I did it! Almost two years after reading Cress, I've finally continued the series with Fairest, which—if you didn't know—is a novella from Levana's point of view, explaining her origin story as a villain and what turned her into the wicked Lunar Queen we all know and hate today.

"You held all the power. You've always held all the power."

I've tremendously enjoyed the series as a whole, but this is the first installment I've given less than 5 stars. The writing is still gorgeous as Marissa Meyer's always is, and the plot is intriguing, so none of that is the problem. Learning what turned Levana into who she is today and getting this backstory on her, as well as the history behind what happened to Cinder and Winter, is absolutely fascinating! There's just one problem that was enough to force me to take TWO MONTHS to finish one little bitty novella:

I ABSOLUTELY HATE LEVANA SO MUCH.

I've heard so many people say this book redeemed Levana for them, or helped them empathize with her, or made her their favorite villain, and I respect that, but that's not what happened for me. If anything, I went from a general dislike for her character to her becoming one of my most loathed fictional characters of all time.

Sure, she has a tragic incident from her childhood and she's clearly completely mentally unstable with a heaping dose of narcissism and delusional thinking, but she's also self-absorbed, manipulative, a child murderer, and a literal rapist. (Seriously, why is nobody talking about the trigger warnings for this book, because I did not expect to waltz into a book full of a woman raping a man through psychic manipulation and horrific coercion.)

So, final thoughts—is this novella well written? Yes. Does it contribute to the overall series? Yes. Should you read it? Absolutely. Will I ever reread this or have any even remotely positive feelings for Levana's character? Nope, don't think so.