Prequel to the Lunar Chronicles, featuring Queen Levana’s backstory.

I’ve enjoyed all the Lunar Chronicles thus far, and can’t wait for Winter to release later this year. I’ve read all the short stories, and now this novella. Funny thing: When I added this book to my Goodreads list, I saw some review complaining about how they were sad that Levana was now a sympathetic character, and they didn’t want her to be. Honestly, despite all the horrific things that happened to Levana as a child, I don’t find her in any way sympathetic. She’s ignorant and cruel and definitely not right in the head. I wish she had been more sympathetic. Some of my favorite authors are those who make what initially seems very black-and-white turn into something very, very grey. I love characters who seem all-good or all-bad at first glance, but who are really a swirly mix of both when you get to know them better. And I just didn’t get that with Levana. That’s not to say it was a bad book – I actually really enjoyed it, especially seeing the backstories of some other characters we know pretty well by now – but it wasn’t everything I’d hoped for.