Review Detail

MY THOUGHTS
I was kind of upset about this book coming out at first. Not because of the book itself, but because of the timing. I wanted Winter to come out instead (I'm still in denial that i have to wait until frexing November!). I was dead set against not reading this book just out of spite, but I can't resist more Lunar Chronicles.

This is a very short book, around 200 pages, but it's from Levana's perspective before the events in Cinder. It starts out from a 15 year-old Levana and goes onward. While this is a prequel, it does have a few spoilers for the other books in the series. Though, you may not notice them if you haven't read the other books. If that makes any sense.

It was very horrible reading the mind of Levana. She's not as horrible in the very beginning as she is in Cinder and other books (still horrible), but, oh, does she grow to be more and more horrible as the book goes on. It was also very interesting to see into her mind and I can understand, even though it's no excuse, why she became so horrible. Her parents, who just died, never loved her and her sister is a horrible being (much like Levana, but I believe Levana actually grows to be worse).

Because she's never been loved, she doesn't really know what love is. She has had a crush on a guard, for a while now, even though he is much older and married. She obviously hates his wife, too much to be considered normal, and she sees his friendship as love. She fully believes that he loves her and wants to be with her and she actually ends up using magic to get him, still believing that this is love. It is all so very very horrible and I really felt sorry for Evert, the guard, at how horrible he was being treated.

Really, this book is very tragic. If you read the other books, then you know what will eventually happen and it is absolutely awful seeing them from Levana's perspective. Seeing how she see nothing wrong with what she was doing.

IN CONCLUSION
This book isn't really necessary for the series, but I do strongly recommend it. It was very interesting to get both Levana's backstory and a look into her mind. It was horrible and tragic, but it was still a very great read.