Proceed With Caution:
This book contains graphic descriptions of death, murder, and abuse.
The Basics:
Fairest is a novella that is listed as belonging between Cress and Winter, and I think that's a good place for it, despite no actual events from those books taking place. By that point we've seen enough of Queen Levana where an origin story would be effective.
My Thoughts:
I love me some villains and Queen Levana has been a good one throughout The Lunar Chronicles. She is desperate to be the ruler of Earth, although we never knew why. I assumed she was just power hungry and this was her next great conquest after killing everyone else who stood between her and the crown of Luna. But that is only part of the story. Fairest goes into great detail of Levana becoming the cruel ruler that she is and explains why she has her sights set on Earth and is wiling to do anything to claim it.
Fairest is heartbreaking and heart-stopping. It starts when Levana is fifteen, right after her parents were murdered. We see the cruelty she endured at her sister's hand, which explains a lot about her as an adult. Not that it excuses her behavior at all, but I feel like I understand why she's so attached to her glamour and being in control. This novella also goes through the most awful romance in the universe, and I mean that in the best way possible. There is nothing right about that relationship, but I believed how much Levana wanted him and wanted it to work out. It's just awful.
By the end of these 200 pages we have a true villain. It didn't happen overnight. Levana was always...off, but over the years, life just kept chipping away at her and formed her into this embodiment of cruelty. She was basically in charge of Luna since she was a teenager, because her sister was actually the worst ruler ever. Levana picked up the slack and used that to her advantage later. Is she a better queen than Channary? I can't even answer that. Channary just did not care about politics and the actual day-to-day responsibilities, and she was a straight up awful person. But Levana understands politics which ideally would make her a better ruler, but she is not fit to rule. Fairest shed new light on Levana as a person and as a queen, and OMG...I can't wait to see if she gets what's coming to her.