Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress

Author: Marissa Meyer

Release: February 4th 2014

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Retellings, YA

#3 in the Lunar Chronicles

Series: Cinder (#1), Scarlet (#2), Winter (#4)

Plot:

Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard. 

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

Goodreads | B&N

Review:

I think Marissa Meyer has made it her personal mission to trash my heart completely. Rip it out of my chest, tear it in a million tiny pieces and scatter them like confetti. Seems about right.

This book was simply amazing. Mindblowingly amazing. Winter is now one of my most anticipated books of 2015 and I really hope it'll come out soon. I know it probably won't be early 2015, since her Alice in Wonderland retelling is going to come out before Winter, and also 2015, and I doubt she'll publish two books in the span of three months. So, Winter'll probably be released in Summer or something like that. Maybe Spring.

Ah, but let's talk about Cress. The book, I'll come to the character herself later. I don't think I'll have to spell it out, but, just for completion's sake: There was a lot happening, so much plot, so much action, my poor, poor heart almost couldn't take it all in. There was plot twist after plot twist thrown at us, all mixed in with some very nice, cute and funny scenes and — OF COURSE — a lot of heartbreaking ones as well. There is one especially, shared in a lab between two men, that almost made me tear up. I'm still a little in denial over that, because I simply can't believe it. Which would also be an appropiate adjective for the whole novel itself: Unbelievable.

Now, onto the characters. I think I have never loved Cinder more than I do now, she grows so much during this one, having been united with allies that share the same cause as her, and subsequently being separated from her friends, having to deal with all the stress that comes from that alone, and on top of that the pressure of having so much responsibility — for her friends and their safety, and not to forget for the whole galaxy — and her admitting that she's actually scared broke something inside of me. I am so sympathetic towards her, and I think her humanity in all of this is so astounding. Meyer just manages to make all of her character stand out in their own distinctive ways, and with so many characters around, I think that is a true show of her vast skills. I have a mighty respect for this lady.

Also, I am so so sorry that it took me almost three books to notice how great Kai really is. I mean, I've always quite liked him and such, but I only ever now realized that he's a really amazing character. He, too, has so many responsibilities resting on his shoulders, he can't possibly deal with every single one, and it's been so hard on me having to watch him struggle to make all of these hard, impossible decisions. But in spite of all that, he's still such a nice and funny guy, awkward and just ... adorable. He is goodness incarnate, literally.

All of the other "old" characters are still kicking it too, Scarlet is more badass than ever (seriously, that girl is so awesome, she's definitely my favorite of them all), Wolf is getting a bit more depth to him since he's dealing with some sad stuff, Thorne is getting HELLO A LOT OF depth to him, since he's now a very prominent character because of the introduction of Cress. I liked getting to know more about him and his past, and it was amazing seeing him develop so incredibly much over the novel. And then we have Iko, who I would never have guessed I would end up loving this much, but I do — she's getting more awesome with every passing page.

But now, onto Cress. We get to know her as a very naive, silly and socially awkward Lunar girl, and her idolizing romance and having this very weird stalker crush on Thorne immediately made me scrunch up my nose. And I hoped. Hoped that this couldn't be it, a stupid girl, a hopeless romantic that thinks love makes the world go round. No. Please no. But at first she was. And she wasn't. She's a paradox — I was supposed to dislike her, prepared to, but ... she sneaked into my heart anyway, damn her. I don't know what exactly it is, maybe it's those traits I've listed that I thought I would hate but just made her extremely adorable, or maybe it's that despite being locked up for seven years, she still finds the strength to be optimistic and to see beauty wherever she looks. To hold onto what she believes, even if proven wrong. Or maybe it's just her social awkwardness that made me warm up to her — whatever it is, I was fond of her from the beginning on, and throughout the whole novel my heart melted and I thawed. Cress is a lovely young lady and I really love her now. She's already come so far in terms of character development, I can't wait to see her develop even more. 

And we even got a little glimpse of the next girl that's (probably) going to join our ragtag group of characters: Princess Winter. So far, she's not looking that great, but I'm definitely intrigued. She seems like she would be a very unique and interesting character, a trope I've rarely seen in YA: the mad girl. But we'll see, I guess. 

The writing was very nice again, as was expected. It can often be confusing to be following multiple POVs, but it's really no big deal at all in these books, especially if they all tie up eventually, and very nicely if I might say so. The 3rd person narrative doesn't put any distance to the story and I simply enjoy Meyer's writing a lot. It's not overly pretty, but not down to the point as well, her descriptions are vivid and beautiful, but she's leaving out any unnecessities. I approve.

What else can I say? I think that's it, mostly. I'm truly blown away by how good this series is, especially considering that Meyer is (or, well, was) a debut author and she's already so great with her first four books. I can't imagine how uber she'll be once she has even more experience. I can't wait to have Winter blow my mind again, one final time. It'll be sad, but awesome: so basically, like the books themselves.