Book Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Fairest is exactly what I needed to hold me over until Winter, the conclusion to the Lunar Chronicles that is coming out late this year.

Fairest is book 3.5 of the Lunar Chronicles and centers around the antagonist of the series, Levana. The novel is a flashback to Levana's childhood and her rise to the throne. We first see Levana at the age of 15, and by the end of the novel, she is somewhere in her mid-twenties. It was captivating to read how Levana became this dark and sinister character. She is so horrific in the first three books, and seeing her become who she is now was disturbing but addictive.

 Reading this book was such a pleasure and I read it in almost one sitting. I never expected someone to be so evil and malicious. Levana has dark thoughts at an early age, and never seems to have remorse over her decisions until it's too late to make any reprimands. One of my favorite aspects of this story was that we saw Levana's older sister Channary. It's hard to believe, but if you think Levana is bad, Channary is on a whole other level. While Levana becomes evil due to the way she was always raised and the situations she was forced into, Channary was born purely evil. Her only one redeeming quality was that she was a good mother, but who knows what she might have done to Princess Selene when she grew up?

Fairest itself is a prequel novella to the series, so it is nowhere as long as the first three books and only has 222 pages. As a prequel, there isn't anything that is developed with the story that takes place in modern time, but I do recommend reading the first three books before Fairest. This is because as a reader, you'll be able to understand things more clearly and also grasp how Levana's evil actions affect the future.

I didn't really have any issues with the novel itself, but when I was reading it, it seemed as if something was missing. When I read Meyer's previous novels in the series I was blown away and thought that the series couldn't get any better, but I was wrong. Reading this book, I know the series is a whole is better than this book. I wasn't blown away by it, but I was intrigued and couldn't put it down. If you're hesitant to pick up Fairest and just wait for the conclusion, Winter, I would say you were going to be missing out an a great story that made me understand Levana better as a character.

With that, I give this book

A solid 4 out of 5 stars!