Winter (Lunar Chronicles, #4)

by Marissa Meyer

Frostbite Studios (Illustrator)

Don't miss the thrilling final chapter of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series.

Princess Winter is admired for her grace, kindness and beauty, despite the scars on her face. She's said to be even more breath-taking than her stepmother, Queen Levana...

When Winter develops feelings for the handsome palace guard, Jacin, she fears the evil Queen will crush their romance before it has a chance to begin.

But there are stirrings against the Queen across the land. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even find the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter claim their happily ever afters by defeating Levana once and for all?

• Publish Date: March 2023 (first published 10 November 2015)
• Publish Status: Forthcoming
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Puffin
• Edition: FairyLoot Exclusive
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 832
• Language: English
• Special: Exclusive Design Signed Sprayed Edges

Reviews

[Angie]

Proceed With Caution:

This book contains blood, violence, death, and murder.

The Basics:

Winter is the final book of The Lunar Chronicles, and of course, it is necessary to have read the previous three novels. I'd also recommend the novella Fairest. It picks up approximately where Cress left off, adding the titular character to the POV lineup.

My Thoughts:

Well, um...yeah. Winter was a big ol' mess. This series finale is bloated. It could have, and should have, been half its size. There's too much redundancy, too much repetition, too many characters, too circular plot-threads. It just goes on and on and on.

Lets talk about Winter, the character, first. She is useless. There, I said it. Princess Winter is utterly useless. She is literally just here to check off the Snow White box and the token Black girl box. She adds nothing to the story except a lot of excess pages. Several times it's mentioned how she can just bat her eyes and people will fawn over her. That is not an exaggeration. That is actually what happens. She blinks and everyone throws themselves at her feet because she's just so beautiful and so wonderful. This makes absolutely no sense. She adds nothing. I don't see how Levana didn't kill her already.

The actual book Winter was also mostly useless. It is incredibly repetitive. The characters come up with a plan, said plan gets interrupted, things are delayed, they start back up and things go wrong. Lather, rinse, repeat. Multiple times. Also, every several chapters a different character gets separated from the pack, then reunited, only for someone else to go missing. It's a lot of run around for no real reason except to add pages.

Speaking of characters going missing and characters being useless, Cress is the only useful character. None of this could have happened without her. Without Cress no one would have been able to get around anywhere, have daring escapes, get messages around, etc etc etc. Cress is the true hero here. Every single plan relies on her doing her hacker thing. Even when she's not with the group, she's doing important things to move the plot forward. No one else is as essential as she is. Not even Cinder.

Speaking of Cinder and her grand plan that made no sense: expose Levana. And I don't mean reveal her evil plans to the people. She meant to unveil her, literally. Show the people her real face. We already know that Levana keeps her glamour up at all times, she doesn't allow photographs or video, and certainly no androids can look upon her. Clearly something is going on beyond simple vanity. If you read Fairest, then you know what's really hiding under her veil and it's simply tragic. Cinder's grand scheme was to uncover that secret to the world. Yes, Levana plays dirty and needed to be stopped, but that was just downright cruel. And honestly, what kind of message does that send? She must be defeated because she's ugly?

Levana's defeat happens off the page and we don't even get a recap of what happened. That's all I have to say about that.

I am just disappointed in this finale. I was so excited going into this, especially after reading Fairest. It was just a lot of filler and fake build up. The stakes were already high, we didn't need all of this added nonsense.

[Mad Soul Child]

казалось эта книга бесконечна, но в то же время я не могла оторваться и читала очень легко и быстро
это такая классная история, потрясающий ретеллинг, все отсылочки к оригинальным сказкам
здесь было идеально всё
номер 1 в моем сердечке это Зола и Кай, второе место отдаю просто обворожительным Кресс и Торну, третье крутым Скарлетт и Волку, и приемлемое четвертое Ясину и Винтер (не знаю ниче ни о какой Зиме). ну а для Ико у меня вообще отдельное местечко в душе
буду ждать сборник и плакать что серия закончилась) *ушла рыдать на счастливым финалом в подушку*

[Steph L]

This was such a sweet ending to The Lunar Chronicles. I loved it so much.

[ibeforem]

This is the final book in Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series, which is a fun series. The primary character in each book is very loosely based on a fairy tale character. First we had Cinder (Cinderella), then Scarlet (Little Red Riding Hood) and Cress (Rapunzel). Princess Winter of Luna is our Snow White, destined to be doomed by an evil stepmother's apple.

It may seem odd that this last book has a primary character that is a member of Luna's royal family. After all, our crew's mission is the overthrow of Luna's queen. But Winter isn't really a willing member of the family. She is the queen's stepdaughter, and to make things even more difficult, she also refuses the use her Lunar powers to manipulate others. Unfortunately, the refusal to use her gift is causing some unusual side effects to her mental state, which doesn't help her position at court.

In the meantime, Cinder and her crew are plotting their infiltration of Luna, with the goal of starting a revolution and revealing that Cinder is the rightful queen. Winter becomes an unlikely ally in their fight.

This was a very good wrap-up of the series. There is a lot of action, but it all has a purpose in the story. I didn't feel like there was anything extra that didn't need to be there. We also get a good follow-up with everyone at the end. This was one of the better YA series I've read in recent years.

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews This is the final book in the Lunar Chronicles. I loved the first three and I couldn't wait to see how the story ended.

Picking up right where Cress ended Emporer Kai has been 'kidnapped' and Queen Levana is furious. Levana is one hell of a woman and I have never met anyone that evil. I mean that woman is evil to the bone. I don't think there is a part of her that is good.

I really loved this book but I am struggling with where to go with this review. It's a long book and a lot happens. While this book is called Winter there is not as much focus on Winter as the other characters got in their books. This is a little disappointing but I think it was necessary in order to complete the story.

I loved the alternative POVs in this story. I love how the characters' stories all become so intertwined. I love how they all have their roles and they are so integral to the plan.

Each character has grown so much since the first book, Cinder especially. Melissa does an excellent job of finishing off everyone's stories. This was a perfect end to the series. I really loved it.

Rebecca also did an excellent job on the narration. I love her voice and I would absolutely listen to more of her narrations.

[maggiefan]

holy shit, it was intense...

[alindstadtcorbeax]

RTC

Star Rating: 4 stars :-)

[nitzan_schwarz]

Okay, can I get a clap and a half for FINALLY finishing this series? I swear it's been 84 years.

Now, look, I have a lot of thoughts. None of them are very organized or well thought out, but when was the last time I wrote something I could claim was either, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The first thing I have to say is that this book is LONG. And for most people that's probably not an issue, but it kind of was to me. It's 824 pages and it FEELS it. I felt like I read two and a half books in the span of one. So many things happened, and it took maybe 500 pages for a single good thing to happen.

Which brings me to my next point... this book made me Anxious AF. And I don't mean it figuratively. My heart rate was off the charts, I bit my nails off and as I was not in the best mental place to begin with when I picked this up, this was not the best combination for me. I couldn't read it for long because it made me feel so BAD.

Those two points combined made me read this book over the course of 25 days instead of my usual day and a half to three days reading times. I even read a few other books in between just because I needed to mitigate the effect of this book.

So that part of the whole thing wasn't great. So let's talk about what WAS great.

First of all... I love Winter. I love that she is quite seriously mad. And that she wasn't miraculously cured by the end of the novel. Often times, characters aren't "allowed" to be truly crazy. My best guess is that authors fear their readers won't be able to connect with them or something. However, Meyer lets Winter be cray cray and she also makes it an integral part of her character and of what makes her loveable, and I absolutely loved that she does that!

Although I got to say--the Snow White parts of this felt kind of shoed in. But okay.

As for everyone else, I loved them as always. Cress and Thorne continue to be my Ship™, Iko is still fabulous, Scarlet and Wolf are the cutest, and Cinder and Kai continue to give monarchs a good name (and also hi hey hello they are really sweet together imo). And I quite like Jacin with Winter, even if I still feel like I'm probably saying his name wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This book was action packed from beginning to end, and as I said, it was a nerve wrecking two books and a half long read. Everything that could go wrong--did. Everything that could go okay--also went wrong. Every time I was happy about my characters sharing space, something tore it apart. Quite honestly I could do with a little less stress, thank you very much.

Honestly, I simply could not see how our heroes are going to win this one, even though **spoiler alert** they obviously do. This is not Game of Thrones, people! That being said, I do have one issue with how everything went down. Like, for how long this book is, I felt like Meyer didn't spend enough time convincing the Lunars to join Cinder. That is the crux of their strategy and so many things go wrong but the ONE thing that kind of goes right is that Cinder's video convinces people to revolt. Cinder's video, which pretty much said: "hi hey hello I'm your lost queen let's rebel!" Like, I feel like people who have been oppressed for YEARS--had family members killed and hurt, have been slaves and playthings--would not have risen to fight so quickly, to a girl with no proof of her identity. That's what bothers me. I get riling around your lost queen, I just don't get riling around a teenage girl who can't prove her identity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To be real, I don't have too much to say about this one despite how long it is; it's a solid finale to a solid series. Great cast of characters, great casts of romances, great cast of personalities and nationalities (Chinese, French, Black, White, Androids, Humans, Half-Half, etc). Great writing and great action. Just all around great.

[teachergorman]

No spoilers, but I can’t review just one book in this series. These are all so well crafted and carefully plotted, and they nest so well, each fitting neatly in the one that follows as the cast grows. They creatively use the fairy tales upon which they are based without being to nod-and-wink about it. And the characters have wonderful, unique voices. Even the ones who initially seem like stereotypes get richer and more likable as the series goes on. By the end, the climax is earned and just enough of the loose ends are tied up to pay homage to the source material without beating the reader over the head with the happily-ever-after. I’m very glad I came late to this series so I didn’t have to wait between books and could consume all of them straight in a row. Devour these. You won’t get indigestion, I promise.

[thepunktheory]

Full Review on: my Blog ThePunkTheory


I've mentioned it before but let me point out again how hard it is to pull off a fairy-tale retelling without making it feel like a cheap and unoriginal copy. Marissa Meyer certainly did a great job as she had already proved with the first three installments of The Lunar Chronicles. So was both excited and set to get to the final book, Winter which is loosely based on the fairy-tale Snow White.
Let's get down to it! First of all, let me point out that the final part is absolutely fascinating and Meyer will have you holding your breath several times throughout the book. She came with many unexpected plot twists. Believe me, Winter has many surprises for you in store!
However, I do have to point out something that has been bothering me ever since part one. This is a fairy-tale inspired series, so naturally you get the "the prince has come to save the day" way of putting things. Meyer created many impressive, smart, strong and independent female characters but soon before long she managed to hook all of them up with a male pendant. Obviously it's impossible for the women to save the world on their own. In many cases Meyer makes this all in a rather simple way, which annoyed me even more.
But as the story itself is so fascinating, I am (at least partly) prepared to overlook this flaw.