Fairest : The Lunar Chronicles Levana's Story

This is a great in depth look at Levana's life and what Luna is really like. I can't wait to move on to Winter and see how it all ends. While I know more of the backstory, I don't feel any more symapthy for her. She was raised in an awful family, but the lengths she went to were extreme even for her messed up family.

alright y'all, i'm going on a little rant sorry

tw??? SA

i couldn't finish this book. i do not care about a villain who is a rapist.
it was SO UNCOMFORTABLE to read about SA in a kids/teen book, and it lasted for 10 pages????? hell no.
maybe it got “resolved” later in the book, but i don't really care.

i'm just going to say i read the entire book and move on.

Que livro bom.
Só isso a dizer.

não, não só isso na verdade... enfim: Fantástico!
Marissa consegue fazer com que tenhamos dó e

Lenana mostrou-se a melhor sociopata da história dos vilões. Por não se enquadrar na sociedade e não conseguir o que realamente queria, sua obscessão por ser rainha, fez tudo, TUDO, o possível e impossível a seu alcance. O livro mostrou uma mente tão perturbada que ao término da leitura fiquei perturbada e pensando seriamente “até que ponto o ser humano pode ir para conseguir o que quer?”
O até quanto a determinação e o desejo de pertencer a algo e sentir-se melhor não começa a tornar-se loucura?

E, além de tudo, histórias como essas, que são descontinuas da série mas que agregam informações de personagens secundários enrriquecem a história e era quase emocionante ver cada persoagem antes, o que aconteceu antes de Cinder, Scarlet, Cress e agora Winter, e como sempre estiveram entrelaçados seus mundos e suas vidas. Isso, torna esse mundo mais real e mais dinâmico, deleite para qualquer leitor.



Channary is a no-cyborg and slut version of Cinder. Joking. Fiquei muito chocada e ao mesmo tempo uma idéia genial que a mãe de Cinder (a melhor heroina, política e tudo o desejo revolucionário que há dentro dela) ser completamente o não esperado que fosse. Não é uma mulher que a história sentiria falta, apenas seria lembrada justamente por ter morrido sem glória por mais da realiza que fosse.

Poderia ficar horas digitando e comentando sobre o livro, mas ler é a unica forma de compreender tudo o possível dos porques a série é tão boa...

LEIAM!!!

THIS WAS. OMG OMG !! This was amazing.
If someone other than Marissa Meyer was writing a series and had included so many novellas, it would have turned out cheesy and just flat out milking the whole series. You don't have to imagine much since one of these people has the same last name as Marissa Meyer.
But omg, Marissa! I am in love with you! The novellas are adding so much to the series. I love them. I love them. reading this was fantastic.
In normal circumstances, I would have said it was just finding ways to justify evil people, but no. This was so insightful. I enjoyed reading it. AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR WINTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEER EEEE EEEE
Just look look at this gorgeousness

While I love this series, this book wasn't as great as the rest for me. I liked finding out why Levana is the way she is, but, I found myself missing Cinder and the gang. I will definitely continue with the series. I know it took me a long time to finish this audio book, but it was me, not the book. I finally got XM radio and have been jamming out instead of listening to books.

4.5 stars I'm so glad we got a whole novella dedicated to Levana's backstory. I felt my heart breaking for her so many times during this read. It doesn't excuse what she did, but damn. It explains a lot. She's one of my favourite characters in this series...probably because I kept picturing her as Lana Parrilla for some reasons :p

So ever wonder what turned The Lunar Chronicles Queen into the evilest royal this side of the Brothers Grimm? Yeah, me either. But, Meyer answers the unasked question. From her horrible childhood to her mortifying adolescence to her even worse adulthood (aside from ruling the Moon), this book takes us through the Levana's development – descent? – while planting all the seeds we need to see how the events of Cinder etc. are set in motion.

At the end of the day, I didn't need this book. Sure, it humanized Levana a bit, but the Chronicles doesn't demand that (well, I might be wrong on that front – I might revise this after I read Winter). But, it was a quick read. It was interesting enough to see the wheres, whys, and hows behind the Moon's approach to Earth. It kept my interest, and more than once, I forgot I was reading a prequel. That's a plus in my book.

ahh I LOVE this series and I loved this backstory for Levana. it's so sad and unsettling. It kind of humanizes Levana, but also... alienizes her. Yes.

Also I'd kind of forgotten some of the details of the previous books so this was a good recap of a few key plot points. I'm still so impressed by how Meyer keeps the core of all these fairy tales while doing so much cool world building without getting dragged down into boring stuff. SO IMPRESSIVE! <3

God, this book is SO messed up I can't even begin to describe it LMAO. It doesn't justify Levana's actions, not in the slightest, but it does explain the reasons why she became the way she is now... and boy, does she have a LOT of reasons. At the beginning, Levana is only a lonely 16-year-old living in the shadow of her beautiful sister, Channary. The sister who contributed to most of the reasons that ruined her life, that is.

As Levana grows older, we get to see her gradual descent into madness. It was hinted that she's always been... slightly disturbed to begin with, but what threw everything into hell was mainly her unrequited love for Evret Hayle and the delusions that followed. I feel REALLY bad for the man since he literally didn't do anything wrong, but at the same time I also feel sorry for Levana. I can't help but think that if only she was raised in a loving environment and received better treatment, she wouldn't end up tumbling down into this whole insanity.

What she did to Evret is undeniably gross though, as there is no such thing as mutual consent in their relationship. Though to be honest, the forced kisses and even the "rape" didn't really bother me. It's the way Levana made herself look like Solstice that did.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novella. There are some parts that dragged and some parts that went too fast, but it definitely left a strong impression on me.

Love is a conquest. Love is a war.
Here is what I think of love.

~Full review notes on The Bent Bookworm!~“Love is a conquest. Love is a war.”Feels:I went into this absolutely positive I would never feel anything remotely akin to sympathy for Levana. She's such an unholy terror in the other books! And seemingly without reason. I felt like she just liked being evil and inflicting pain on others (which I guess is partially true but there's so much more to it than that). However, about halfway through I changed my mind. Of course I already knew roughly how it would end, but it was just so tragic. I was so overwhelmingly sad. Levana as a young woman had so much potential, if she had just had someone to help her channel her emotions and teach her how to overcome.Characters:She tried to brush away the sting of rejection, the knowledge that she was still not good enough...she pressed the feelings down, down, letting them turn hard and cold inside, while her face was smiling and pleasant.Obviously, this is Levana's story. However, we see characters familiar to us sprinkled throughout (especially if you've already read [b:Winter 13206900 Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4) Marissa Meyer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470057036s/13206900.jpg 18390887], like I had), which was fun. Some of the characters that have already passed on in the other books are here and alive, too. We get to see some of the events that are only speculated on by Cinder and her friends. There are a couple of other characters that are new to this story, that really wrung my little heart out as well.When we first meet Levana here she's a relatively normal 15 year old girl! She's been abused at the hands of her egotistical, cruel older sister, neglected by cold, distracted parents, and pushed and pulled into the image of a perfect princess (since, as the second born daughter, she's only fit to be married off). Levana is gifted – or cursed – with a quick mind, intelligent and resourceful – the mind of a queen. She's also terribly scarred, as much mentally and emotionally as physically. This combination has resulted in her being an entirely self-centered, self-absorbed person who quite literally never thinks of other people or their feelings except as they pertain to HER feelings or desires.I think that in the end, selfishness was Levana's true issue. She is one of the most selfish characters I've met in a long time. She becomes egotistical, but she didn't start out that way. She reacts to pain by assuming that the world owes her something (not a hard conclusion to come to, when you're a spoiled princess anyway). She comes to believe that she is entitled to whatever she wants, no matter what it takes to get it. No matter how much she might hurt other people, even the one person she actually cares about. She has no concept of true love for anyone. She hurts, but beyond that she knows almost no emotion.Plot:This is a novella, so the plot is pretty straightforward. I.e., how Levana became queen and all the people she hurt in the process.Worldbuilding/Setting:If you're familiar with any of the other Lunar Chronicles books, you're already familiar with Luna and her people. If you're not, I strongly recommend starting with [b:Cinder 11235712 Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1) Marissa Meyer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470056948s/11235712.jpg 15545385]! This story is basically the backstory that we never see fully in the main 4 books. You could start with Fairest, as chronologically it is actually first, but I don't think it's very interesting without that prior knowledge. The setting is there, but it's not explained as well.Rating:3.5 stars. I'm struggling to give this one 4 because it really feels like a flashback that should have been somewhere in Cinder, also aside from Levana's becoming a psycho it's all focused on luuuuuuuv. And I just...I'm so tired of twu wuv being THE motivator of teen girls. I mean I know we were all there once. But come on! I'm stepping off my soapbox now...Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+