“When she was just a child, the witch locked her away in a tower that had neither doors nor stairs.”
Guys, I can’t give out another five star rating this year. I just can’t. But I almost did with this anyway. It was THISCLOSE. I’m going with 4.5 stars for now, but I reserve the right to change my mind upon re-read. I just really really enjoyed myself while reading this, probably more than I should have.
Cress, the third volume of The Lunar Chronicles, is without a doubt my favorite of the series so far. Perhaps this is due to Rapunzel being my favorite fairy-tale, but even if that’s the case, Marissa Meyer also gave it her A-game this time around. She just keeps getting better, which is a rare thing in the YA game. (See: my last review, for example.) She takes the essential framework of the Rapunzel story and makes it work (beautifully) within the confines of the story she’s telling.
Our Rapunzel is named Cress (short for Crescent Moon), and instead of a tower, she’s been locked away in a satellite for most of her life, fated to orbit Earth and the moon, always the watcher, never a participant. Her only company is her Mistress (the rotten Lunar thaumaturge from books one and two), who has her spying and hacking on behalf of the Lunar queen, and a talking computer she programmed herself, who she calls ‘Little Cress.’ Cress was taken away from her family as a baby because she was a shell (a Lunar without their magical powers), and such a thing meant death (all shells were taken and supposedly killed at birth, and this is only one of the many reason the moon doesn’t sound like the most awesome place to live). Her father — Dr. Erlund, which an astute reader probably put together because of clues dropped in Cinder and Scarlet — has been searching for her, all the while trying to find a cure for the plague that is killing off large swathes of Earth’s population.
But Cress has been watching, and she’s been hacking, and she finds Cinder and Scarlet’s fugitive ship and gets them to come and rescue her. Too bad the rescue fails. Scarlet is captured, Wolf is gravely injured, and Cress and Thorne plunge to Earth in Cress’s damaged satellite. From there, the book works to bring everyone slowly back together.
“She had no idea what he should probably do.
Kiss her, she thought. Isn’t that what people did after they survived thrilling, near-death experiences together? She was sure it wasn’t an appropriate suggestion, but this close, it was all she could think about. She yearned to lean in closer, to press her nose into the fabric of his shirt and inhale deeply, but she didn’t want him thinking she was odd. Or guessing the truth, that this moment, filled with injuries and her destroyed satellite and being separated from his friends, was the most perfect moment of her entire life.”
The reason that I love this book so much is that I LOVE Cress. She is adorable. (See above quote.) She is smart and lonely and waaaaaay overstimulated, and her adventures with Captain Thorne in the desert were perfection (particularly in the way they recall the Rapunzel fairy-tale.) I loved their dynamic. Cress has been head over heels in love with him since before they even met, but he’s a very different person than she thought he was. Watching her learn to be among real people, adjusting her expectations and experienceing things for the first itme, is her main arc in the book. I liked very much that the two of them didn’t end up riding off into the sunset together.
And then of course there’s the other characters. Wolf is unconcsious for most of the book, but when he’s not unconscious he’s SERIOUSLY cranky about Scarlet being captured. Kai has to deal with his upcoming wedding (his parts were the least fun). And Cinder has to coordinate with all these yahoos to somehow stop the Lunar queen from marrying her beloved Kai and taking over the world. Meanwhile, Scarlet is being held prisoner on the moon, where she meets Winter, the queen’s step-daughter.
I’m really not saying much of anything here in this review, but it was just a really fun, fluffy book, and there’s not much else to say except that I really, really liked it. And I can’t wait for Winter.
“I promise, I will not let you die without being kissed.”
Swoon.
[4.5 stars]
