Off the Bookshelf: WINTER, by Marissa Meyer

The fourth book of the Lunar Chronicles.

Wow. Does the author put her characters through torture after torment after catastrophe after torture after despair or WHAT?

Can you believe it took me this long to figure out that Winter = Snow White? Well, duh, evil stepmother ... but a lot of faerie tale characters had evil stepmothers.

How come it's always stepmothers, never stepfathers? Well, there probably are faerie tales or folktales out there that do have evil stepfathers in abundance, but the stories I grew up with all seem to have ... okay, was there an evil stepfather in the Ring Cycle? Lots of Norse or maybe Welsh mythology? And of course, in Greco-Roman mythology many heroes had nasty stepfathers, but wouldn't you be kind of nasty to the kid you had to raise as your own, knowing that your wife fooled around with one of the gods --whether she knew it or not?

I'm getting off the subject.

Love the book. Biting my nails, silently shouting "When is it going to end and they get their happily ever after?" Haven't they earned it by now? Well, yes, and there are hints that everyone gets at least closer to settling down with their prince charming -- or roguish captain -- or mutant soldier-hero -- or loyal, honorable guard captain .... but they've all been changed and scarred and bruised by what they've gone through. It's gonna take a long time to recover from that. (Speaking of scars, Meyer did a masterful job making me kinda-sorta sympathetic for nasty old Levana. Almost. The nasty twitch made her choices. I'll probably have to read Fairest next to get her POV of the whole situation. *sigh*)

And if you read the graphic novel, Wires and Nerve, which is Iko's story, basically, you get a good idea of what everybody is going through as they heal. Love Iko, by the way. You really should read the graphic novel.

Here's where I wonder what the author is going to do for an encore, but I already read that book, Heartless. If you ever get a chance to see Meyer in person, do. It's a fascinating time, just getting a glimpse into how her imagination works.