Reviewed by inlibrisveritas on
Fairest is a prequel novel that starts 17 years before the beginning of Cinder and focuses on the Queen Levana. I would say though this is a prequel I do not recommend starting here, but instead reading it in the order of publications (Cress then Fairest), as there are some things that are revealed in the fully books that would be spoiled by reading this first.
I loved getting to know Levana, and being able to be in her head space for a while because I learned a lot about her. Not only do we get to see how intelligent and cunning she can be, but we also get a front row seat to her tittering sanity. I can’t go into details of course, because this is definitely a story best experienced if the reader doesn’t know what to expect. We do get to see her softer moments, the reason for the veil, and just what happened to the previous rulers. Getting to know about some of the major background characters that are mentioned in the other three books, but never mentioned in too much detail (mainly because those characters didn’t know them) was really fun and at times incredibly heartbreaking. Part of me really felt awful for Levana, and then the other part of me would feel really horrified by everything she was doing and that pity would go away.
While I wouldn’t call this a necessary read for the over all plot , I do think it’s well worth the time if you want to know more about the main antagonist and just what makes her tick. Levana is a complicated character with a jumbled mess of a mind, and it was a treat to see her rise to power.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 2 February, 2015: Finished reading
- 2 February, 2015: Reviewed