Okay, so a basic summary of the plot is: Cinder and pals have decided to invade Luna and try to take down Levana and put Cinder on the throne. It’s quite a simple premise and you might be wondering how this stretched to nearly 900 pages. To be honest, I’m wondering the same thing.
Don’t get me wrong: there were things I loved about this book. I love Meyer’s ingenuity and how she takes elements from the original story (the poisoned apple, the glass coffin) and gave them a futuristic twist. I love that Winter is a stop short of East Ham but that she still has a personality. I love all the girls getting busy with their STEM subjects. And the awesome characters … and a-a-l-l-l the shipping … There were good point to this book and overall I think Winter gave us a good wrap-up to what has been an excellent series overall.
It’s just … It’s just it was too long.
One of the things I loved about the previous books, was that Meyer just throws plot points at you like snowballs and it’s just one big, crazy ride. That didn’t happen here. Like I said before, the whole premise of the book is that the gang invade Luna and take down Levana. Well, they don’t actually arrive on Luna until page 150. And then, without wishing to give too much away, the plot consists of the gang being split up and finding each other over and over again. And every time they do, they have to fill each other in on what’s been happening since they last saw each other. I really think that Winter could have been shortened by about 400 pages without damaging the plot in any way.
So yeah, it was a bit wandery and weavy, and there were definitely times I wanted to shout, ‘Just get to the point, would you?!’ Luckily, though, Marissa Meyer’s writing is still very good – it flows right off the page and even if the dialogues maybe weren’t quite as snappy as in previous books, it was still very readable.
I did think Winter lacked some of the tension of the previous books. We know it’s the last book, and we know they’re all going to get an HEA (obviously – it’s a fairy tale!), so I think a lot of the book was just waiting around for the HEA to happen. There was never a moment when I thought ‘My god, how the HELL are they going to get out of this scrape?’ You know with some books, you think your MCs are definitely, definitely doomed this time and you just can’t see how they’re going to escape and then the author pulls a neatly foreshadowed rabbit out of the hat? Yeah, not so much here.
Still, I’m glad I read it. The characters are just so much fun and the twist on the traditional fairy tale is great.
3 stars