Let me preface this review
by saying that out of all the fairy tales that Marissa Meyer incorporated into The Lunar Chronicles, the story of Rapunzel is definitely the one that I
know the least about. That being said, I feel like the fact that I wasn’t very
familiar with the story of Rapunzel
actually enhanced my enjoyment of Cress
in a lot of ways. When I was reading Cinder and Scarlet, I found myself
constantly thinking about the original stories of Cinderella and Little Red
Riding Hood and was frequently wondering how Marissa Meyer might or might
not incorporate and reimagine various elements from those stories into the
series. However, when I was reading Cress,
I just enjoyed it as its own unique story without ever really comparing and
contrasting it to the story of Rapunzel.
Before I go any further, I’d
like to just go right ahead and say that Cress
is definitely my favorite book in the series so far. If you’ve read my review for Scarlet, you may
remember that one of the things that I talked about in my review is that the
book wasn’t quite what I was expecting when it comes to it serving as a follow-up
to Cinder and a continuation of the
series. Cress, however, was much more
in line with what I had originally been expecting the books that followed Cinder to be like prior to actually
reading Scarlet. One of my biggest
criticisms about Scarlet is that I felt
like Cinder was kind of hogging the spotlight throughout the book, and when
that wasn’t the case, the book felt like too much of an ensemble piece for my
taste. I really feel like Marissa Meyer should have focused at least a little
more on Scarlet and Wolf in Scarlet
than she did. While Cress is also very
much an ensemble piece, I think Meyer did a much better job of putting most of
the focus of the book on Cress, as well as Thorne since he’s Cress’ love
interest in the series.
One of things that I have to
give this book a lot of praise for is the fact that the story had really great
pacing, in my opinion. There was a lot of action and different things happening
throughout the book, but the story never felt like it was moving too slow or
too fast. Plus, all of the storylines that were going on throughout the book
were very interesting and engaging, so I never found myself getting bored, or
having trouble paying attention to the story as I was listening to the
audiobook version of Cress.
Crescent “Cress” Moon Darnel
is definitely a very likable and interesting character. In a story that’s full
of fantasy elements, she really felt like a real person and a well-rounded
character, especially when it came to her feelings for Thorne. Given the fact
that Cress had lived a rather sheltered life, being stuck in a satellite in
space for pretty much her entire life, it made a lot of sense to me that she
would have somewhat of a naïve view of the world and the stories that she had
read about Thorne in the news. She believed that Thorne had had noble reasons
for the various questionable things that he had done over the years, often
breaking various laws in the process, when in reality Thorne’s motives for his
actions had typically been rather self-serving.
While I did love the
interactions between Cinder and Thorne in Scarlet,
this book definitely made me a huge fan of the Cress and Thorne relationship. All
of Cress and Thorne’s scenes together throughout the book were great, but the
parts of the book where Cress and Thorne were walking through the Sahara desert
in search of help after they crashed on earth in one of Cress’ satellite pods,
and they subsequently came across a group of traveling people were definitely a
major highlight of the book for me personally. I feel like they play off each
other very well, and I think they have really great chemistry with each other.
As I said in my review for Emma Chase’s book Appealed, it’s typically very challenging for me to tell
whether or not two characters in a book actually have chemistry with each other,
especially compared to being able to pick up on the chemistry between two
characters on a TV show or in a movie that are played by actors. However, much
like I thought the chemistry between Brent and Kennedy was incredibly palpable
in Appealed, I felt like Cress and
Thorne’s chemistry was pretty obvious as I was reading this book. It was really
great to see Cress and Thorne work together in order to survive when they were
stranded and walking through the desert looking for people to help them, which
wasn’t easy for them to do, because Thorne had lost his eyesight in the crash.
Because I wasn’t very
familiar with the original story of Rapunzel, I wasn’t aware of the fact that
like Thorne, the guy in the original story (Dame Gothel) also goes blind after
suffering a fall until I read the page about Thorne on the Lunar Chronicles wiki. Personally, I really like how Meyer is handling
Thorne’s eyesight being restored by using some special eye drops that Dr.
Erland AKA Dr. Sage Darnel made for him. Technically, Thorne hadn’t started
taking the eye drops yet at the end of the book, but based on what I know about
the final book in the series, Winter,
it sounds like his eyesight is gradually restored once he starts taking his eye
drops. Regardless, I think the way Thorne’s eyesight is restored really fits
the science fiction nature of the Lunar
Chronicles.
Personally, I really enjoyed
the scenes between Thorne and Dr. Erland as Dr. Erland was creating the eye
drops for Thorne for a variety of reasons. First off, Thorne was being classic
Thorne as he was interacting with Dr. Erland, which added a nice amount of
humor to the scenes that were for the most part rather dramatic. Despite being
separated from Cress for most of her life, Dr. Erland was really acting like a
protective father with the way he disapproved of Thorne, which I can definitely
kind of understand since Thorne has by his own admission done quite a few bad
or questionable things throughout his lifetime. Things took an especially
dramatic turn when Dr. Erland discovered that he had contracted a mutated form
of the Letumosis virus that kills people very quickly. It was definitely rather
heartbreaking to see Dr. Erland die so soon after being reunited with Cress,
especially due the to the fact that Cress couldn’t bring herself to tell Dr.
Erland that she loved him as he was dying. I thought that Meyer handled the
combination of the lighthearted aspects of the scenes between Thorne and Dr.
Erland and the more dramatic parts of those scenes once Dr. Erland realized
that he was dying and he was with Cress perfectly.
I have to say that I do love
the conversation that Cress and Thorne had at the end of the book where Thorne
is comforting Cress, and he’s talking to her about Dr. Erland’s death.
Personally, I thought that it was really sweet that he told Cress that it’s
understandable that she couldn’t bring herself to tell Dr. Erland that she
loved him. It was certainly heartbreaking that Cress couldn’t bring herself to
tell Dr. Erland that she loved him as he was dying; however, as Thorne pointed
out, Dr. Erland may have been her father, but she never got a chance to know
him or form an emotional bond with him.
Cress also
featured some pretty good moments that were centered around Scarlet and Wolf,
both as individual characters and in terms of their relationship. Meyer did a
great job of showing how Scarlet and Wolf feel about each other, despite the
fact that they spent most of the book separated from one another after Scarlet
got captured while she, Cinder, Thorne and Wolf were trying to rescue Cress
from the satellite. Wolf was also severely injured in the process, because
Cress’ keeper, Thaumaturge Sybil Mira, had discovered that Cress was trying to
escape the satellite and had set a trap for Cinder, Thorne, Scarlet, and Wolf.
I have to say that I really liked the parts of the story that involved Cinder
and Wolf pretending to be a couple at the festivities for Kai and Queen
Levana’s wedding; which was a part of their plan to stop the wedding and reveal
that Cinder is the long lost Lunar Princess Selene, and the true queen of the
moon colony, Luna.
Personally, I thought that Meyer
did a great job of introducing the character Jacin Clay in Cress, since he will obviously play a big role in the final book in
the series, Winter. Technically,
Jacin was briefly featured in Cinder,
but admittedly, I forgot about that until I was reading the page about Jacin on
the Lunar Chronicles Wiki. I love how
Meyer wrote the parts featuring Jacin in such a way that they had a certain
level of mystery to them, with him telling the others that despite being one of
Levana’s guards, he’s only loyal to his princess. The others believed that he
was referring to Cinder since she’s actually Princess Selene, but he was really
referring to Winter.
Speaking of Winter, we were
also briefly introduced to her when it was revealed towards the end of the book
that she’s keeping Scarlet prisoner in her palace, which is apparently similar
to a zoo. It was pretty clear when Winter was visiting Scarlet in her prison
cell that she’s a few tacos short of a combo meal at the moment. Apparently,
the fact that Winter has kind of gone insane is the result of Winter refusing
to use her lunar gift. I’m definitely very excited to see how Winter is
developed and fleshed out as a character in Winter,
because I’ve always loved fictional characters that have a bit of crazy side to
them.
In case you haven’t already
read my review for Captivated by You, one of the things that I talked about in that review is how I
personally believe that when it comes to writing a book series, I think it’s
very important that the author end each book in a way that’s satisfying, but
also leaves the reader wanting more, in a good way, and feeling excited to read
the next book in the series. I feel like Meyer has done a great job of ending
each book in The Lunar Chronicles in
such a way that has consistently been satisfying and has also left me feeling
excited to read the next book in the series, and a big part of why I’ve always
been excited to read the next book in the series is due to the fact that so
far, each book has essentially ended with a cliffhanger. I’m definitely very
excited to read Winter, especially given how this book ended, but before I
read and review that book, I’ll be reading and reviewing Fairest next.
When it comes to having any
complaints about this book, I honestly don’t have any complaints about this
book specifically. However, as I was reading Cress, I did find myself thinking a lot about one complaint that I
have regarding The Lunar Chronicles
as a series. The main complaint that I have about the series in general at the
moment is regarding the writing for Queen Levana. Personally, with the
exception of Queen Levana, I feel like all of the characters in the series have
had a certain amount of complexity and depth to them. Queen Levana, on the
other hand, hasn’t really shown any hints of complexity, in my opinion. She’s
pretty much just evil for the sake of being evil. I suppose it’s okay for a
villain in a story to not show any hints of humanity and goodness within them,
but that doesn’t make them a very compelling villain in most cases, as far as
I’m concerned.
It was revealed that Queen
Levana was involved with the creation of the Letumosis plague, with the
intention of basically using it as a form of biological warfare. That
definitely really surprised me, and I have to admit that seemed like somewhat
of a dark plot twist. One thing that has definitely surprised me about The Lunar Chronicles is that for a YA
book series, the series definitely takes somewhat of a dark or edgy turn at times.
That being said, I have to admit that I’ve really come to like and appreciate that
about The Lunar Chronicles.
Queen Levana was furious
when the other characters kidnapped Kai before she and Kai were able to go
through with the wedding towards the end of the book. However, it was obvious
that she wasn’t upset because loves and cares about him and was concerned about
his well being, because she doesn’t love or care about him. All she wants is
power and to become Empress of the Eastern Commonwealth by marrying Kai. I’m
really hoping that Levana will be fleshed out and further developed in Fairest so there can be a little bit
more depth to the character. However, based on the reviews for Fairest that I’ve read on Amazon, it
doesn’t sound like the book actually adds a lot of depth to the character,
Levana, so I’m not getting my hopes up too high.
All things considered, Cress is a truly great book, and it’s
definitely my favorite book in the Lunar
Chronicles series at the moment. Cress is a very well written and likable
character, and I really do love the relationship between Cress and Thorne. One
of the things that I feel Marissa Meyer handled very well in this book was the
overall pacing of the story. The story was also full of exciting subplots and
action, so it never dragged or got boring, but at the same time, it never felt
like the story was too rushed. While this book did end up being a story about
an ensemble of characters like Scarlet
was, I think Meyer did a much better job of not letting any of the other
characters steal the spotlight away from Cress too much, since she’s the
titular character of the book, or Thorne to a certain degree since he’s Cress’
love interest in the series, and he spends a large portion of the book with
Cress. While I’m skeptical about how much I’ll actually end up liking Fairest, I’m still excited to read it,
as well as Winter.
That being said, my final
score for Cress is 11 out of 10,
because I don’t think 10 out of 10 is a high enough score to adequately convey
exactly how much I loved this book. :)
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