Review: Winter

Winter by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s the end of an era.

I feel like it just hasn’t hit me yet, like I’m still in shock or something, because right now I’m an emotionless stump.

I’m just kind of… sitting here… at my laptop… and I don’t know what to say because I don’t know what I feel.

Maybe a good start would be looking through my book, because this was the first time in my life where I felt the need to physically sticky my book. I marked various parts in the book where there were moments that had 1. Cute stuff 2. Stuff I just generally liked 3. Information or had 4. Good visuals. I’ll present my stickies in order. Naturally, spoilers will be present.

(view spoiler)[
Cute: (End of) Chapter Eight, page 77, referring to the third paragraph until the end of the chapter. The whole thing is pretty long, so to sum it up, this is the scene after Levana posted Jacin as Winter’s personal guard and Jacin, to Winter’s disappointment, maked it clear that he’s going to be all business during this arrangement. So Winter decided to sit down beside him as he’s stationed outside her door, and paint her planets for her diorama:

“What are you doing?” Jacin muttered beneath his breath, though the hallway was empty.

Winter pretended to jump. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, peering up at him. “I’m afraid I didn’t see you there.”

He scowled.

Winking, she turned her attention back to her work, dipping a paintbrush into rich cerulean blue.

Jacin said nothing else. Neither did she. After the first ring was completed, she leaned her head against his thigh, making herself more comfortable as she picked out a sunburst orange. Overhead, Jacin sighed, and she felt the faintest brush of fingertips against her hair. A hint, a suggestion of togetherness, before he became a statue once more.

I literally didn’t care for Jacin and Winter’s relationship in the slightest before reading this last installment, but this scene definitely started loosening me up.


Cute: Chapter 18, Page 151, just, this:

“Sir Clay, might I solicit your opinion before we go to greet our Earthen guests?”

He waited two full breaths before responding. “At your service, Your Highness.”

He did not, however, remove his attention from the corridor wall.

Smoothing down her skirt, Winter situated herself in front of him. “I wanted to know if you thought I looked sort of pretty today?”

Another breath, this one a bit louder. “Not funny, Princess.”

“Funny? It’s an honest question.” She bunched her lips to one side. “I’m not sure blue is my color.”

With a glower, he finally looked at her. “Are you trying to drive me crazy?”

She laughed. “Crazy loves company, Sir Clay. I notice you haven’t answered my question.”

His jaw tightened as he returned his focus to some spot over her head. “Go look for compliments elsewhere, Princess. I’m busy protecting you from unknown threats.”

(I bolded the specific bits.)


Cute: Chapter 18, page 154, right after Winter has a hallucination attack and Jacin coaxes her out of it:

Jacin exhaled, like he’d been forgetting to breathe himself. Then, in a strange moment of vulnerability, he craned his head and kissed her on the shoulder, right where the nonexistent drop of blood had fallen before. “That wasn’t so bad,” he said, with a new lightness.

I liked: Chapter 20, page 169:

Cinder tightened her gloved fists. “Wolf, Thorne, the second a thaumaturge sees either of you they’ll try to control you.” She licked her lips. “Do I have permission to take control of you first? Just your bodies, not your minds.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to admit you wanted my body,” said Thorne. He laid a hand on the gun at his waist. “Be my guest.”

Man, Thorne’s flirtations with Cinder were one of the best things in this whole series.


Information: Chapter 20, page 172:

Her left leg kicked out from under her, the shock wave vibrating up through her hip and into her spine. The bullet had hit her metal thigh.

Okay now, I don’t know about you, but this WHOLE TIME I imagined that it was literally just Cinder’s foot that was bionic, not her whole leg! But that “metal thigh” bit really solidifies it to the point where there’s no denying it. I even drew some fan art with Cinder’s leg quite clearly made of flesh, click here>(http://fav.me/d9fp8cm) to look at that if you want. Also, while we’re on this topic, does the fact that Cinder wears elbow length gloves mean that her arm is also bionic all the way up to her elbow? Because I’ve also been envisioning it just to her wrist, obviously, as you can see in my fan art.


Good Visuals: Chapter 20, page 173:

Wolf vaulted over the crate. Gunshots blared, bullets pinged, the walls shook.

Iko roared and launched herself past Cinder, tackling a guard who appeared in the corner of Cinder’s vision. His gun fired; the bullet struck the ceiling. Iko punched him and his head cracked against the metal floor. His body stopped flailing, unconscious.

This whole scene was pretty visual-icious.


Good Visuals: Chapter 27, page 234:

Rocking back on his heels, Jacin rested his hand on the knife again. “I wasn’t sure what kind of girl could make a special op go ballistic over her. I’m glad to see it’s not the stupid kind.”

She curled her hands into fists. “Also not the kind that buys into empty flattery.”

Wrapping a hand around one of the bars, Jacin finally crouched so they were at eye level. “You know why you’re still alive?”

She gritted her teeth and answered, somewhat begrudgingly, “Because of Winter.”

“That’s right, firework. Try not to forget it.”

Ahhh, it was refreshing to see mean ol’ badass Jacin back, instead of the mushy-Winter-ga-ga Jacin.


I liked: Chapter 47, page 417:

Kai held out his elbow for Levana to take, their hands still bound, and together they turned to face the audience. From the corner of his eye, he saw Cinder’s image melt away, her face replaced with Levana’s, and he was glad she looked annoyed. It was the tiniest of victories, but he was glad for it.

They stood amid the thundering cheers, each of them seething.

Husband and wife.

Good stuff. (hide spoiler)]


Yeah that’s it. I just stopped stickying after I got past halfway through the book. There’s something I can say: this book was fricken ginormous.

It might not entirely look like it is, but it’s 827 whole pages. Even though it’s skinnier than Cress (the book). This was like reading three books in one. Every time I looked at the page number it felt like it should have been an accomplishment like, “Hey wow look at me I read 400 whole pages, that’s a whole lot I’d say!” but there’d still be 400 more pages left to go which was daunting. I was in this confusing state of “Oh my god I have so much left to read…” and “Oh my god I have so much left to read!!!!!!!!!!!” Because it was annoying that the book wouldn’t just finish already so I could stop being a hermit without internet, but on the other hand it was exciting that I still had so much more to experience and enjoy with this series.

I think this was a pretty good concluding novel to the series. A lot lot lot happened. All the things happened. Except for that one thing, you think it’s going to happen but then it doesn’t, it’s just hinted that it’s going to happen in the future. (view spoiler)[Kai and Cinder gettin’ hitched. (hide spoiler)] Even then, it was pretty satisfying. It didn’t just end when the conflict was over, which was definitely a really good thing that other authors should learn from. It has some nice peace and getting-stuff-done bits at the end, and some long-awaited character interactions. I’m sure a lot of people will still want more, more of the “after", which would be nice but not necessary. I’m just excited for Stars Above! Though I am also slightly weary because I wasn’t a gigantic fan of Fairest.

I was part of The Lunar Chronicles Mini Ship Week this year so I have a lot of TLC fan art from that! Here's a little gallery of my submissions for you guys to look at!







Here's the link to the full submissions: http://fav.me/d9f3qal. The link for the rest are in the description :)


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Click to read all of my Marissa Meyer Reviews
★The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest, Winter
★Heartless
★Renegades: Renegades, Archenemies, Book 3

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