Fairest
Levana is the second daughter of the King and Queen of Luna, behind her stunning older sister Channary. All Levana wants is to marry someone good and be loved – and she already has her eyes on a certain man. But when the King and Queen are murdered and Channary takes the throne, Levana realizes that her sister doesn’t have the country’s best interest at heart. She cares more for suitors and dresses than she does for the survival of her people. A few years later, Channary gives birth to a lovely little girl, who will one day take her mother’s place as Queen of Luna. Levana, now married to the man she loves, who incidentally doesn’t share her feelings but have no choice in the matter, knows for certain that the child only will grow up to be exactly like her mother. So when Channary suddenly takes ill and passes away, Levana sees her chance of taking what she feels belongs to her. Luna and the throne. The only thing standing in her way is a three year old girl and that’s nothing a little fire can’t fix. After all, no one loves Luna like Levana does.
This is an excellent story with the villain at the helm. The Levana portrayed in the first three novels in the series (Cinder, Scarlet and Cress) is cold, poised and crueler than anyone. I’ve always disliked her for the choices she’s made, but I’ve also wondered what made her act the way she did. Fairest is her story, talking about a world where everyone lies and deceit one another and were Levana hasn’t felt any love, not even from her own parents. Her sister is sweet, but has an even crueler side than Levana, it just shows a little differently and no one knows that better than the little sister. So to get this look into her life, what made and shaped her to be the horrible person she is fifteen years later, was really wonderful.
The story starts when Levana is only sixteen and madly in love with one of the palace guards, who’s married and about to become a father. But things happen, which Levana only views as fate, and she snares the guard to her, in belief that if they only get together he will realize that he loves her and needs her. It's obviously not a surprise that she thought all she needed to do was to use her mind controlling Lunar gift on him and they then would live happily ever after, when all around her that’s what people do. Control each other with their minds to get what they want. And Levana, growing up in a family that never showed her any love, doesn’t know what it’s supposed to be. She believes that what she feels and what she has with the guard is real love. And it very well might have been – from her side, but certainly not his. It was heartbreaking to see that all she wanted, all she needed, was to be loved and everyone pushed her away. She tried her best in every situation, but already at sixteen she was so screwed up that she couldn’t tell the difference between what was real and what wasn’t.
It’s hardly a spoiler to say that the reason for Levana’s cold exterior and her cruelty is based on her childhood. Always being pushed away, always being told she wasn’t good enough, always knowing that she wouldn’t, and didn’t, matter, never being truly seen and truly loved. It pushed her to be heartless and cold, to choose her people and country before her family. A man couldn’t love her, but a country could and it needed her, which became her salvation. She poured everything into ruling Luna, but like most people in high positions, she became greedy.
Meyer’s writing was wonderful, as always. It did bother me a bit, though, that the story didn’t have chapters. It was just one long read through 230 pages and it was… a little heavy. I would’ve liked it divided into chapters. Other than that it was just like the previous three novels, except that this stretched on for years rather than just a few weeks, though that was hardly a surprise.
I really enjoyed getting to know Levana better and I do believe this novel contributes greatly to the rest of the series. To get to see her, to get to know her, to hear the reasons behind her choices, that was great. She is the perfect villain, because she could be anyone. Anyone could turn into that, in the same circumstances. She is, despite the horrible things she does, relatable. And all the best villains are. I feel like I understand her better now and I feel sorry for her rather than being mad or appalled by her decisions. She did awful things in Fairest and has done awful things in the other novels, and nothing is okay but at least now I know what she thought, that she somehow believed that she was right in doing all those things.
I’m certain that had Levana just been loved, and shown love, when she was younger and had known that she was enough just the way she was, then she wouldn’t have turned into that cruel person. Evil feeds evil and it can’t be plainer than it is in this series. Meyer has done an excellent job with Levana, her story and keeping me somewhat content until November. If you like the Lunar Chronicles then this is a must-read for you!