![]() ![]() She is often aware that she is hallucinating, but not always, which results in strange behavior. She has a mental illness called the Lunar sickness which manifests as hallucinations. I’m all about this kind of portrayal of girls which refuses to submit to the misogynistic “she’s not like other girls” trope, instead showing us that strength can come in different forms and that it doesn’t matter if you appear dainty or rough.Īnother thing that captivated me in this series is the portrayal of Winter. Due to the nature of their work as a mechanic and a farmer, Cinder and Scarlet are less stereotypically girly and more tomboyish (Cinder, especially, can’t stay clean for even five minutes), but that doesn’t come into opposition with the more girly and princess-y ways of Cress and Winter. And all the girls work together to bring down the Lunar Queen, each bringing their strengths to the table.Īdditionally, none of the girls are portrayed as inherently weaker or lesser than the others. Cress, on the other hand, is naive and fearful due to spending most of her life alone on a satellite, but discovers her bravery and resourcefulness in the face of danger. For instance, Scarlet is quite hot-headed, fearless, and a natural leader her grandmother is the most important person to her. All four heroines have distinct personalities and different things that matter most to them. I think author Marissa Meyer succeeds rather well in this regard. The latter is ruled by an evil queen, Levana, who seems to be modeled after both the Evil Queen from Sleeping Beauty and the Ice Queen.ĭespite not really liking fairy tales that much, I always love modern re-tellings which give the heroines more personality and don’t focus so much on the Prince Charmings of the original stories. The overarching plot involves the war between Earth and Luna. The transformation of the fairy tales into the science fiction setting is done in rather obvious ways, but that is what you need for them to still be recognizable, and so Cinderella becomes Cinder, a mechanic toiling away among dirty and oily machinery, The Big Bad Wolf becomes Wolf, a genetically engineered wolf-human hybrid, and so on. I don’t want to spoil the books and the plot for you too much, so I will just say that I really enjoyed the way the basic plots and characters of the four fairy tales were woven together into a larger plot. Winter (Sleeping Beauty) is a kind-hearted Lunar princess suffering from hallucinations.įrom left to right: Iko, Scarlet, Cinder, Cress, Winter. Cress (Rapunzel), a Lunar girl, is a computer whiz and a master hacker who’s imprisoned on a satellite and forced to spy on the Earth. Scarlet (Red Riding Hood) owns a farm in France with her grandmother. In the course of her quest, she meets the other heroines. Through a series of events, she ends up the leader of a plot to bring down the Lunar Queen and save the Earth from the plague. We follow Cinder (Cinderella, obviously), a cyborg mechanic, working in New Beijing. The Earth is suffering from a global pandemic of a deadly disease and is on the brink of war with Luna. The Lunar Chronicles is set on Earth and on Luna (the moon), hundreds of years in the future. Spoilers below for Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter (the main four books of The Lunar Chronicles). The plot is engrossing and action-packed and has an intriguing twist to boot-the main four books of the series offer loose, but still recognizable, retellings of four well-known fairy tales: Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Sleeping Beauty. In fact, it’s a very solid series, led by a team of awesome kickass teen heroines. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer may not have caused as much public excitement as some of the other female-led sci-fi/dystopian YA series of the past several years, but it doesn’t mean it’s less deserving of our attention. ![]()
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