Title: Fairest
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3.5
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Steampunk, Strong women
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: She ran her tongue along her lower lip, every sense heightened, and inched toward him again.

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.

This book was supposed to give an alternative point of view to Levana’s choices and life. And it did, it made me feel a little sorry for her and the history that she has been forced to face up to throughout the beginning of her life. Although it is all kind of horrible, and I felt a lot of sympathy for her throughout the tale, she’s still kind of an awful person.

I know that this book is supposed to help you feel a little sympathetic for Levana, but it didn’t work. Mostly I just disliked her even more. And my heart hurt because every bad thing that is happening in the series is due to a child being incredibly self-centred. Yes, there is a lot in there about her need to be loved, and I understand that drive, but Levana is so self-centred in this drive that everything else kind of fades away in comparison.

This was a great story to give some background not just into Levana, but also Cinder and Winter. But, it doesn’t raise the sympathy that I was expecting… it was just missing something that could have made Levana into a truly sympathetic character.

Image source: Goodreads