The Lunar Chronicles- Series Discussion

Hi, Hello and welcome today I’m going to be reviewing the lunar chronicles series! This is like a 4 in 1 special so yay? But anyways I read this series a while ago knowing basically nothing about it, and I really enjoyed it! I do feel that there were a few flaws scattered throughout the series, hence this discussion post! anyways without further ado lets gO (also this is going to be very long.)

In our first book we follow Cinder, a cyborg living with her eviL stepmother Adri. Cinder works as a mechanic in a booth at the market place, where she meets Prince Kai, who requests that she fix his personal android. The book is set in a futuristic world where cyborgs are discriminated against and not given equal rights as compared to normal human beings. Also there’s this huge plague/disease thing going around.(like current times) When Adri’s daughter, Peony, gets the plague, Cinder is immediately blamed and shunned from the household and is sent for testing. Soon Cinder discovers many unknown things about herself , and realises that she’s a part of a much bigger scheme, and tension between the people of the moon and the Earth grow . This book is based off Cinderella, and similarly each book is based off a different fairy tale. Well when I started this I thought it was ridiculously boring, it just went so slow and there seriously wasn’t any development, but as time went on it indeed did get better. It was a really good build up for the second book. Now even though it was a retelling of Cinderella Marissa Meyer gives the story it own unique twists and I loved how she hid the little details of Cinderella’s original story into Cinder’s. Like when Cinder was running away from the ball and her cyborg leg fell off I thought it was just such an awesome way of referencing the original story.

In the second book we follow Scarlet when she sets search to find her grandmother who has mysteriously disappeared. On Scarlet’s journey to find her grandmother, she works hesitantly with a street fighter named Wolf, who is a genetically-altered Lunar warrior. Unfortunately, as Scarlet’s admiration for Wolf grows, his old Lunar pack puts them in unusual circumstances, testing Wolf’s loyalties. Deeper connections surface as the pack’s malicious intent is finally exposed. Simultaneously, Cinder joins forces with the convict, Carswell Thorne. As the search continues, Scarlet meets Cinder and becomes an ally in her plan to stop the tyranny of Queen Levana – ruler of the moon’s colonies and her thaumaturge, Sybil Mira. Ok in this one I think Marissa Meyer was trying a bit too hard- don’t get me wrong it was still good but it was definitely the weakest from this series. The plot was not really great in this one and like everything felt forced for me. Even the references to little red riding hood weren’t anything super unique and special＞﹏＜

In the third book we follow, Crescent Moon, or Cress Darnel, is an imprisoned shell working with Sybil to aid Lunar ships. Living alone on a satellite and harboring an enormous crush on Carswell Thorne, she secretly works to sabotage the wicked Lunar queen, and eventually, Cress teams up with Cinder and becomes entangled in her plot to save Earth. This one is probably my favourite from the series, the plot is action packed with the perfect pinch of romance and also the rapunzel references are like Cress’ name,at first I was like what does that have to do with Rapunzel ???and then I realized CRESS IS THE NAME OF A TYPE OF PLANT. SO IS A RAPUNZEL *KEYBOARD SMASH*

Winter, Queen Levana’s stepdaughter, has lived her entire life in Artemisia Palace and has been raised by her stepmother. Winter’s only source of comfort is her guard, childhood friend, and crush, Jacin. Though Winter despises her stepmother, she knows Levana will not approve of her feelings for Jacin. However, she’s not as weak as Levana believes her to be. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that has been raging for far too long. This one was a bit too long in my opinion, and the war scene was well…underwhelming. But I still adored it don’t worry. It strayed quuite far from the original story of snow white(which is a good thing)but I loved it mainly because of the introduction of our new awesome wacky characters.

The characters are arguably the best part of this series. Lets take a look at them

Cinder- Cinder is the definition of an actual strong heroine. And she actually has a great personality.*shocked Pikachu face* She’s so sarcastic and witty and she does have her imperfections too which I really love. She doesn’t really know what she’s doing and like that’s so relatable??? and oh my gosh at times she’s just so awkward but hey aren’t we all ¯\(°_o)/¯¯

Scarlet- Scarlet is definitely more rough and bold. She’s not afraid to speak out on her opinions and she does have a softer side to her. I think she’s sort of like the mom of the group but to be honest I’m not the greatest fan of her lol

Cress- Cress is awesome. Socially awkward, introverted, and just so adorable. and she’s also a hacker. What more can we ask for?

Winter- We didn’t get to know Winter’s character too well, but I love her. she struggles with her mental health and experiences and hallucinations but she still remains strong on the outside. She’s a bit on the crazy side but that makes her even more lovable.

Levana- i hate levana *cough* I read fairest and I did feel sympathy for her but like it really doesn’t completely redeem her? so yea boo Levana

ok now we skip the rest of the characters because I don’t have time :p

The world building was so well done. Usually one main thing a lot of books lack is worldbuilding, but Marissa Meyer just does it wonderfully. From the first book itself we’re set in this futuristic version of Beijing and get to know more about how everything works. One thing I really liked was when Kai used to have meetings with the rest of the world leaders, we got to see the different alliances and formation of the new countries. I thought that was such an interesting way of sneaking facts in the book. And in winter we got to know a lot more about how life on the moon is like. Maybe if that was introduced a little earlier in the series we definitely could’ve seen some more development, but still incredibly happy with how the world was planned out. And oh oh the technology is definitely so believable, like that could be us in the next 50-60 years!!(or sooner)

Marissa Meyer’s writing doesn’t really do anything for me. Its very simple and casual but I really love how naturally the conversations were written. Even though the writing was kinda plain it fits in perfectly with the story. Maybe this was intentional but hey either way it works out pretty well. The pacing is not the greatest though, especially in Winter I felt it wasn’t the best. ALSO I LOVE HOW SHE WRITES THE RELATIONSHIPS LIKE AAAHH ALL THE COUPLES ARE SO CUTEEE

Is this series worth the read?? HECK YEA! I don’t think it’s overhyped at all and the characters make the whole series so much memorable. SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? PICK UP THE LUNAR CHRONICLES!! YOU WON’T REGRET IT.(MOSTLY)

anyways thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed and let me know your thoughts in the comments!

bYYeeEE