shadow of her older sister who would someday be Queen. But is the way she was treated while growing up at fault for the awful things she later does in life? Are those other people to blame for the twisted way her emotions, attachments and ultimately her logic and perception of right and wrong develop? I'm a big believer in that how you are nurtured is not to blame for the person you become. True the have an impact but ultimately we as individuals choose what is right and wrong and who we become. Seeing the struggles that Levana goes through and at times even seeing her moments of kindness further solidify my opinion that even she knew she could go about things differently or that she was wrong in the things she did or was doing but her indulgence in her selfishness ultimately always wins out.

Into the mind of a psychopathic megalomaniac!

Fairest was a fantastic origin story for Levana to give us a deeper feel for her character. I was admittedly very sad that the book was only 220 pages and the remainder of the book was the first 3 chapters of Winter. Ultimately though that was actually a really good length given over to her story. So either way I was happy to enjoy this addition to The Lunar Chronicles universe. Fans definitely need to read this book but newcomers to the series should not start with Fairest, you should definitely read it as the 4th book as reading it first before Cinder, Scarlet and Cress will spoil key things for you in the other books. Enjoy! I know I definitely did.

the next chapter in the lunar chronicles is an easy read. quick paced and shocking, it keeps you on the edge of your seat. it does make you wander what is it about the royal family that makes them the way they are. is it the power they possess or are they raised this way? you almost feel sorry for Levena...almost. there is a reason for the way she is and this book explains the ring she wears plus her hate of mirrors. its too bad she couldnt find love with her husband but then we wouldnt have the queen we know and love to hate today.

This book was fantastic. At the beginning I wasn't sure how Levana's story would pan out. I mean I knew she was disfigured and all, but I didn't know how it happened. She isn't very likable in the story, but when you find out why she is the way she is, why she made the choices she did and why she fell from "grace" as it were, it's hard not to feel just a little bit sorry for her. She was clearly mentally damaged after the "incident". *No Spoilers*

Even after reading her story, I still dislike her. I actually dislike her even more, even knowing about her hardships. What she did to her husband was so abusive...emotionally and physically.... SPOILER it really felt like she raped him. I just have no empathy towards her, and if it was the author's intention, well it worked. She just seem more evil, even when knowing she was a victim herself too. The thing is, criminals are victims of their past, we know that, but many others that have suffered abuse do not necessarily become criminals too... So really, I just could not like that character at all. It made it difficult to read as she disgusted me so much. That is why I can only give this book 3 stars. However, it is still great story, being after all the origin of everything that happens in the chronicles. It is also pretty well written too, maybe too well as I am thoroughly disgusted by this character. I grudgingly admit though she seemed to be a better queen that her sister was... No, i can't... she is a bloody monster... urgh. Conflicted. Partially wish I did not read it, especially cannot stand the abuse she did to her husband.. it was too much for me at that point.

For some caught up in the series (which I like overall), the book might be interesting, but as a standalone book, it falls drastically short. There was no real problem to solve, no real story that the book was about. The book merely explains a how a wounded character in a corrupt system progresses to the villain that she is. The book just doesn’t really deliver anything new. Nor is there really any glimmer of hope: the protagonist goes from bad to worse, and the book ends very predictably with Levana orchestrating the murder of her husband (we know from earlier books that she does not have one). This is really just back-story to the main story of the series, and while some will disagree, I think readers would have been better served if this had remained that rather than trying to be a book in its own right.

Very informative , but it does not make you feel empathy for Levana. You see that her whole family was disfunctional, parents sister , who was Cinder's Mom. She was desperate for someone to truly love her , but her actions and behavior prevented that.
How ironic that what her sister did to her as a small child , Levava would repeat and do to her sister child , Cinder.

Surprisingly, I was able to get through this book fairly quickly, mainly because of how interesting the storyline was. If you've read the other books in the Lunar Chronicle series, this is a nice backread on Queen Levana's past and howshe became who she is. Definitely made me more sympathetic to her. Loved the story and I'm sad it's over.

Marissa Meyer is a stellar author and provides a refreshing and exciting take on traditional fairytales. I personally was challenged to enjoy Fairest. Perhaps it is my vested interest in the benevolent characters and the wonderfully villainous portrayal of Levana in the other Lunar Chronicles novels, but I was unable to feel truly sympathetic for Levana and her relatively self-inflicted flights. My only sympathy for Levana lies in her tormented relationship with Chanary. This was not sufficient motive to sympathize with forcing another into a relationship. While I did not enjoy the storyline, Meyer's writing is always engaging, and I thoroughly look forward to reading Winter.

After 1391pgs (books 1-3) over the course of a week I would like to give a shout out to Marissa Meyer for providing a 'villian's story" side book that has me wanting to throttle this bitch and throw the book away in disgust ... but which I have read 166 out of 222pgs in the last 6hrs because I can't put the sucker down!

These are villians I adore. The unapologetic ones that even as someone gives you their 'logical reasoning' and "tragic past" you do not feel bad for them you just kind of want to smother them with a pillow to put everyone out of their misery. Because these are the villians that will NEVER realize that anything they have done is WRONG.
I have to agree with another reviewer though that this book is distressing because you are in Levana's head and it's like being in a speeding car in the rain headed for a cliff...and having no way to turn or stop despite passing every sign that says "This will not end well"

This latest installment, a novella, of the Lunar Chronicles provides readers the backstory of Queen Levana's early life and ascension to the Lunar throne. While the plot is "fairly" predictable, it is necessary to set the stage for the upcoming final book in the series, Winter.
The story begins when Princess Levana's, an impressionable and lonely teenager's, parents, the King and Queen of Luna, are ruthlessly assassinated by a shell, leaving her older sister, Channary, to inherit the throne. That's fine with Levana, who continues to practice her glamour and "moon" over palace guard, Evret. But as she continues to develop her Lunar gifts and perfect her glamour, hiding a terrible secret, she becomes more and more desperate to fill the voids in her life, slowly twisting her into the evil person readers have come to love to hate.
Marissa Meyer skillfully continues to weave her reinvented fairy tale plots together, making The Lunar Chronicles one of the best-written series out there today. This tangent to the series is a wonderful addition, continuing to highlight Meyer's strengths as a writer-- character development, intricate and multiple plot plans that intertwine and connect, and the re-imagined details from beloved fairy tales made futuristic, but recognizable.

The tale never actually goes anywhere. You are sometimes outraged at the main character, but one never really feels pity for her. Plus the obvious steal of the Snow White story never resolves itself. All in all not worth it.

I thought Levana was crazy in the previous books, but no, she is much crazier and demented than I thought. Marissa Meyer knows how to write a nutcase of a villain and Queen Levana is it.

I was hooked and intrigued to learn more about how Levana become that evil and truly I just have to say it runs in the family. I felt weird when she had a couple of redeemable moments especially of how her sister treated her.

Those two teaser chapters of Winter was made me very, very, EXCITED for Winter.

I have been eagerly waiting for this book for I love the Lunar Chronicles. They all mend together so well and I can tell you that every book is even better than the last one. This companion book gives you an insight of the Lunar Chronicles antagonist, Queen Levana. You get to see her as a teenager and how everything started with her twisted mindset.
Personally I think there are many factors that made Levana a "villain". All of her family had a major impact on her. She felt unloved and isolated for her parents didn't even raise her and showed her that they loved her. Then, her sister's manipulation and constant "bullying" made a hole in Levana's heart and the ways she found to fill it were wrong and twisted.
I think this is a really good book for you get hooked to the story the moment you start reading it. I bet you won't put it down and you get to see a new angle of all the history and backstory of some major things in the Lunar Chronicles. The only thing left to say is that you will NOT be disappointed with this book.

A prequel to the Lunar Chronicles, Meyer does an incredible job setting the stage for why the dispassionate Lunar queen is so callous and just plain evil. Kept me on the edge of my seat to find out more! Unfortunately, the violence and sexual content make it inappropriate for the targeted YA audience, hence the lower rating. The more graphic details could have been expertly toned down (she's got the skills!) and nothing would have been taken away from the excellent story line. Thankfully, they were not included in the original triology. I'm hoping they will not show up in the last book, Winter, making it easier to recommend the series (minus the prequel!) to teen readers of popular dystopian novels.

I didn't like this, but that wasn't the author's fault; it was the character's. The author did a good job of writing the story of how Levana became the villain.

Content: no language. Sex behind closed doors, some married, some not. Violence, not very graphic.

I'm honestly confused on how I should rate this book...should I rate it based on the authors writing skills or my complete dislike of Levanna...I decided to go with the author's skills.

I must say Levanna is on another level of crazy, this lady is out of this world she's definitely from the moon!!!
°I haven't completed the book as yet but I just had to write a review.

I thought this latest addition to the Lunar Chronicle gave us a wonderful pre-plot to the finale of the series. Firstly, the description of Lunar itself and the entire reasoning behind the plot of the plague was wonderful to read. Next, the fleshing out of the Lunar Queen was deserving of its own book. Understanding her relationship with her sister made her almost less of a monster in many ways. Lastly, witnessing her drive to be loved was beautifully bittersweet and I think a more mature reader will appreciate this book as the sort of prequel that it is. The next time I read the full chronicle, I will begin with this one and see if my perception of the events in the other books alters. Happy reading!

3.5 stars. Even though this was just as well written as the rest of the series I felt like wanting to mentally punch the protagonist the entire book which unfortunately lowered my enjoyment. Yes. I realize that by making a character I love to hate the author has actually done her job and done it well. I just would rather go on hating Levana and only reading about her in bits and pieces no matter how irrational this thinking might be!

I liked being able to get a better understanding of Queen Levana and her past, although I didn't love this book as much as the main books in the Lunar Chronicles. It was a pretty good book and I did find myself feeling bad for Levana sometimes, although she is just downright crazy at times.

Meh... This book was twisted. I guess that's to be expected, given what we already knew about Levana, but in my anticipation of another Lunar Chronicles book I set my hopes too high. I wish Marissa Meyer had just skipped this book and released Winter instead. This offers nothing to the story except to see how Levana went from a selfish brat to a crazy queen. I think the only thing it accomplishes is that, when she finally dies or loses, we'll be even happier about it.

It was interesting to see the back story behind the evil Queen Levana, and learn about the new characters in the fourth novel.

It made me dislike Levana even more, lol, but it did show a different side to the character.

I cannot wait for the next book in this series to come out, Winter, mainly because I love the story of Snow White.

I recommend this short novel if you enjoyed the other three books in the series.

This. Chick. Is. Demented.
While there is never really a time I felt sorry for Levana - AT ALL - this novella gives a sufficient synopsis as to how Levana came to power and how ruthless she can really be.

Sometimes I wish we rated books on a scale of 10 stars. Of all the books/stories in this series, Levana's story is my least favorite. While I do recommend reading this book for any Lunar fan, I just couldn't get attached or invested into this one.

I listened to this book out of order, I listened to Cinder and then Fairest. This is the story of how Levana came to be the vicious ruler that we hear about Cinder, Scarlet and Cress.

Queen Levana didn't have very loving parents, and she had a truly pathological sister. We learn the sad tale of how Levana came to have the scars she had, and about her ruthless rise to the thrown, and what she was willing to do in order to never lose it.

A lot of reviews talk about the sexual aspect of this book; I feel that it's worth mentioning that, just like in Harry Potter, you grow with the book. As you move further into the series, the age of the reader is presumed to have grown as well. I don't think the book was overly sexual; but if the reader hasn't learned anything about sex, then you won't want them to learn about a 16 year old girl losing her virginity.

Remarkably, the sex wasn't the part of the book that I found upsetting. I was more upset/disturbed by the story of Levana's accident, and the things that she did to secure her role as queen.

**Possible spoiler; but related to sexual aspects of the book**
The only sexual events in this book include: the older sister sleeping with many men, in no detail other than you know that the relationship is sexual. Levana (at age 16) using her glamour to get a man to take her virginity, and then a brief sentence where she mentions the blood on the post coital sheets. Otherwise, Levana talks about wanting a baby, and sharing a bed with her prince, in little to no detail.
*I hope this information helps listeners decide if this appropriate to share with younger listeners/readers.

I've enjoyed the other Lunar Chronicles books, and this was no exception. I liked seeing things from the enemy perspective...made me feel sorry and sad for Queen Levana. I especially love all the new fairy tales that keep popping up...Winter is Snow White, and Levana is the evil queen with a mirror issue and wants to be the fairest in the land. I'll be excited to see how things go with Winter and the queen in the next book.

If you don't mind me being blunt-and even if you do, I'm going to be-I enjoyed the "Winter" teaser chapters more than I enjoyed this as a whole.

What I gathered when plowing through this book was that Levana never got over a petty teenage crush and that really helped her become evil.
Though, we now understand the reason for her glamour.Her evil sister/Cinder's mom pushed her into a fireplace.
Which is where she got the twisted idea of how to off the princess Selene AKA Cinder.
But aside from some hints of recognition due to the prior books. Dr.Erland,etc.
It really was a pain to read. Levana's POV is terrible.
I could care but I really don't type stuff.
Overall, I wouldn't blame you if you skipped this book.
Aside from back story,there really is no relevance to the series as a whole.

Winter-as I stated before-looks MUCH better.
However, there's a downside. It won't come out until November.

I really enjoyed the short story about Queen Levana. It was a prequel to the events that are currently taking place in the lunar world. Levana is evil there isn't a doubt about that, the reason behind that lies with her older sister and the neglect by her parents. Was a quick and enjoyable read.

Pretty much a glorified Novella. I liked seeing things from Levena's POV. But the only problem was, it spans over ten years of time, and she never changes. She's still a very a naive child, asking the same questions by the end of the book.
It was a nice quick read though, and gave more insight into how she thinks

Levana, is one twisted sister, tortured, and unloved. She barely grows up before she starts her own trail of tears and blood.

A great look behind the scars to see what makes the horror Queen tick. This is her story from the beginning to the present, a story you need to know.

I do not know where to begin. You will know so much about Levana through this book. She wasn't an evil girl but she was forced to become evil. You see a new side to her, one which nobody saw in the first 3 books. Though I wouldn't say that if you don't read this book you wouldn't understand Winter, you should read it if you want to know how Levana was before. She became my favorite Villian. If you are wondering if you should read this book or not i would say you should. You might see Levana as a complete different character in Winter.
Disclaimer : I am not saying she is good. I am just saying she has another side to her which you wouldn't be aware of unless you read this book.

I LOVED the first three books in this series, so I was SO disappointed with this one. It is horrible. I can not recommend it to anyone and would, in fact, steer them away from it. I agree with others who said that the actions of Lavana in this book are repeated rape. It is not something that I, and adult, want to read, and I definitely don't want my young teen who has been reading this series along with me to read it.

I borrowed an audio of this book from the public library. I was hesitant to read this book since it's about Levana. I was thankful that I did. I got to know the reason of her bitterness in life, what had happened to Cinder, the origin of Winter, and many more. This was a great companion to the series.

Wow, it took me a while to read, but I really enjoyed this backstory. It was weird and twisted at times, but also really insightful. I am glad to have read this book and gotten this insight into Levana, her childhood, her mindset, her history.

Now i feel bad for Levana n don't blame her for the way she turn out. It amazes me how cinder didn't turn out like her mother channery even though she wasn't raise by her. As often the saying goes the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. But in cinder case she is the opposite of her mother.

I didn't think this was well written as the previous books. The story seemed rushed, and I wasn't really sympathetic to Levana at the end of it, which I thought would be the point of the book. I was very disappointed.

WARNING

I haven't really read this book in full, I will admit. And after reading part of it on previews and hearing about it on reviews....I can't really say I want to....and after looking over it some more, I have even MORE to say.

Throughout the series, any reader knows by now that a highly talented Lunar can force a person to do anything...including intimacy. It hovers in the background as a threat, but as far as I know (I'm only on the second book) we haven't really seen anything in full force.

Well, that awful possibility is a major factor in this book. The story primarily deals with Levanna's love turned lust turned total lunacy towards a certain man. I'm just going to say it how it is. She rapes a man. I don't know if there's an actual sex scene we read, although there are plenty inferred, but the lustful thoughts she has for him, the feelings, the marriage, the physical intimacies she all forces on him is more than enough. Yes, things like this happen in real life (maybe not in the same way), and I don't mind authors addressing such serious subjects. (Eg--Finnick Odair's background in The Hunger Games is powerful, gut-wrenching, and DISCREET.) But this a really, really PERSONAL look into a lonely girl turned psychotic witch. Oh yeah, and there's no happy ending for this guy (who's really sweet and noble). He ends up murdered by Levanna.

In general, this whole book explores the awfulness of the Lunar culture which is decidedly lacking in any moral conviction. Is it well-written? Yeah. Way too well written.

I understand that authors will explore dark backgrounds of their villains in order to better understand them. But I'm quite disappointed with Marissa Meyer for actually publishing this story. It is WAY over the line for YA fiction, and out of character with the rest of the series.

I like this series, I really do. But this novella went way too far, and I can only hope Winter doesn't make the same mistake. My advice for people reading this series? SKIP THIS ONE. You don't need to take a trip through the twisted mind of Levana. It'll make you feel dirty all day, maybe longer.

I loved it, as much as you want to hate levana now I understand her action, she is a tortured soul because of her disfigurement. Because of her cruel sister, all she wanted was someone to love her, and because even that didn't work out she became hateful and twisted.

Wow, what a book. It seems like it's trying to portray Levana has a sympathetic character when she was young. This works for awhile and then she'll disregard thousands/millions of lives just because she doesn't want another nation to think they need them for supplies. She loves a guard when she's very young and then sees kindness as reciprocation. He's married but although she doesn't cause the demise of his wife, she bends the guard to her will even making herself look like his deceased wife. In the end, her ambitions trump everything. And this mostly happens while she's in her teens.

[...]

This makes for a nice little story (only a couple of hundred pages), and it was a refreshing entertainment after the disappointments of the middle two children in the main quartet. I recommend it. It's taken a bit of the sour taste out of my mouth for the upcoming finale.

this book was phenomenal. fairest was probably my favorite book of the series. but all in all this series was definitely my favorite. i dont think ill ever fall in love with a book series like i did with this one.

Absolute page-turner! I am in love with this book series and I can not wait for the last book, even though that will be the final chapter to this whirlwind, action-packed adventure. I'm still amazed by the brilliant mind behind it! Who has so much creativity to write such an extraordinary remake of the fairytale characters that we all loved as children? I feel like a crazy person trying to describe the story like to friends..."so there is this Lunar queen..." I just don't want it to end because I have no idea what I will read next!

It's easy to write about how evil Levana is. It's easy to write about her from the perspective of Cinder or Kai or Doctor Erland. It's easy, because they don't have to wonder about her motivations or her past; they can just hate her and assume that she's a monster with no soul.

She is a monster. But lord, there is so much more to her than that.

Levana isn't just evil. She's unstable. She's delusional. She has the best of intentions and she truly loves Luna, and you can really see her passion throughout this story, which makes her a truly fascinating character.

She thinks that she's a good queen, and in some ways she is, but it's like she can do no wrong in her own mind. She thinks she understands love, so she feels entitled to manipulate it. And she just can't see what everyone else sees.

I do have some sympathy for her, because she was pretty much doomed from the start, what with her abusive sister and absent (at best) parents. The story starts when she's fifteen, making it easy to excuse some of her stupidity, because what fifteen year old isn't kind of an idiot at times? But as she gets older, she gets more obtuse, not less.

Meyer could have gone the easy route and made Levana into a two-dimensional psychotic character, but she didn't. She really developed her. Even her sister, Channary, has hints of being more developed than Levana realizes (I don't want to go into too much, but Channary seems to take parenting more seriously than anyone else in this book, aside from Evret). I just wish this story could have been longer and shown us more about Winter...but I guess we'll have to wait until the book comes out!

I have enjoyed reading the first 3 books in the Lunar Chronicles Series (Cinder, Scarlett and Cress.) However, I don't recommend this one. I felt sick to my stomach reading about how she justifies her murders. I know book 4 in the series it due out in the fall, but at this point, I don't think skipping this book would leave anyone who reads this series out of the loop. I guess you can always read a summary of it if you're curious.

I mean it's amazing. Marissa Meyer is my favorite author of all time, and the Lunar Chronicles is a fantastic, flawless, and perfect series. Loved it so much.

This book is a definite must read. Levana's back story will make some sympathize and make others hate her even more.

After reading this I feel I got to know Levana and what made her turn the way she did. And after reading all the stuff she did in it, I truly believe that she is capable of anything. Also this book comes with the first 3 chapters for Winter.

This short story is the perfect accompaniment to the lunar chronicles. We get to peek inside the world of Levana and what made her the woman she is in the series.

Perfectly written and wonderful character development this book is worth taking time to enjoy.

Reading Levana's story illuminated her evil motivations and provided more depth about her ambitions. She is so icy I couldn't connect to her selfish and wicked deeds to have any compassion for her. I wanted to know what happened with the minor characters in this story whom have their own books. As always, Marissa Meyer draws the reader in, making it hard to put down the book and stop reading.

This book didn't disappoint me at all. It was honestly really interesting to read from Levanna's point of view. Some "in between books" aren't necessarily "required" to read to understand things in the next book but this book explains and fills in parts from previous books and it reveals some things that might happen in the next book. Marissa Meyer didn't diappoint me at all and I'll look forward to reading Winter!

This book was supposed to give a backstory as to WHY Levana was cruel but if the story was to be made in her behalf it failed miserably. Although she didnt have any good influences and had a tragic accident when she was little, the excuses made for her fell short. Ienjoyed Marissa Meyers' other books a lot but thought this onefell hort

I really like how we see some of the story from Levana's point of view. It makes her seem more human and we even see her weak points. I was shocked to find out why she always disguises herself but overall this story was well written-kudos to Marissa Meyer! I can't wait for Winter!!!

This book was amazing............I couldn't put it down. Every word draws you in and paints a picture in your mind. This book makes you feel vivid, genuine emotions and makes you feel as if you've known the characters in the story for your entire life. This book was beautifully written, and Marissa Meyer did a truly wonderful job of writing such a captivating novel.

This book was definitely a trip, fall, and face plant for this series. I loved the other books! However, this book was incredibly innapropriate. There was sexual content which I found quite disturbing for the age recommendation, 8+. I have no idea what parent would let their eight-year-old read this kind of material. I recommend completely skipping this book, because Levana's story in a nutshell is described in the other books. I had high hopes for this book. I really do hope Winter will be better. I get Levana is a real crazy chick but this is over the top.

This is technically book 3.5 and it's a necessary read for sure. It shows the back story of the main protagonist, Levana. It's a short read compared to the others but full of insight. I just love it!!

Stunning, stunning novella. Incredibly well written, it makes your heart constantly break for the main character, while simultaneously recoil from her complete misunderstanding of love. Looking forward to the final book in the series at the end of the year!