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From the Bookshelf of The Wide Web of Friends in YA Books…

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4)

Marissa Meyer

Start date: November 15, 2015

Finish date: December 1, 2015

Discussion: BOTM November 2015

Discussion leader: Rachel

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Showing 2 of 4 topics — 4 comments total

BOTM November 2015

Chapter 4- Winter
By Rachel , The Overseer · 1 post · 11 views

last updated Nov 15, 2015 09:30AM

Chapter 3-Winter
By Rachel , The Overseer · 1 post · 4 views

last updated Nov 15, 2015 09:25AM

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What Members Thought

Apr 22, 2016 Angela Blount rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, ya

2.5 Stars

This book isn't so much about the title character--or at least, it is much less so than the first three primary books in this sci-fantasy series of fairy tale retellings.

Unfortunately princess Winter is just kind of… there. All helpless and victimized—partially by her own refusal to exercise her "gift," despite there not being a strong moral argument against it. In essence, she could have avoided her clearly detrimental and ally-endangering “madness” by using her Lunar gift to, say, in 2.5 Stars

This book isn't so much about the title character--or at least, it is much less so than the first three primary books in this sci-fantasy series of fairy tale retellings.

Unfortunately princess Winter is just kind of… there. All helpless and victimized—partially by her own refusal to exercise her "gift," despite there not being a strong moral argument against it. In essence, she could have avoided her clearly detrimental and ally-endangering “madness” by using her Lunar gift to, say, innocuously make people think her nail polish was blue instead of red. But she’s such a legalistic stickler for her I-don’t-want-to-be-like-my-stepmother principals, she would rather be a mentally ill liability than in any way accommodate the biological needs she can’t help having.

The romance is kind of a given with little development—as it utilizes the 'childhood-friends-turned-lovers' trope. Ordinarily I like that kind of pre-establish familiarity, but due to Winter’s self-imposed “condition,” the romantic angle was made complicated and questionable by the caretaker/mentally-compromised patient relationship.

Also, it felt like a LOT of issues could have been avoided and lives saved if Cinder had just spent her copious amount of time in hidden orbit programming Iko to be a sharp-shooter assassin droid. Iko proves to be a decent fighter, but given she and Cress are the only ones who aren't affected by Lunar mind control... stuff... it would have made perfect tactical sense to weaponize her.

I’m fairly certain our heroes would have had no chance at all if Levana didn't keep violating so many Evil Overlord rules.

(Yes, I actually kept track of them. No, I don’t consider the following to be spoilers. If you do—feel free to skip!)

#4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

#6. I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

#39. If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ride at the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my opposite number among his army."

#48. I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.

#61. If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

#64. I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be a disadvantage.

#67. No matter how many shorts we have in the system, my guards will be instructed to treat every surveillance camera malfunction as a full-scale emergency.

#71. If I decide to test a lieutenant's loyalty and see if he/she should be made a trusted lieutenant, I will have a crack squad of marksmen standing by in case the answer is no.

#103. I will make it clear that I do know the meaning of the word "mercy"; I simply choose not show them any.

#104. My undercover agents will not have tattoos identifying them as members of my organization, nor will they be required to wear military boots or adhere to any other dress codes.

#106. If my supreme command center comes under attack, I will immediately flee to safety in my prepared escape pod and direct the defenses from there. I will not wait until the troops break into my inner sanctum to attempt this.

#151. If I make a zombie out of one of the heroes, rather than killing him, I will not put him in a position where he will make ANY contact with his friends, lest he remember them and turn against me.

Personally, it drove this reader up a wall to keep hearing terms like "intergalactic," yet having no indication that humans in this book's world have expanded out beyond even their own moon in colonization. No other part of even the immediate solar system is mentioned in any of the books, as far as I can recall... (Please correct me if I missed something.)

I don’t doubt this was a difficult book to pull together. I have to applaud the effort that went into tying up long established storylines and juggling the romantic arc of four significantly different couples. (It was particularly nice to see Cress’ story receive a little more attention and closure.) The characterization remained consistent—as did the upper middle-grade tone. It just felt like the overall work suffered from too much going on and a conveniently dragged out conflict.
...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2016 Kathleen Baldwin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Marissa Meyer never fails to impress me. To say I love this series would be an understatement. Her writing is nothing short of genius. I will say I think Cress was my very favorite of all the books. I loved it so much my friends tired of hearing me gush about it.
Reading one of the Lunar series books takes me squarely inside a living breathing anime. Meyer achieves this effect with a few deft strokes of her pen. I savored every page.

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 01, 2015 Ally Bryan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: want-her-as-my-bff-protagonist, recommend-to-everyone-books, book-boyfriends, all-time-favorites, best-romances-33, books-i-want-to-hug, favorites

THE. BEST.

2 likes · Like · see review

May 14, 2016 Amber rated it it was amazing

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. It was the perfect end to the series for all the couples! All of the characters got a decent amount of page time, thank god, considering the number of characters, and it was super fast-paced even though it was over 800 pages long. Even though my favorite couple, Cress and Thorne weren't really given a whole lot of cute moments together, the ones that were there didn't disappoint! I don't even know if this made any sense, I'm still so sad that I just finished Winter. ...more

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Nov 05, 2015 Stefani rated it it was amazing

What an amazing conclusion!! Granted it was more predictable than some books I've read, but it was still a great page turner!
The way Marissa Meyer was able to weave together so many point of views & not cause the reader a headache from confusion, just goes to show how amazing she is as a writer.
I loved how there were bits & pieces of the original fairytales, like the glass coffin (suspended animation tank), that Snow White (Winter) is put in. How Levana disguises herself as a hag to poison Wint ...more

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Dec 24, 2015 Chandini Dialani added it

WOAHHHHHHHHH

GODDAMMIT GIMMEH MORE

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Mar 29, 2014 Nat rated it it was amazing

Shelves: not-out-soon-enough

5 stars because this did not read like a 800+ page tome. I whipped through this and loved every minute of it. I was doubtful that I could enjoy a new POV with every new book Meter is outstanding at creating dynamic characters that you want to know more about. I'm sad that this is the end, but Iowa stealth beginning to DESPISE Levana ...more

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Dec 06, 2013 Kat rated it it was amazing

Shelves: gimme-now, favorite-authors, scifi-space

This went from a 5 to a 4 to a 4.5. Why to a 4? Because I was tired of Wolf having surgery and Thorne being captured. Why only to a 4.5? Because I was hoping for a bit more conclusion with Winter and Jacin.

But in the end, everyone does live happily ever after.

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Mar 15, 2012 Jessica Gomez marked it as to-read

Mar 30, 2012 Carie marked it as to-read

Jan 10, 2013 Mutated Reviewer marked it as to-read

Apr 04, 2018 Bror (Abrar) rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopia, fairy-tale-retelling, fantasy

Jul 20, 2013 Aden marked it as in-a-series-read-the-first-book

Jul 25, 2013 Kendra marked it as to-read

Feb 06, 2014 Paridy marked it as to-read

Mar 20, 2014 Mari C rated it it was amazing

Sep 17, 2014 Mary Bronson marked it as to-read

Mar 12, 2015 Jamie rated it it was amazing

2 likes · Like

Mar 30, 2015 Erika B. (SOS BOOKS) marked it as to-read

May 07, 2015 Mary Pat added it

Aug 19, 2015 Nikki marked it as to-read

Nov 05, 2015 Madeleine rated it liked it

Dec 13, 2021 Tommy Hancock rated it really liked it

1 like · Like

Nov 11, 2015 Jessica Wilson added it · review of another edition

Nov 11, 2015 Andrea Evans marked it as to-read

Dec 12, 2015 Valerie rated it really liked it

Dec 24, 2015 Beth Ann Goodwill marked it as to-read

Jan 06, 2016 H.S. Stone rated it it was amazing

Jan 12, 2016 Kara marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2017

May 17, 2018 Melissa rated it really liked it

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