Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles, #3.5)

Wow, I'm not used to reading this many great books in succession. Either my taste is getting better, or this can only end badly.

I was, admittedly, predisposed to liking/loving "Fairest". (Though "Scarlet" is still my favorite Lunar book! Possibly because I'm so into Wolf I could scream but you know. You know. You know.) It has everything going for it.

1.) It's a prequel to "The Lunar Chronicles", one of the best/most underrated YA series to hit the shelves in a while.

2.) It slakes my thirst for "Winter". Sort of. Kind of. Okay, it makes the waiting a little easier.

3.) It makes the series a little bit longer. (Can I live in this world forever? As a reader, though. I mean the world of the series would kind of suck to be in, what with the intergalactic war and the plague and the magical/mecha racism and the genetically engineered wolf soldiers.)

4.) Most importantly, it's entirely about my favorite psychotic beauty-obsessed moon queen! Ah, Levana. How happy I am that you exist. How happy I am that you only exist within the pages of a book, because you are terrifying.

Yes, as you probably know, "Fairest" is the origin story of Queen Levana, the principle villain of "The Lunar Chronicles". How villainous is she? Well, on a planet where it's totally acceptable to glamour yourself into any appearance, act super racist towards people born without magical gifts to the point of basically committing genocide, and create GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SUPER SOLDIERS OUT OF CHILDREN Levana is the bad guy. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard about this book. But, like, I was a little worried, you guys. Almost every villain origin story made in recent history has disappointed me. See: Maleficent. She's not evil, she's the good guy! A magical fairy sort of good guy, the ideal babysitter/surrogate mother/lesbian life partner, depending on your interpretation of her relationship with Aurora. See: The Vampire Diaries/The Originals. Klaus, our big bad, is actually just saddled with an assload of mommy issues. When he's not trying to kill you, he is the ideal boyfriend who draws bad pictures of horses. See: every villain on Once Upon a Time, NAY, every episode of Once Upo a Time--

I had my reasons for being concerned. What if every single horrid thing Levana did was swept away with a Freudian excuse? What if this book was setting up my beloved space fairy tale cyborg series for a final installment in which Princess Winter teaches her evil stepmother that love truly does conquer all and they FORGIVE HER. God, what if they turn her into that Evil Queen on Once Upon a Time who killed like five billion people but everyone still thinks she deserves to be a parent and romance the heroine and have sex with Robin Hood and--

Fuck Once Upon a Time, you guys.

This isn't that story. Does Levana have a Freudian excuse? Yeah, in the form of growing up in an emotionally stunted royal family (and also enduring an incredible childhood trauma that is, now that I think about it, oddly poetic). Nobody loves Levana. But does this excuse any of her subsequent actions? No, and the book gets that. It's all told from Levana's perspective, but from the very beginning, girl is messed up. And it builds naturally. At first it seemed like the Levana I was reading about was nothing like the woman of the later series. (She's only fifteen when the novel begins.)

Then we meet Levana's crush, Evret. And his wife. And oh, that's when I realized that, whether it was nurtured into her before the book began or her her true nature, this chick was wrong in the head.

That's what's truly interesting about the book. Even before Levana begins her physically affective misdeeds, she is still mentally and emotionally, a monster. At first you--and the characters--brush it off as a teenage girl being lonely, but no. She is psychotic. Her relationship with Evret was so incredibly warped that it almost disgusted me as much as the whole, you know, "sending a plague down to Earth to eventually force me to give them their prince's hand in marriage because even though he's nine I can tell he's gonna be a looker" thing. And the most disturbing part about it is that it wasn't black and white.

There was none of Evret being all, "Levana you evil bitch I hate you and you are OBVIOUSLY the villain of this story who I have no personal feelings towards". Evret does care about Levana. How could he not? Even if his initial feelings of friendship towards her weren't real, there's still--well, spoilers. It's a complex relationship, and it explains the meaning behind Levana's glamour and, oh, God. You have a sick mind, Marissa Meyer. That was a sick little origin story for Ye Olde Face of Levana. I'm still kind of grossed out by the whole thing. Fairest of them all, indeed.

And Levana's never cackling and declaring herself MISTRESS OF ALL EVIL; but she's not standing at a window and shedding a single tear for her sad, evil life because apparently people take the whole "forcing them to basically kill their shell offspring" thing personally, either. Though Lunar cultural standards still apply, Levana acknowledges that the royal family is fucked to hell and that she does terrible things. At one point, she basically even admits that she should feel awful for what is arguably her worst act. But she... doesn't. Not really. (Because she is freaking insane.) Levana doesn't ensare Evret (father of Winter, if you didn't figure that out already) in her web and cackle about how now he's hers, AAAALLLL HERS. She really tries to be a good wife and stepmother in the best way she knows how. Which, coincidentally, is a horrible way. She is completely deluded and crazy like a fox, and I loved being in her head.

So, yes. I read this in less than a day. In my defense, it's a short book. I wish it could have been longer, and though I get why Marissa Meyer ended it when she did, my e-reader made it look like I had about thirty pages left so when it did end I was just like WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT THE FUCK. in my college dining hall which probably didn't win me any friends. And no, it didn't slake my thirst for "Winter". I want that book. I want it now. (It doesn't help that "Fairest" includes some snippets about Winter and Jacin's childhood friendship. Hey, I'm not crying, that's just a branch in my eye.)

"Fairest" is a great addition to "The Lunar Chronicles". I loved every piece of it, even the parts that made me cringe because no no no stop he's a nice guy STOP

I finally understand Levana. Her endless desire to be loved and appreciated rotted her personality without her knowing, and that drove her to do all the horrible things she did. I pity her as much as I hate her.

The story is good. But not Levana...

Maybe it's because of her sister. The trauma and all. But I think, Levana's gone crazy and remorseful, and the only thing that keeps her from being mad crazy is her desires and ambitions. That's why she's obsessed.

4.0/5.0

It wasn't bad, but after the first event we knew about from the previous books (Selene's murder

Marissa Meyer did it again! She got me so hooked on this book that I finished in a night!

So, Fairest is all about the background on the Evil Queen, Levana. I was surprised to feel a little bit sorry for her, at least in the beginning. You could see how traumatized with what her sister did to her, and also how lonely she was. Coming from a unloving family, with a cruel girl for a sister and court who mocked her, it was easy to see why she would be so set on having the happiness that Sir Hayle and Solstice had, and when that failed, the power of being Queen.

But despite understanding what made her the way she was, still it was shocking to see how she did and how she thought her actions to be justified. So, by the end of the book, pitied her and despised her at the same time.

It was a great background story and made a lot of her actions throught the series more understandable. Also, some of the events that led to the entire Lunar Chronicles were a lot more clear after this novella. Now I'm even more excited than ever for Winter!

[4.5]

Fairest es un libro sumamente interesante y me fue muy fácil meterme a la trama.

La historia de la reina Levana tenía que ser contada. En Fairest se demuestra que Levana fue convertida en un monstruo. Nadie nace siendo un monstruo.

Hubo cientos de razones que convirtieron a Levana en la abominación que demuestra ser en las crónicas lunares. Yo creo que la principal fue la reina Channary, su hermana. De todas las personas que pudieron haber detenido la ira de Levana la primera y más importante fue ella. Ella destruyó a su hermana. Ella la marcó, ella se burló y ella fue la que creo al monstruo que trató de matar a su hija. La única a la que Levana se refería con temor y respeto era a ella y ella la destruyó. Levana nunca fue apegada a sus padres, pero siempre vivió bajo la sombra de Channary. Channary era importante, Levana no.

Levana vivía una fantasía. Ella soñaba ser feliz, ella soñaba con ser reina, ella soñaba con una familia, soñaba con ser amada y que la gente la considerase importante. Su fantasía la cegó de la realidad y se convirtió en un ser destructivo.

Levana actuó mal, el asunto de su esposo solo requería que le diera tiempo y lo conquistara, a la fuerza ni los zapatos entran.

Channary era una mujer mimada con un alto ego que la hacía considerarse hecha con la mano de Dios. Egoísta, promiscua y auto idolatra. Channary era una mujer despreciable a pesar de que tuvo un buen instinto maternal con Selene. Channary fue cruel con Levana, ella fue la que fomentó todo.

Levana solo tenía 16 años, esa es mi edad y créanme, los adolescentes somos muy preceptivos. Levana buscaba amor de una sola persona y se convirtió en amor obsesivo gracias a las multiples humillaciones de su hermana.

Lo que le hizo a Selene no tiene nombre, fue una crueldad horrible hacerle pasar por lo mismo que su madre le hizo a ella. Este libro te deja pensando en lo mucho que puede afectar el rechazo a una persona, si es visto desde el ángulo adecuado.

Levana perdió el piso, y esa es la razón de todo lo que hizo por ambición.