Read the series first, although this book was released before Winter, so you could read it in Cress and Winter (I was a bit confused in Winter since there was a lot of backstory I didn’t know, and reading Fairest answered a lot of those questions, but reading it afterwards didn’t have that much of an impact on my reading experience). I recommend taking a few days (maybe three or four) after Winter, which is jam packed with action and suspense, and then read Fairest. I read it a few months after Winter, and I was fine because I still remembered everything else quite well. You read the series first and learn things along with the main characters and protagonists, and then you see all this from the villain's perspective. Marissa is not trying to justify the horrible things Levana did, she’s trying to make us sympathize. Also, the foreshadowing in Fairest is almost a spoiler, it’s so present, so I really enjoyed it along with the references to things I know from the other books, it’s like me and the author are in on a joke.
I’m always impressed by Marissa Meyer’s characters, in fact they are my absolute favorite thing about the series. Yes, the plot is great (although Winter was a bit too much) and so is the word building, but it’s the characters that make this my favorite series. Meyer is also an absolute master at writing her villains, Levana is absolutely cruel but also cunning. The most dangerous kind of villains are the smart ones. At the same time, in this book, we see how Levana came to be who she is. Her family was abusive, she was manipulated and glamoured at a young age and forced to hurt herself by her own sister, as well as having immense power at a young age (how many 16 year olds wouldn’t make rash decisions?), and her personality also impacted her decisions (the want for more power, the throwing herself into being a good queen while simultaneously being a tyrant, etc.). I almost feel bad for her, of course her being extremely mentally ill does not excuse the terrible things she did, because even when she became queen regent, she still had humanity left in her. She felt horrible and disgusted at first when thinking about killing Selene. And didn’t haveto attempt it, but she convinced herself that she would make a better queen, which might be true but does not justify killing a three-year-old child. Another interesting thing about Levana is that she genuinely believes a lot of things. She really thought Evret was in love with her, she genuinely believed that she’s a good queen. It’s kind of sad how delusional she is. In a way, she’s similar to Winter, except Winter was driven to that by not using glamour, while Leavana was (partly) driven to that because she was almost addicted to glamour. She could not live without it. Winter was like the positive version. She imagined a pet wolf after he died, while Levana imagined that her people loved her when they didn’t. I pity Levana, while I admire and sympathize with Winter.