Fairest : The Lunar Chronicles Levana's Story
Ratings179
Average rating3.8
It's taken me almost a decade to finish The Lunar Chronicles, mainly because of this book. I had believed this to be a bridging novella between Cress and Winter, and I honestly did not care about Levana enough to read this when I first read books one through three. However, upon actually forcing myself to read this just now, I have discovered that it is a prequel and not required reading, to which I say: why did nobody tell me this before?? I could've saved like an hour of my time and finished this series years ago. Man.
pretty good!! nice little palate cleanser before the hunk-a-chunk that is winter's page count
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.
If you didn't know this is a Novella from Levana's point of view. We get her origin story and find out what turned her into the evil Lunar Queen. Honestly after reading this I don't think we are ever really told why she became so evil. Yes there are instances where she was treated horribly by certain people but for the most part I felt like she was evil just to be evil. I'm not a fan of villains so I couldn't connect to her as a character because I just didn't like her but I did enjoy reading this because we also get a little back story on Cinder and Winter as well.
4/5 stars
I love reading about villains' origin stories. It's always been one of my favorite genres, especially when it's well done like this one. Although we get into Levana's cruel past, we don't necessarily feel pity for her. Instead, we get a better understanding of why she does what she does in other books. At times, this book can get extremely hard to read if you are light of heart. Levana quickly changed from being pitiful to slowly becoming the coldhearted, calculating villain we know and hate/love.
We feel a slight pity for her because we learn that she was manipulated, bullied, and tortured by her older sister. We also learn she was the cause of her face becoming disfigured, causing her to be named “the ugly princess of Luna”. We see how this greatly affects her throughout that series. She always makes sure the glamour is on and is out of sight of all mirrors. Still, this isn't enough to justify all the things she says and does throughout the book. One of the lines that stuck out to me was, “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 a very pretty rouge on her lips.” As the book goes on, we see her sister mysteriously die after being poisoned, making Levana the queen. This only worsened her behavior, solidifying her as we know her in the main series. We still see moments of weakness and humanity, but they are very rare and are followed by horrible actions. Overall, it did a great job of helping us understand her motives without causing us to over-sympathize with her. We see how many more issues this woman has and it actually makes us see her as being worse and crazier than she is in the main series.
This has definitely become a favorite and I would recommend it to anyone reading the Lunar Chronicles. It gives you more information about Lunar society, but you also come out with a better understanding of who Levana is. Reading this isn't really necessary as we get some of this information from the main series.
I enjoyed reading this short novella. Always interesting to read about the other side.
This was so great! I almost skipped over it to go straight to Winter, but I'm so glad I didn't! My only complaints are that the two big deaths in the story (mainly the first one) felt a bit abrupt and rushed.
I waited to long to review this!! I can't remember everything I wanted to say.... :(
Many people said this made them not hate Levana.... I think I hate her even more. More sympathy? A bit, but she is definitely twisted. Yeah, Levana will never be my favorite, but I hate Selena's mother more lol.
Levana doesn't know what love means, yet says in Cinder that she married once for love and now she'll do it for power? groans loudly
I did like how we got to see toddler Selena and Winter ^_^ they were so cute~~
Also, we learned more about Luna and it's Royalty which was interesting.
Es un 3.5 y justamente le doy un 3.5/4.
En verdad que no sé qué sentir respecto a Levana... Putas, en verdad que... Necesito tiempo para digerir todo esto.
RESEÑA
Con la leída del libro de Cress, uno queda con la duda respecto a ¿quién fue Levana? ¿Cómo fue su pasado? Y todo lo referente a ella. Por mi parte, quedé con las ganas de saber cómo fue que ocurrió el incidente en el que intentó matar a Selene, o Cinder, cuando era niña. Y, en esta corta historia podemos conocer la historia de Levana.
Comienza poco después del asesinato de los reyes Marrok y Jannali a manos de un caparazón, con una Levana de 15 años y Channary de 21. Poco después del velorio de ambos reyes, Channary es proclamada reina de Luna a los 22 años. Más allá de lo que uno pensó en los primeros libros (Cinder, Scarlet y Cress), Channary es frívola, arrogante y engreída, cruel con Levana y todo aquel a su alrededor, además de ser muy promiscua. Tanto así, que tortura a Levana y coquetea con cualquier noble de la corte e incluso guardias. Levana, por otro lado, es tímida, retraída y por un accidente provocado por Channary, oculta su verdadero rostro bajo un glamour para aparentar belleza.
No obstante, Levana muestra más preocupación por el reino que la misma Channary; es muy inteligente, astuta, a pesar de que no parezca tener el verdadero interés de los demás en sus opiniones más que en las de Channary. Pero nada de eso evitar que Levana muestra un amor (rayando en lo obsesivo) hacia uno de sus guardias: Evret Hayle. Un amor no correspondido, puesto que Evret se haya casado con Solstice, una joven costurera lunar.
Todo un ejército de criaturas mitad hombres mitad bestias. Soldados que tuvieran la inteligencia de los seres humanos, pero la percepción sensorial de los depredadores salvajes. No lucharían por medios de guerra esperados y previsibles, sino más bien por los más bajos instintos de caza y supervivencia para aterrorizar, saquear y devorar a sus enemigos.
Cuando el oficiante confirmó la ceremonia, Winter comenzó a llorar en serio. Mirando hacia atrás, Levana vio que el niño rubicundo estaba colgando de los brazos de la niñera, tratando de mirar a la bebé.
El amor es una conquista. El amor es una guerra.
Esto es lo que pienso del amor.
se enamoró de un guardia
insana obsesión
nunca
mujer que Evret amó
mucho más hermosa
Evret trató de enseñarle a Selene a soplar las velas, mientras la cera goteaba en el glaseado. Winter también quiso tomar parte de la celebración, y dejó saliva en todo el bonito pastel antes de que el joven Jacin Clay se enfadara y soplara las velas. Todos se rieron y aplaudieron.
~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+
I really enjoyed reading about Levana and her back story, despite it being a horrific series of events. It gives more of an insight as to why she is so ruthless so definitely worth bring part of the series as a whole.
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.
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
This book was a great introduction to the Lunar civilization on the moon and a phenomenal insight to Queen Levana's life, however I don't think we needed a 220 page story to justify that Levana is a major bitch. The rest of the series has done that just fine.
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