Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Winter by Marissa Meyer

26 reviews

msradiosilence's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

TLDR; 3.5 rating, killed by the power of ugly (apparently), and just a lukewarm end to something that started off really well.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Listen, Levana was wrong. She was bad, she killed LOTS of people, and she deserved retribution, but the way they defeated her was just horrible. So she
has burns, because Cinder’s mom pushed her into a fireplace, but we’re supposed to believe that
we’re allowed to throw Levana’s looks in her face, and ultimately kill her, but Cinder should be celebrated for overcoming the same injuries?
What the fuck? Very double standards, I hate it a lot. I’m not saying they should have given Levana grace, but the way she went out defeats the whole characterization of everyone.

This book is also like 200 pages too long. The rest of them just kept running and hiding and separating and it kept happening. Twice is redundant, three times is annoying, and four times is fucking ridiculous. Talk about tedium. 

And somehow, even with the book being too long, Winter and Jacin’s relationship was too rushed. How can a book be too long and have the main romance be so quick? Yadda yadda, that’s how. Those 200 pages of the same shit could’ve been dedicated to building Winter and Jacin’s relationship. 

The one thing that we had a decent time of was the setting, at least. Meyer did a grand job describing the moon and its colonies, which…if you could do it well in this book why didn’t you in literally all the other books? Ugh. 

Rating: 3.5
Would I recommend? Not really, unless you enjoy hypocrisy, 16yo moon queens, and long drawn out action sequences.

Content warnings: Genocide, Medical content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Classism, Car accident, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, War, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, and Pandemic/Epidemic
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strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-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? No

5.0

I forgot that I hadn’t finished this book on the second to last chapter. That’s what happens when you listen to audiobooks. 

I really enjoyed it and while it ended predictably it was a good ending. I have now started Fairest: Levana’s Story right away. 

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ameydireads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

 "Selene. She was meant to die thirteen years ago, yet here she was disastrously alive. And just as Levana had feared back then, she would take everything from her. Everything that Levana had worked so hard for."
The revolution has started and damn, what a nerve-racking story. Nobody expected it to be easy and they had to endure a lot! They get separated from each other so many times. I really enjoyed how Marissa Meyer has brought the story from so many different perspectives. Winter is based on Snow White and we see many aspects of the fairy tale returning in this story. I loved most of the characters! Cinder is just badass and she and Kai are perfect together. Iko and Thorne are the funniest and somehow manage to lighten the mood. They might be my favorite characters. 

"Her eyes suddenly rolled up into her head and she collapsed onto the floor. Kai jumped back. "What happened? Did I hit her power button or something?" Frowning, Cinder took a step closer. "Iko, what are you doing?" "Kai hugged me," said Iko, eyes still closed. "So I fainted."

"Did you see any rice in there? Maybe we could fill Cinder's head with it." Everyone started at him. "You know, to … absorb the moisture, or something. Isn't that a thing?"

But Cinder also has her funny moments!
"When she catches you," the guard snarled, "my queen will eat your heart with salt and pepper." "Well," said Cinder, unconcerned, "my heart is half synthetic so it'll probably give her indigestion."

And it was so cute to see Thorne and Cress’s relationship. The only character I am indifferent to is Jacin. He does a lot of good but also brings Cinder’s mission in danger many times. His relationship with Winter is very strong, just like Scarlet and Wolf’s bond, but I was less invested in it. And oh my gosh, Adri and Pearl return in this story and their behavior towards Cinder is still disgusting!
Cinder eventually was very generous toward them and until the end they did nothing to deserve her kindness. 
 
I did like Winter, although I didn’t fully understand why she chose to not use her Lunar gift every now and then. This would have kept her safe from Lunar sickness. Like Scarlet mentions, she could have just used it to change the color of her dress. Her reply to this is somewhat acceptable, but not fully satisfying. 
I expected her to never use it but in the end she did it to save Jacin and it took a big toll on her mental health. If only she used it every now and then….?
 
But she did make a very good point with which I fully agree!
"Let's not be cruel. One should never save cake for later when it can be eaten now."

All in all, an easy read even though the book itself was so big. I wouldn’t have complained if the book was published in two somewhat smaller parts because I think I sprained my wrist by just holding the book. But definitely worth it. 
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gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

4.5

The series reread has now come to an end, and on such a good note. I still loved and enjoyed every moment of this book.

I will admit it feels slow in the beginning especially with how the last book ended, but it better sets up and introduces us to Winter and makes her a main player in the story now. By a third into the book everything very much starts to pick up again and the story starts to hit the ground running.

I loved how the story line would mix and change POVs weaving people's stories together before once more diverging again. It really kept the pace fast and intrigue and urgency high, and it all came to an orchestrated ending for the book and series. Everything was tied up and concluded nicely but left  moments open that could be looked into with the novellas.
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meganpbell's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This conclusion to the Lunar Chronicles is the most epic installment of the series, the most adventure-packed…and also my least favorite. I enjoyed Winter the character more than Winter the book! I just got lost in all the political machinations—even though I appreciate how much work Marissa Meyer put into staging a realistic uprising— I just really felt how long this one is. I really enjoyed the ending however!
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hillarym's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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

5.0

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janaya's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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tiana_king's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.75

The beginning is slow but once Cinder’s plan gets going there is none stop action. You will be on the edge of your seat for most of it and the ending is pretty much everything you hope it will be. But do bring some tissues. 
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theteamsreader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful tense fast-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

4.5

The conclusive book to the Lunar chronicles (apart from the short stories), this is the final struggle to reclaim freedom for humanity.  And this book goes off with a bang!  Now that the entire cast of characters has finally been collected, the story somehow manages to unfold in the space of a week, despite its imposing length.  Full of nonstop action, romance and political intrigue, the heavy conclusion you've been waiting for is here to grace your bookshelf.  Recommend to anyone who loves the series, a massive found family, high stakes and tensions, a group of underdogs, battles on the moon and high science fiction political intrigue.
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nrogers_1030's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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