Review: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

The Lunar Chronicles

I can't believe it took me this long to read this series!!! In my last post, I mentioned that the author, Marissa Meyer, did a book signing at my work, which was the main reason I finally picked Cinder up. People have literally been telling me since the day it came out that I should add the series to my list. But you know how sometimes there are just those books that everyone loves that you just say ...meh, it's not for me? (Mortal Instruments, bleh) DON'T say that about this series!! I really wish I had listened to everyone who told me to read this sooner so that I could have participated in the excitement over the recent release of Cress, the third (of four) titles in The Lunar Chronicles.

Since this is a review of the first three books (I read them one after the other - that's how much I liked them), I don't want to give away any plot spoilers because I want EVERYONE to read them, so I'm just going to stick to some general things I loved about these books.

For those who don't know the series, the books are based on a future version of Earth where a plague continues to weaken humans who live in fear of their Lunar neighbours, a group of humans who live on the moon and have evolved into a strange and powerful people. Cinder is just a poor cyborg mechanic who gets swept up into the search for a cure due to the secrets of her past.

There are few books that make me fall in love with all the characters as a group (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, Graceling) and make me want to be friends with all of them. This series did this effortlessly. Meyer has 7 main characters by the end of the 3rd book, and I love their interactions with each other. They are all so hilarious together and their little quips and retorts had me snorting in even the most serious scenes.

Another thing I love about this series is how everything is foreshadowed and how it all works together. Characters and events are all seamlessly interrelated and linked in ways that made me very impressed with all the planning that must have gone into this series. Meyer is very good at making everything fit. And her foreshadowing is just subtle enough that it made me excited to keep reading to see the interactions and events that I thought she was alluding to.

This series is so fast-paced. It is very hard for me to find a book (especially a YA book) that doesn't have at least a couple sections where you 'get to know' the characters while the plot stagnates. This series never had those moments, and I loved it. I had to force myself to put each book down in order to finish my papers and eat food. They completely sucked me in.

I really like Cinder as a character. I love all the female leads, but Cinder is the best because she's so anti-damsel-in-distress. And for a series based on retellings of classic fairy tales, this is really appreciated. And I don't want to give any spoilers...but there are two other characters who just made me squeal in Cress. It takes a lot for me to think two characters are the cutest things ever, but there are two in this series that do that. I'm dying for Winter in 2015. GAH!

A few words on the fairy tale aspects: I am not a fan of fairy tales, I've never like the gruesome and depressing stories. This was the main reason it took me so long to read these books. HOWEVER, don't let this deter you like it did for me! I actually really liked how the fairy tales are incorporated into this series without being the central focus. I began to appreciate the certain amount of guessing I could do about the plot because of knowing how the fairy tales went.

Okay I have to stop talking about this series now. There's just so many things I love about it. Cress is definitely my favourite of the three books so far. Just...read them. Trust me. I'm still stuck in the world Meyer creates, and I finished it yesterday. I couldn't even start another series until I had written all this out.

Speaking of another series, what should I read next? I'm caught between Incarnate by Jodi Meadows, Defiance by C. J. Redwine, or re-reading Shatter Me so I can finish that series! Help!

Meeting Authors - Marissa Meyer

One of the biggest benefits of working at a bookstore is the fact that authors visit to do signings every so often! So far, through events at the store, I've been fortunate enough to meet Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, Kelley Armstrong, Nicholas Sparks, and most recently, Marissa Meyer of the Lunar Chronicles!

Usually, when events like these go down, it's a chaotic day to be in the store and even crazier to work that day. There is often very little communication about what an author is going to do in terms of how much talking they'll do, how many books they'll be signing, if there's going to be a Q&A, and if they're going to be a decent human being (Ahem.. one of them wasn't). But I love these days because of the opportunities I have to potentially meet people from the publishing industry.

Cinder has been on my TBR list for ever, seriously, since it came out. When I heard Ms. Meyer was going to be visiting, it was all the motivation I needed. I read Cinder and Scarlet before the event last week and was surprised with how much I enjoyed the spin-off of the classic fairy tales in a science fiction world.

Ms. Meyer herself was lovely, quirky, and just nerdy enough that I wanted to be her. She spent over a half hour giving the crowd a rundown of series' plot, talking about some characters, and telling a story about being both a Trekkie and a fan of Sailor Moon (an inspiration for the series). At the end of her talk, she gave the audience the option of hearing one of two fairy tales: Cinderella or Rapunzel. The crowd picked Rapunzel and so she gave her fans an amazing retelling of the original story, gore included. She was enigmatic and funny and entertaining, and she gave her die-hard fans an awesome experience that was worth the 6+ hours of waiting in line.

I find that after meeting movie or music celebrities, I am usually disappointed. When you meet those kinds of celebrities, you expect them to act similarly to how you see them in their films or interviews, and when they don't hold up to that expectation, it's such a let down (Shia LaBeouf). With authors, it's always a strange experience for me. It's hard to connect the person with the characters that you've grown attached to, and it's hard to realize that the author actually created the story you've been lost in for the past week.

I don't know about you guys, but I always feel slightly protective and territorial when I find a book or author I love. On one hand, I want to gush and buy copies for everyone I know, but on the other hand, I feel so strange knowing that someone else is just as absorbed in a story as I was. It's weird to think of someone else reading the lines of the characters who feel like my friends and knowing they probably feel attached to them too. This situation is extreme in terms of Harry Potter. I can't even go there =P

So at a book signing, there's 150-300 people standing around you, asking questions about the storyline and the characters and the subplots that you read, and it always hits me that everyone experienced the same story in similar ways as I did and we all know these characters as well as the next person. We probably all laughed at the same sentences and cringed when the same things went wrong.

Reading, for me, has always been a solitary event. I've never been in a book club and I've never had friends who read the same things as me. So when I go to these author signings and I'm forced to acknowledge that every other person in the room understands my feelings about Cinder and Thorne, I love and hate it, and I remember why I want to work in this industry. Books bring people together, and amazing authors like Marissa Meyer keep my faith that the book industry isn't going anywhere for a long time.