Review: Winter by Marissa Meyer

    The fourth installment of Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles sent me from being an obligatory-it's-too-popular-to-ignore reader to a genuine fan of the series. It turned the series from a lighthearted, happily ever after to a real story of sacrifice, bravery, revolution, and love.

    In Winter, we meet the newest and final member of Cinder's teenage revolutionary crew: Queen Levana's stepdaughter, Princess Winter. Winter first meets Cress when the Rampion crew arrives on Luna and she's left behind due to a confrontation. She hides out with Jacin, Winter's best friend and the Queen's guard. When Winter rejects Thaumaturge Aimery's creepy marriage request, Levana asks Jacin to kill her, but instead, he helps her escape the palace. 

    Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is provoking a rebellion in Lunar sectors RM-9. When the queen's soldiers arrive, Wolf and Cinder are taken as prisoners. Cress and Jacin escape the palace. Cinder goes on trial and announces her identity as Princess Selene. During the battle that takes place afterwards, she dives into Artemisia Lake and is saved by Thorne and Jacin. Winter and Scarlet find allies in some of Levana's mutant wolf soldiers, and they arrive in a lumber sector. Levana disguises herself and poisons Winter with a new strain of the letumosis plague that ends up infecting many people in the sector. Cinder, Jacin, and Iko break into the queen's labs, steal the cure, and distribute it to the plague victims. Cress and Thorne break into the palace so that Cress can open the gates and let Cinder's allies in to attack.

    Just as Levana is crowned empress of the Eastern Commonwealth, Wolf, now transformed into one of the queen's mutant wolf soldiers, attacks, and Cinder's video of the queen's true appearance, taken during her trial through her cyborg brain, sends everything into chaos. During the battle, Cinder sneaks into the throne room and finds Levana, who has Thorne tied up near the edge of the balcony and under her control. Thanks to Levana's manipulation, Thorne ends up stabbing both Cress and Cinder. Once Cinder has her caught, Levana pretends that she's giving up her throne and stabs Cinder in the chest. Just in time, though, Cinder shoots Levana. Luckily, Cinder's synthetic heart saves her and she survives in time to be crowned Queen of Luna and sign a treaty of alliance with Earth.

    I started reading Winter expecting it to be as mediocre as the books before it. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised. It was by far the best book of The Lunar Chronicles.

    The character development was amazing, and I think the greatest example of this is Cress. Throughout this book, Cress went from being naive, obsessive, and boring to being strong, independent, and brave. Her role was vital to the story. Thorne also grew to be more vulnerable and respectful of Cress, which we love to see.

    The characters' relationships changed and grew stronger as well. Cinder and Kai became an absolute power couple, Scarlet and Wolf grew to compliment each other beautifully, and Cress and Thorne finally learn to be real with each other. 

    But even so, the best part of Winter were the connections with the Snow White. It was much more obvious in this book than in the other three. Meyer beautifully translates well-known tales into a dystopian setting.

    All in all, Winter is an excellent finale to The Lunar Chronicles, and after reading it I can definitely understand the series' popularity.

Rating: 4/5