Reviews - Winter | The StoryGraph

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11.4k reviews for:

Winter

Marissa Meyer

4.38 AVERAGE

sam_mc03's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 ⭐️

Might be my favorite of the series?
I enjoyed getting all the different POVs, but some of the characters were too naïve where is became frustrating to read their chapters.

amienjoyskanom's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Cinder is my baby and although the revolution mostly happens to her instead of her leading it -- i enjoyed how realistically sloppy the rebellion led by a 18 year old who never put serious thought into it before leading it was. Refreshingly amateur, and the final fight with levanna could have been a more "good for her" moment. I think cinder's growth in the series was genuinely reflected by her decision to abdicate and restructure luna's government, staying queen would be unlike her. Nostalgia made me finally reread and finish this series and I'm glad that I did. It fulfilled a need to know what happened that I hadn't realized was as strong as it is.

dione16's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

khaelalevey's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

aw21594377's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think I liked this and Cinder the most out of the series. I really like how this book wrapped up the plot and romantic relationships, even if the latter was kind of juvenile to me. This is YA so I shouldn't have expected much, and I think Meyer did a really good job with them with that in mind. I said this in my review of Cress and I'll say it again: the world, plot, and politics are what kept me intrigued throughout the last couple books. I was really impressed with how complex the global politics were -- well I guess technically intergalactic?

This book was significantly longer than the other books, and I was a tad worried that I would be bored because unfortunately I was in Scarlet and Cress at times. However, while I don't think Winter was a great title for this book (though I understand she maintained a theme with the titles), I was intrigued the whole time. I don't think I zoned out once, and, even more telling, I wanted to listen! I wanted to know what happened! I found Scarlet to be a little insufferable in her own book and Cress to be annoyingly naive at times in hers as well. However, Winter was a surprisingly intriguing character to me. I think she walked the line of "damsel in distress" and also genuinely kind, caring, and strong. Her sacrificing her own sanity because she refused to use her Lunar control powers on other people was noble. She wasn't a fighter like Scarlet and Cinder, but she held her own. I also liked Scarlet and Winter's dynamic. I like that Scarlet went from being Winter's unwilling "pet" to actually really caring about her. Winter's trying to help Scarlet while Scarlet was imprisoned touched me. Wanting to give Scarlet medicine through candy was pretty ingenious. While I felt so bad for Winter and Jacin, I was very interested in how they figured out how to be crafty and stealthy with their rebelling against and circumventing Levana's domineering rules. Winter made me like Scarlet more, though the former was growing on me already after her book.

I honestly didn’t really have any feelings about Jacin. I wasn’t paying attention when he was introduced so I really just didn’t care about him in Winter. That said, he also didn’t annoy me 🤷‍♀️ Kai grew on me. He was a little blah in Cinder, but he really stepped up as the books progressed. I actually ended up liking Wolf less :( He just wasn’t giving me anything. I wanted more from him than just a mutant soldier. Meeting his mom was really cool, and we learn why he’s never had fresh produce. I felt so sad for him when his mom is shot right in front of him, and after losing the rest of his family to Levana’s dictatorship.

Iko was a great source of levity and comedic relief. Her bubbly, genuinely happy and good personality was refreshing in a world where everything is kind of going to shit. She was a great addition to the group’s motley crew. She’s funny when infatuated with the different male love interests. Thorne was also amusing, though, again, when he was introduced in Cress, I wasn’t really paying attention…so never really formed a super strong attachment to him.

I felt like the stakes were much higher in this book than the others. Meyers took her time setting up the plot events to the story climax. I’m not sure if both middle books were necessary. Especially because as each titular character is introduced, the story is actually less focused on them. Cinder as a title makes sense because the whole book is from her perspective (or nearly the whole thing if not literally). But the rest of the girls’ names make less sense because more and more people get perspectives. Thus, I feel like the middle 2 books could’ve been condensed and we could’ve maybe been introduced to both Scarlet and Cress in 1 book? Idk. That said, at least we got the emotional payoff in the 4th book. By then, I was very invested in the characters we met in Cinder and also invested in the plot.

Some other aspects I liked that the book included are:

-Scarlet contracting Letumosis because Levana tricks Winter into eating poisoned candy (a nice nod to Snow White)

-Winter and Scarlet convincing the wolf soldiers to mutiny

-Cress’ helping Jacin and Winter escape Luna

-Generally seeing what Luna is like (actually, I like that all of Meyers’ books take place in different locations; helps flesh out the world) At first I thought this was going to be an Asian-based fantasy because Cinder takes place in a pan-Asian republic

-meeting Wolf’s mom

-galvanizing the Lunar workers to revolt (setting and purpose reminded me of the Hunger Games)

It’s been a few days since I finished this and I’m probably not remembering everything, but overall, I thought this was a good way to wrap the series up and I was pleasantly surprised that I liked this book as much as I did considering how it wasn’t looking good after 3 books. Sometimes being a compulsive completionist pays off?

Content Warnings

izzywayout's review against another edition

3.0

after originally DNFing this back at the beggining of 2020, I FINISHED IT. i'm so happy to have completed this series! the lunar chronicles is an older YA series that is standing quite well against the test of time. i very rarely read YA these days, but this series is filled with fast-paced, fun books and remarkably unproblematic characters and relationships. reading this on audio was the best decision i ever made and i imagine all of the books probably have an amazing narration much like this one. i think this one could've ended up being a 4 stars, if it wasn't for the slightly icky comments about winter's mental health state (the constant drove of people calling her "crazy" all the time was just... not cool) and an absurd lack of my favorite characters, cress and thorne. but i still enjoyed this a lot!

3.5

typeonereader's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

wuscloud's review against another edition

3.0

*3.5 stars

kayls_v's review against another edition

4.0

I feel like this book started off really promising. There was action, and you really get to see levana from a different point of view. Winter is so precious - she is definitely one of my favourite characters to date. The friendship between Winter and Scarlet is really interesting to see, and it may possibly be my favourite friendship. All of the relationships between the different characters were really awesome and definitely the best part of the book for me.
However, for me, this was sort of a vanilla ending. I feel like the ending was quite predictable, and a lot of the story was just building up to the inevitability of levana dying and Cinder becoming queen.
For me the series was wrapped up well but a lot of the midsection was just thinning out the story. I understand that it takes time to build up a revolution but the story didn’t need to be as long as it was. Though the last 100 pages had me on the edge of my seat there wasn’t as much action as I would’ve hoped for.
Overall it was an entertaining read for a good series.

annareadsitall's review against another edition

5.0

An incredible finale!!! I'm having all the feels! So much action, so many twists and turns, so many yay team moments - and of course, lots of romance. I thought the ending was perfect. This was such a great series. Meyer is a master at world-building, and she continues to add fascinating layers of complexity to the very end. I'm sad it's over, but it's safe to say that I will read everything Marissa Meyer writes from now until forever. Loved it!

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