TeenHelp - The Lunar Chronicles: Book series review

The Lunar Chronicles: Book series review
by Jenna (.:Bibliophile:.)

The Lunar Chronicles, which was written by Marissa Meyer, is a sci-fi series and is a futuristic retelling of fairy tales such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White. There are four books in the series and the first one is called Cinder. This particular novel focuses on the character of Linh Cinder who is a cyborg who is living with her stepmother and stepsisters and is not treated kindly. The first novel focuses on a plague affecting people in Cinder's world and it deals with her trying to find a cure for the plague. The next three books Scarlett, Cress and Winter follow up on Cinder's story but takes place from the point of view of other characters.

When I first started reading Cinder I was a bit hesitant because I don't tend to like retellings of old stories, however within the first 50 pages I was hooked on Cinder's story and I couldn't get enough of it. When the book ended I immediately wanted to start the second one but had to wait until I could obtain the copies.

I think the thing that surprised me most was that while this was marketed as a retelling it was so much more than that and there were so many twists and turns in the novel. I absolutely fell in love with Cinder's story and was so happy to see it continued in the next three books.

Another thing I struggle with in novels is when the stories change perspectives. I tend to like multiple point of view stories but I struggle when they change perspectives and a larger majority of the story is told from a new perspective. When I read a story that is from multiple points of view, I like to see all the characters get a fair amount of time. When I first started Scarlett I was thrown by the shift in points of view but was able to adjust and I fell in love with her character and her storyline.

One of the many things that this series got right is that with every new character introduced I ended up falling in love with them and their story. I don't think there was one character whose point of view bored me or who I felt I did not care to learn about.

I also felt that the writing in this particular series was well done. It takes a lot for me to connect to all characters in a novel. There is usually one or two characters I care deeply about but the rest of the characters I could do without. With the Lunar Chronicles, I came to love every single character and so I will continue reading more of Marissa Meyer's work because she has become a new favorite author. The Lunar Chronicles have also become one of my all time favorite series and I am surprised by that since it takes a whole lot for a series to become an all time favorite. This is a series that I would consider re-reading at a later date.

The main issue I had with the series is that I didn't want it to end. I thought the ending was done well but I found myself wanting to see what would happen next and wishing that there were more books. My hope is that one day Marissa Meyer will do a continuation of the Lunar Chronicles.She has not confirmed that she will do that but I will continue hoping that she does.