Why Queen Levana’s Story Draws No Empathy From Me

Winter is the last book of The Lunar Chronicle series. As I was approaching, my dear friend Renee at @somekindoflibrary mentioned reading Fairest before Winter.

Well, I read the book and I actually don’t feel any more empathy towards Queen Levana. In truth, I hate her more.

I’m not 100% sure why Marissa Meyer decided to write this book. It’s probably to bring some empathy to the character, but it makes you wonder why this book was published before the final book. Was it because it’s important to the central plot in Winter? Won’t we be in for a treat when that happens.

But reviewing this book on its own and what I’ve read already of The Lunar Chronicle, I have to say that it didn’t drum up any empathy from me.

The story follows a young Queen Levana who at 15 years old has already experienced some terrible things. For example, the death of her parents, her sister’s cruelty, and a mysterious scar across her body that’s just teased the entire time. However, despite all of these terrible things, young Levana seems to be pretty optimistic. She’s loving the royal life, spending her days wanting to do more for the country but finding that she has no sway because she’s the second daughter and no where close to taking the crown.

But she’s got a crush on a guard named Evret and that’s basically where the story starts. Her obsession with love, acceptance, and her own happiness becomes her biggest downfall as she forces Evret to sleep with her, marry her, and eventually die for her. Basically Queen Levana gives new definition to “lunatic” on Luna.

In fact, the entire ensemble of folks living on the moon seem to be crazy. Every. Single. Person. They all have these weird dreams and aspirations that quickly divulge into darkness, anguish, pain, and obsession. They do whatever they can to get what they want especially using their Lunar gifts of mind control and glamour. It’s a sick and twisted world we’re living in on the moon.

And yet, I still don’t have any empathy for Queen Levana. She’s just a young person trapped in her close-minded thinking about herself and ends up believing that the universe should bow down to her. She does everything to destroy anyone’s chances at casting a shadow across her dreams. She’s a victim of her past transgressions, but let’s think who was making all those decisions? I’m just not a fan of characters who use their own past to justify the needs of their present. It just shows a lack of self-reflection and I know I’m asking a lot from a character, but get a grip. Not everyone gets everything that they want.

This blog post features excerpts from my review of Fairest on Goodreads.