CRESS by Marissa Meyer 2/5

CRESS

(The Lunar Chronicles Book 3)

by Marissa Meyer

2 out of 5 stars

If you thought that Cinder was awesome, and Scarlet surpassed all expectations, this review is not for you.

This review can be scathing and may have spoilers.

It's mainly because this book drained my skull of brain cells.

SYNOPSIS

In a world ravaged by a mysterious and deadly disease called letumosis,

 an even deadlier disease impairs the main characters called...

STUPIDITY.

After many years of war, Earth is finally at peace. Unfortunately, a new-found enemy, the Lunars from the Moon, threatens Earth's independence. Queen Levana of Luna is hell-bent on conquering all of Earth. Apparently, Earth is suffers from a lack of military capability against a much more advanced Lunar technology and they also have to deal with the letumosis outbreak. 

Nothing has changed (at all) since we have met Cinder (Book 1 of the Lunar Chronicles) and Scarlet (Book 2). But that's ok. We get to meet new characters in this installment and swoon over a new love-team as per the standard of each book/fairy tale retelling.

In a nutshell, we are told that this book is the cyberpunk version of this:

We kinda really want it to be like this:

Instead, we got this:

Wait, what?

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SPOILER ALERT

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Don't get me wrong. I have absolute love for The Little Mermaid. That's my jam. I do not mind that there are (plenty) of elements from Disney's The Little Mermaid in Cress. I'm good with that. What bothers me is everything else. But, before that, let me explain why I Cress and Ariel are very similar.

1) PART OF YOUR WORLD

Cress sits alone in her satellite for 7 years watching, learning and, eventually, loving all things Earth. Just like Ariel, she finds Earth fascinating. Being a Lunar, she knows that she may never be part of the Earthen world... below.

2) PART OF YOUR WORLD (Reprise)

In line with the first observation, Cress' knowledge of Earthen things is massive but skewed. She only reads about it or sees it on screen. It has led her to develop very unrealistic expectations about relationships. To be fair, most Disney fairy tales do a fair amount of that.

3) KISS THE GIRL

Cress has a crush on Thorne, the wayward wanna-be captain on the Rampion introduced to us in Scarlet. When I say crush, I mean that Cress has an obsession with Thorne that factors in a kiss. She says/thinks this repeatedly. It got pretty annoying. 

THE PITFALLS

CHARACTER. Thankfully, Cress isn't as annoying at Cinder, who has lived all her life in Earth yet fails to grasp common Earthen concept of common sense. There is something very endearing and innocent about Cress. Maybe because she is much more polite than Cinder. While Cinder uses sarcasm to mask her inability to form logical thoughts that isn't about herself or Kai, Cress' motivations are clear, albeit, irritating --- She wants to have a happy ending. Perhaps that is what sets Cress apart from Cinder. Cress has the guts to owe up to her shortcomings, while Cinder simply ignores them (maybe in the belief that they would all go away). 

STUPIDITY. The first part of the book largely features Cinder. We have a bit of Scarlet, my favorite character so far. I wished that Scarlet remained in the Rampion. But I cannot help but feel that Cinder's stupidity has started to rub off on Scarlet. In the end, I'm ok that Scarlet was able to leave Rampion before stupidity set in. It even gave Scarlet genuinely scary scenes. Those are the best scenes in the book. Sadly, they last a mere few pages. 

Dr. Erland was able to make a comeback in this book. Unfortunately, it is only to kill him off. I think the reason is because he actually thinks logically and was able to convince Cinder to think the same way. I guess the story wouldn't have Cinder thinking logically so no more Dr. Erland. By the way, I really couldn't care less about his back story. 

KAI. The last three chapters are about him and Cinder. Because I completely hated the first book, I don't understand why their meeting had to last at least three chapters. This is one of the few times where the main love story of the main characters is the one relationship that failed to move the story along. In fact, if Cinder and Kai died, the story would move on (especially since I firmly believe that Winter would make a much better monarch). Of course, Kai's decisions are not entirely his fault. Torin should have smacked him in the head, tore off his brain and replaced it with an AI right after the Emperor died. If Kai was trained better, he would have made a better monarch. But this is really all Torin's fault. He failed to protect the Eastern Commonwealth from their inexperienced and entirely selfish new king. In Kai's head, he's making the greatest sacrifice. In this story's world, no not really. I hardly think that arranged marriages would be uncommon in a population with high mortality rate. Kai's marriage to Levana is completely ridiculous and is not even politically advantageous. He's such a bad king. I would dearly like him to be replaced ASAP. Also, I don't know why his people haven't picketed for his resignation as Emperor. Was it Levana's doing? Because Kai has failed his people on so many levels.

The whole of this book is to complete Cinder's plan of getting Kai out of his wedding with Queen Levana. Dr. Erland was quick to point out that there was no point. Would Cinder listen? Of course not! Cinder acts like a true queen in that she cares for no one but herself. Her strongest bond is with an AI. And that's the kind of person they want to be queen?! 

I hate that Earth failed to protect itself. It apparently still had a working government, there's social order, there's commerce... YET, the book explains that the many years of peace made Earth unprepared for war preparations and weapons. Why? What else were they doing? Were there significance advances in space exploration? In philosophy? In agriculture? Or whatever else they could be spending their time on? NO, there's nothing there. What on Earth were they doing down there? Singing and talking to mice? There was poverty and prejudice and illegal street fight and a black market. But Earth couldn't fight a war with Lunars. What?! I live in a country that had experienced hundreds of years of colonization. However, not once did we think that war was not an option. Yes, it's likely we were going to lose the war. But we would rather die trying. I believe all Earthens would feel the same way.

How in the world did Lunars get so advanced? First off, the moon is a chunk of rock with nothing in it. So, they made advances in science to get resources to grow on the moon. That way Lunars are no longer dependent on Earth. Clearly, whatever the moon has, Earth has too - and plenty more of it. Minerals, agriculture, manpower. Earth has them all too. Somehow, Lunars were able to out match Earth on everything. And Earth doesn't even do anything like, say, defend itself. So, did Queen Levana glamour everyone on Earth to be fear Lunars? 

Also, this glamour power thing. Nobody bothered to investigate this? Besides, it's relatively easy to shake them up. Apparently, you only need a mirror. Plus, a sniper in a right position can take out a Thaumaturge. That should effectively end the wolf attacks. 

I guess what bothers me the most about this book series is the poor world building. Even Divergent did it better.