Fairest by Marissa Meyer Review

"In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now. 

Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series."

The truth is that I read this book in Target. Didn't buy it, because my wallet would hate me for life if I'd spent any dollars. It is about 250 pages, and I finished it in an hour and a half. Not bad, considering the fact that I wanted to stare at the artwork all day and night. So gorgeous and amazing. Beautiful. Hauntingly beautiful.

Queen Levana is the star of this book. I'd spent about fifteen minutes trying to tell my mother exactly what was going on with the book and how I thought about it. She pretty much ignored me and muttered something under her breath about me reading too much. Yeah. I guess I will start my rant here, because where else should I put it?

Facebook? Nah. No one will really pay any attention to it.

Fairest pretty much confirms any thoughts I had of her originally. And darn, it pretty much shocked me from beginning to ending. Levana is both brilliant and crazy. Hmm... Remember of that Roman Emperor who made a horse a Senator (and for what I know, a horse has more brains than one)? Well, she is like that. And I bet that Roman Emperor was both crazy and brilliant. 

Or maybe not. Depend on which historian you talk to.

But seriously, for someone so evil and horrifying (not to mention crazy), Levana has a way of getting into my good side. I have no idea how she did it. Seriously. But Levana is brilliant in her own way, and she has that calculating way that I admire in her. Yes, she is a good queen. Yes, she is insane. Yes, she has a dark side. Yes, she grew up in a bad environment. Yes, she is brutal and will walk over anyone. She is all that, and she is... amazing. She is ambitious. She kills people to get what she wants. I have to applaud her in some parts of the book.

She is good at running Luna. But she is terrible when it comes to personal matters. (Unfortunately, I believe that the running joke on this one is called: "career woman." I hate how stereotypical it is, but this label applies to Levana pretty well). 

So Fairest shines a light on how well Luna is. Since Levana became queen, it has most certainly become better (and worse, in its own way). But when I look back at what she has done to keep her power, I wonder what Cinder would be like as queen. Or maybe she won't be queen. Who knows? 

Anyway, Marissa Meyer did a very good job on Levana's background. Round of applause for this lady (sorry, I couldn't buy your book, though). 

Rating: Five out of Five