Book Review: “Fairest” by Marissa Meyer

Apr 18

Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of Fairest, a novella within the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the book cover image to see how others rate Fairest on Goodreads. Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Science Fiction bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

The Lunar Queen Levana, renowned for her malice and cruelty, will do whatever she deems necessary to claim the power and control she so desperately craves. But who is the woman, and who was the girl, behind the well-crafted “glamour” seen by the citizens of both Luna and Earth? How did she, younger sister to the short-lived Queen Chanery, rise to power? And what is she capable of in the years to come?

Important Trigger Warning for Fairest

Fairest heavily depicts emotional manipulation and coercive control from the perspective of the abuser. Although the exact graphic details are only hinted at, there is a scene almost halfway through the novella that depicts the aftermath of a sexual assault. There are brief mentions of infertility. These themes and scenes are essential to the plot of the story. There is also, for some reason, a scene that alludes to a character using Black face. This detail of the scene it occurs in is absolutely unnecessary to the story. Please prioritize your own mental health before engaging with any work of fiction or non-fiction. If you do decide to read or listen to the audiobook of Fairest—and if these would cause you stress or distress in any way—then make sure to take the necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after consuming this story.

My Thoughts on Fairest: 4 stars

Marissa Meyer takes the reader back over 18 years from the Lunar Chronicles’ main set of events in a prequel following Levana’s unhinged interpretation of what is “meant to be” through her rise from second-to-the-throne to Queen consort to Queen of Luna. Taking place entirely within Luna’s capital of Artemesia, Fairest spans from just before Princess Levana’s 16th birthday to the period after the death of her older sister Queen Chanery and the weeks following the death of her niece Princess Celine. There are some continuity issues between Fairest and the main installments of the Lunar Chronicles, but this book does give dynamic insight to the origins of an evil queen.

Fairest is told from a third-person limited perspective closely following Levana. Levana’s way of moving through the world is a display of the different ways she was taught to view herself and to view others. Being of Luna royalty, she was taught to see herself as being at the center of all thought and attention, with everyone else around her being privileged just to exist in her presence. Being from a highly dysfunctional and horrifically abusive family, she was taught that manipulating and harming others was a normal definition of love. In many respects, Levana almost never had a chance at not prioritizing her perception of the world while absolutely disregarding or invalidating the boundaries and feelings of others. This trait is not unique to Levana but is also shared with her sister.

Although Levana refuses to see the similarities between her and her older sister Chanery, Levana perceives herself to be the “good one” between the two of them. But this comes with the largest asterisk you could imagine! To use popularized versions of terms from clinical psychology to describe presentations of anti-social personality disorder, Levana would be a sociopath while Chanery would be a psychopath. Levana has brief moments of remorse and self-reflection that are quickly stamped out by her deeply selfish and entitled ways; the trajectory they take to become what they are over 18 years later is left clear to the reader. Chanery, on the other hand, seems to feel absolutely nothing in regards to what she does to others, especially to her younger sister. I am absolutely NOT saying that those with anti-social personality disorder are inherently violent people but, in the cases of Chanery and Levana, they are both two slightly different flavors of evil.

Woven into her deeply scarred sense of self, selfishness, and entitlement is Levana’s debilitating insecurity. Levana’s strong tendency to project her view of herself onto how others perceive her pendulums from “they love me and are happy just to be in my presence” to “they all hate me and know I am hideously ugly.” Without ever actually taking the time to know anyone else’s thoughts or feelings, Levana feels entitled to decide for others how they think and feel. Like many perpetrators of abuse, Levana uses her deeply rooted insecurities to demean and belittle others as a means to make her feel better about herself. From my perspective, her entire identity stands on the notion of “I am me because I am inherently better than you.” And like many who grow up in the cycle of abuse, do not address what they experienced, and later repeat the cycle themselves, Levana confuses ownership with love.

From my interpretation of the story, the most prominent theme throughout Fairest is the vicious cycle of abuse. The abuse Levana experienced at the hands of her sister informs what she defines as “too much” and—when combined with the entitlements of her upbringing as Luna royalty—is part of what leads her to believe that her actions are really not so bad. But they absolutely are so bad! Levana demonstrates the old adage of “hurt people hurt people,” meaning that those who have been harmed may go on to harm others. But abuse is abuse at the end of the day; and emotional manipulation and coercive control are abuse. This leads to two things being true at once: the reader feels bad for Levana’s child self while being appalled by her adult self.

My overall rating for Marissa Meyer’s Fairest is 4 out of 5 stars. Although Fairest is not considered to be one of the required readings of the Lunar Chronicles, it is the installment I like the most in the series at this point. Marissa Meyer takes a close look at the internal dynamics of an emotionally abusive relationship from the perspective of the abuser, demonstrating that an individual can go from being a victim of abuse to being a perpetrator of abuse. Levana is irredeemably evil, and Meyer does not make excuses for Levana’s conduct against others (especially against Everet) as she treads the line between showing the deep internal struggle and pain that Levana feels while displaying the grossly entitled selfishness that motivates Levana’s choices. I recommend Fairest to fans of the Lunar Chronicles series, those with mixed feelings about the series (like me), and those who want to read a complex and nuanced backstory for a villain who is not just bad for the sake of being bad.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Fairest by Marissa Meyer.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 21 July 2025