The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (Series Review)

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 Stars – Fairy Tales x Science Fiction = Yes! I loved re-reading this YA series, it was just as fun as I remembered it being! 🦾🌕🏰💞

I first read The Lunar Chronicles while they were first being published, around 2014-15. Back then I was a School Librarian and I could just sit and read YA books for most of the day and call it work! [1] I read a lot of amazing YA books during that period of my live (and a lot of shit ones) and these ones have lived in my memory as some of my favourites. I remember reading most of them in days, and excitedly waiting for the publication of Winter (Book 4) – which I devoured in two days. It’s an 830 page book, I remember one my students being amazed I’d finished it so fast! “Miss, how do you read so FAST?!” (I honestly had nothing else going on!).

Ever since these books held a special place in my memory/heart. They really sit in that sweet spot for me between fairy tale twists (I do love those) and science-fiction. Plus they have, (rare in YA at the time) strong and smart female protagonists who drive the story (mostly), no love triangles, and no instant-love.

Now I have a library room with book shelves to fill I decided it was time to get my own paperback copies of these books and see if they still hold up! Will 35 year old Alice love them as much as 27 year old Alice did?

Yes, yes she did! Overall this series is a solid 4 stars for me.

I loved

• Science-Fiction and Fairy Tale Retellings are two of my favourite genres, so this series really hits my sweet spot!
• Reimagining of the traditional stories, and characters, is creative and twists the familiar stories into something new.
• Main characters are multi-dimensional, smart and capable.
• Romance is sweet, but not sickly and it is earned through time together, and actions. I found it refreshing and restrained for a YA series like this!
• It’s well-paced and thoughtfully plotted. Each entry in the series picks up and builds on from the previous book, so it really is four parts of a single arc.
• The books arguable get better through the series and the ending is satisfying!

But it’s not a five star series because

• The world building is a bit patchy. Meyer is great at building the world around her characters and placing them in it, but the larger backdrop is a bit threadbare! Just don’t look to closely or you’ll find some holes. Readers will have different millage on that!
• The final book could have used a tighter edit.

Book Reviews

1. Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
2. Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer
3. Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer
4. Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

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Footnotes

[1] Which it was, it helped me engage with the kids if I’d also read the books! And nobody at the school seemed to care what I did with my time between break and lunch, nor be interested in supporting me to do anything else. [back]