The Lunar Chronicles
Most people who know me know I'm a sucker for fairy tale retellings/reimaginings. This is young adult fiction, but it is still a mostly worthwhile read. As a forty-something I did do some eye rolling and some, "Oh girl what are you THINKING?" but overall it's pretty well done. Think of the big four as steam punk anime and that is what I was picturing in my head as I read. We start with Cinder (Cinderella, duh) then go to Scarlett, the pretty and firey redhead who loves her red hoodie and falls in love with one of the queen's genetically modified operatives, Wolfe. That is what they call him but his name in the story translates to Wolf, anyway. Then we have the next book, Cress, about the girl being kept in a satellite and the "Prince Charming" who rescues her. The final book, Winter, is about Princess Winter, the most beautiful young woman on all the planet whose jealous stepmother is the queen. The parallels to the original material are put in rather clever and there were even a few places I almost didn't catch. They are all interwoven and I think the teenagers are definitely written like teens for teens, but also they show how strong and important these girls are. I only gave it four stars out of five because of some of the eye rolling, but overall I am glad I read it. Warning to anyone interested: Winter is LOOOOOONG. To the point I got a notice from the library that it would be due soon. I rarely have any book long enough for that business.