Book Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress

by Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3
Published: February 4, 2014
Genres: Fairy Tale, Retelling, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: eBook (552 pages)
Source: Purchased

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.
Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

I liked Cress much better than Cinder or Scarlet. In fact, it took me a few years to even finish the series because I didn’t like Scarlet very much. I’m so glad I didn’t quit the Lunar Chronicles series! My favorite thing about this series has been the subtle tie-ins to the fairy tales. In this retelling of Rapunzel, I loved the trek in the desert and Thorne being blind which are both elements from the original fairy tale. It was hilarious to hear Cress describe everything in the barren desert as beautiful because of her sheltered life. It reminded me a little of the character from the Disney version. Very adorable and likable. Her matted hair was also a nice nod to the fairy tale, but I was sad that Thorne was the one to comment on it in a negative way. While I loved the plot and story in this book, I was not a fan of the relationship between Thorne and Cress. Cress’ celebrity crush was so relatable and cute but I never felt like Thorne had a connection back with her. Her crush never seemed to line up with reality and I didn’t feel like she saw him clearly by the end. I kind of agreed with Thorne that she only saw him the way she wanted him to be. They certainly had an interesting relationship but it didn’t quite have that romantic spark to me.

The fact that she was in a satellite and not a tower was so cool. Her relationship with a computer program based on her 10 year old self was the cutest thing ever and it felt like Wilson the volleyball from Cast Away. Cress’ relationship to the satellite was interesting. She listed the different meanings of the word “satellite”-companions, minion, and sycophant-and it described her complicated relationship to being trapped in the satellite so well.

The plot really took off in this novel compared to the first two in the series and I was hooked almost the whole time. And I loved getting to know the characters of the other books better. Scarlet is fierce but has a lot of empathy for others. Nainsi the android is like a cute little C-3PO. Thorne brags about how good he is at things he’s never done. The Lunars are elitist and annoying even without mind control powers. Iko the android/spaceship comments on Cinder’s looks a lot and I can’t help but wonder if she’s a fairy godmother of sorts. This argument between Jacin and Iko the spaceship is my favorite quote in the whole book:

“Iko. My name is Iko. If you don’t stop calling me the ‘ship,’ I am going to make sure you never have hot water during your showers again, do you understand me?”

“Yeah, hold that thought while I go disable the speaker system.”

-Cress by Marissa Meyer, Kindle Location 4831

A character that I still don’t like very much is Wolf. His extreme mourning was not relatable to me. It came across as melodramatic instead of genuine. We judge girls who act like that and push them to move on or dismiss their feelings instead of letting them be sad. It bugged me that he kind of got away with it since most girls in that situation don’t. Stupid double standard. Just to be clear – boys and girls can act this way. They can be extremely sad about relationships. It was just the way he did it moping around with a can of tomatoes that I just couldn’t relate to. Girls should be allowed to be as sad as Wolf with his can of tomatoes. Even when we don’t relate to it. Especially then, actually.

There were some interesting thoughts on immigration. In a place in the book with a large immigrant population, instead of fear of the immigrants by the local people, they noticed that they usually just keep to themselves since it was a lot of trouble to immigrate in the first place. It was a lovely thought on tolerance and one I hope to see more in real life and in stories.

Fairy tales are often about fate and things we can’t change so it was a wonderful surprise to read this lovely quote, which I loved, about fate:

“Maybe there isn’t such a thing as fate. Maybe it’s just the opportunities we’re given, and what we do with them. I’m beginning to think that maybe great, epic romances don’t just happen. We have to make them ourselves.”

-Cress by Marissa Meyer, Kindle location 7456

I flew through this long book in no time and I can’t wait to read Winter!

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