Book Review 29. Cress

Book: Cress
Series: The Lunar Chronicles (#3)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Pages: 550
Published: February 4th, 2014

Synopsis: 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 high 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.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"You can help me pick out a tiara when we’re done saving the world.”

Okay, usually our reviews are pretty much spoiler-free, but this is the third book of a series I have grown to love very much, so don't read this unless you're caught up in the series or plan on never reading this series (although you totally should). You have been warned.

Cress, out of the three books in the series that have come out so far, is by far my favorite! It took the best aspects of the first two books and made them even more awesome. It flawlessly mixes drawing inspiration from the original story and putting together all of the different points of view.

So, this book is a sci-fi retelling of Rapunzel, and every time something happened in the book that was clearly a nod to the original story, I was just so happy. Even the super obvious things, like Thorne losing his sight and the satellite being the tower, made me feel so clever. And Cress, who is our Rapunzel, was awesome! She was this awesome hacker, and on top of the Cinderella-esque mechanic and the Little Red Riding Hood pilot, I just love how kickass all our heroines are. They have their moments when they need to be saved by their respective fairytale princes, just like in the original stories, but they can totally hold their own when it comes down to it. Their boys can fight and govern, but the girls can create. The girls are all fantastic.

I ship all the different couples so, so hard. I'm pretty thankful Meyer decided to not put in any love triangles, because the characters are all focused on saving the world and love triangles would just make me mad at this point. Love triangles are not necessary. As a couple, Scarlet and Wolf are heartbreaking and sweet. They may be a bit sappy and pathetic at times, but I still really want them to be happy together. When Scarlet is taken away from Wolf it's like a whole part of him is just gone.

"The world shifted around her as she flipped off the panic and desperation and reached out instead for the energy crackling around Wolf. Except this time it wasn't crackling. Not like usual. This time, it was like controlling a corpse."

This passage just broke my heart, because without Scarlet Wolf just doesn't seem to have the will to fight back anymore, and that makes me want to cry. She is his everything, and if she dies I have zero doubt that he will die within the hour. My second biggest ship is Cress and Thorne, and the only reason they're not first is I feel like they could both survive without each other. They could move on. But don't get me wrong, they are adorable and spunky and I love every little thing about them. And by default, my third ship would be Cinder and Kia, because they're cute, but we just haven't had as solid of a bonding between them as with the other couples.

Plot-wise, I'm glad that the book doesn't follow the source material to a T, because that would be boring. Cress and Thorne, who are supposed to be Rapunzel and her prince, are adorable. Thorne is so sassy and charming, and Cress is experiencing the world for the first time after escaping from her "tower" (satellite), and the two of them together are perfect. The best scene is when Throne is asking Cress what she sees shortly after he broke her out so they can find out where they are, and she just says;

"'It's beautiful out there.'

A hesitation, before, 'Could you be more specific?'

'The sky is gorgeous, intense blue color.' She pressed her fingers to the glass and traced the wavy hills on the horizon.

'Oh, good. You've really narrowed it down for me.'"

Perfect. There are a dozen other quotes I could use, and they are all equally cute and sassy. Cress is so nervous because she's never really been around people before, but she adapts and is amazing. It's true she falls in love with the first boy she's ever really met, but he's just perfect for her. I have to admit, I have a such a crush Captain Thorne. He is my favorite character in the series. I saw one person compare him to Captain Hans Solo, in that "I'm a charismatic rebel, but at the same time I'm loyal and kickass" way. The comparison has his flaws, but now I kind of picture Thorne really Han Solo-y.

I can not wait for Winter to come out this fall. From the little we've seen of her, Winter seems like an amazing, heroic character, even though she definitely has more than a couple crews lose. If you've read this series and have opinions on it, comment below! I really want to find someone to talk about them with! Sorry this review was kind of jumbled, I was just spitting my opinions out onto my keyboard.

-Claire

Some other reviews for "Cress" (may contain spoilers):
Fantasy Book Critic
Alice Marvels
Ivy Books Bindings