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meduse_jalouse 's review for:
Winter
by Marissa Meyer
The Lunar Chronicles turned out to be a huge disappointment for me. And Winter is pretty bad even by what I've come to think of as "glorified published fanfic" standards; this was clearly written by someone who is used to adding unnecessary chapters and devoting endless time to (badly) describing outfits so we realize how amazing and cool and talented and incredible but also damaged! and insecure!!! and relatable!!!!!!!! the NINE goddamn protagonists are. (NINE.)
The seed of a good (or at least, interesting) idea was in there, but at least two thirds of this book should have been shaved off. I don't need to be physically present for every part of the story to unfold if you are good at showing-not-telling, but Meyer lacks this skill. Instead we continually swap between all NINE protagonists as they try and fail (enough failures to give everyone sufficient screen time, but not to advance the plot at all) for about five hundred pages before finally succeeding in about one hundred and then spending another fifty making sure we know exactly where everyone ends up.
In addition to having difficulty caring about the plot, each of the four main romances are boring, cringeworthy, and ultimately interchangeable, except Scarlet and Wolf which is Edward-and-Bella with a healthy dose of bestiality in there for good measure. And at least 250 of the 600+ pages of this interminable book were devoted to this material. The word "kiss" occurs 93 times in this book, and not a single one was romantic. My personal favorite?
"SCARLET SANK AGAINST HIM. IT WAS AS TENDER A KISS AS ANY HALF-MAN, HALF-WOLF MUTANT HAD EVER GIVEN"
Reader, I laughed.
Also, parents in this universe seem to exist solely to die heroically/tragically, further isolating whichever of the NINE protagonists they're related to until the only person they have left is their asshole/insecure/possessive/bravely self-denying boyfriend to rely on. Swoon?
Suffice to say, The Lunar Chronicles are a mess. Even as an actual teen, I would have been frustrated with these books; that being said, I'm not surprised that plenty of actual teens love them. They ultimately belong with The Selection/Red Queen/etc. -- dystopian HarperTeen garbage that's terrible but harmless. I did not like them. But I also love reading Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy fanfic on occasion, so what do I know. Your mileage may vary.
That being said, if you're looking for good writing, look further. Much further.
The seed of a good (or at least, interesting) idea was in there, but at least two thirds of this book should have been shaved off. I don't need to be physically present for every part of the story to unfold if you are good at showing-not-telling, but Meyer lacks this skill. Instead we continually swap between all NINE protagonists as they try and fail (enough failures to give everyone sufficient screen time, but not to advance the plot at all) for about five hundred pages before finally succeeding in about one hundred and then spending another fifty making sure we know exactly where everyone ends up.
In addition to having difficulty caring about the plot, each of the four main romances are boring, cringeworthy, and ultimately interchangeable, except Scarlet and Wolf which is Edward-and-Bella with a healthy dose of bestiality in there for good measure. And at least 250 of the 600+ pages of this interminable book were devoted to this material. The word "kiss" occurs 93 times in this book, and not a single one was romantic. My personal favorite?
"SCARLET SANK AGAINST HIM. IT WAS AS TENDER A KISS AS ANY HALF-MAN, HALF-WOLF MUTANT HAD EVER GIVEN"
Reader, I laughed.
Also, parents in this universe seem to exist solely to die heroically/tragically, further isolating whichever of the NINE protagonists they're related to until the only person they have left is their asshole/insecure/possessive/bravely self-denying boyfriend to rely on. Swoon?
Suffice to say, The Lunar Chronicles are a mess. Even as an actual teen, I would have been frustrated with these books; that being said, I'm not surprised that plenty of actual teens love them. They ultimately belong with The Selection/Red Queen/etc. -- dystopian HarperTeen garbage that's terrible but harmless. I did not like them. But I also love reading Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy fanfic on occasion, so what do I know. Your mileage may vary.
That being said, if you're looking for good writing, look further. Much further.