Written by Haley Hrnciar, Staff Writer
The Lunar Chronicles by Marrisa Meyer is a surprisingly good book series for young adults. The book’s genres range from fantasy fiction, young adult fiction, romance novels, utopian/dystopian fiction, and science fiction.
The novels put a little bit of a twist to some common fairy tales such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White.
There are five books in total, Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest: Levana’s Story, Stars Above and Winter. The longest book being around 830 pages.
But the question is, Is it worth the read? Quite simply put, yes, yes it is.
Most of us have grown up watching the Disney fairy tales and, while they are a part of us, we are older now and they don’t carry that same thrill that they once did. Being older, we know that what happens in the Disney fairy tales are unrealistic and could never happen, making us not see as eye to eye with the stories as we once did.
The Lunar Chronicles mix some science fiction into those everyday fairy tales. While some of the parts that happen in the novels are things that can not happen in real life, the novels manage to show struggles throughout the characters to help us relate with them more, such as problems with family, friends, and love interests.
The first book in the series to read is Cinder. Cinder would be the fairy tale retelling of Cinderella. In the novel Cinder, Cinder is a mechanic who happens to also be a cyborg. At the time, there is a deadly disease spreading, and Cinder is forced against her will to go and help find a cure. In the beginning Cinder lived with her stepmother Adri and her stepsisters, Pearl and Peony. In the beginning, Cinder has no memory of her past life, but throughout the story she discovers more and more about herself. While she is learning more about herself, she also has to beware of the Lunar people who are watching Earth and waiting for a mistake so that they can pounce when they get a chance.
The second book Scarlet is a fairy tale retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. In Scarlet, Scarlet Benoit is a farmer who lives with her grandmother on their farm in Rieux, France. Scarlet has a bit of a temper and, when her grandmother has been missing for a couple of weeks, she sets out to find her. Scarlet knows that someone kidnapped her grandmother, no matter what the authorities have to tell her. Throughout the story Scarlet goes on a mission to find her grandmother, even though there is a war going on between the Lunar and Earth people. Scarlet meets Wolf, who she thought killed her grandmother, and they end up working together and fall for each other along the way.
The third book is Cress, which is a fairy tale retelling of Rapunzel. Cress has been locked in a satellite by herself since she was a little girl and the Lunars found out she was really good with technology and hacking. She was supposed to have been killed for being a shell. Cress is Lunar, and most Lunar have powers. Since Cress is a Lunar, she doesn’t have powers, and she is able to see through whatever trick a Lunar tries to play on her. Cress’s dream is to get out of the satellite and go to Earth. Cress tries to help save Cinder from the Lunar Queen Levana who wants Cinder dead. Cress ends up deserted in a desert with Captain Carswell Thorne. Thorne is on Cinder’s side and they team up to find Cinder.
In the book Winter, the fairy tale retelling of Snow White. Winter is a Lunar Princess. She is the fairest of them all and is admired by the people of Luna. She has scars on her face from her stepmother, Queen Levana. Winter is Lunar with powers, but she doesn’t use them because she chooses not to manipulate people. She has Lunar Sickness which she gets from not using her powers. The sickness makes her see things that are not there and messes with her head. Her best friend is a guy named Jacin who is a palace guard. Winter ends up teaming with Cinder’s side of the war with Jacin.
Next Fairest: Levana’s Story, is a prequel to the events that happen in the Lunar Chronicle series. The novel is about Levana’s story before she became the Lunar Queen. It shows what happened in her life that leads up to how she is now.
The story Stars Above, tells nine stories about the main characters throughout Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter. The novel tells stories about their lives before we meet them in the Lunar Chronicles. It also tells us what happened with them after the Lunar Chronicles ended and how they spent their days.
What I really like about this series is that it was nothing like I thought it would be. It made me want to keep turning the pages. There were chapters when I was rooting for a character and then there were chapters where I was rooting against that same character. The Lunar Chronicles have a way of making you question what is going to happen next, because it’s never predictable. I like how everything that happened throughout the series made me rethink because what happened would be something that I would not have thought about happening. It makes you want to continue to try to guess what is going to happen next and hope that you can get a prediction right. I never did, and that is what made reading the Lunar Chronicles so fun and entertaining.
I would definitely recommend this series to people who like to read on their own time and for people who like to read stories that continually surprise them. It really is such a great read.