Winter - Book Review

Aces, spades, stars. I wasn't expecting to finish it today. To finish it all today.

Oh my gosh. 

It seems like a thousand years ago when I started Cinder -- the first book of this series -- and was unsure of it. I thought it'd be boring. I have no idea why. But, stars, I was wrong, and I am so happy that I read this series. I love the characters so much. I just-- no words.

I think I'm gonna cry. 

You know when you see a book or a series, and think, that looks interesting, I think it's popular, I like the cover? It means little to you, and you never can imagine yourself being invested in it, fangirling over it, crying over it?

But then, just a few short months later, you smile when you see the cover. The name of the book sends shivers down your spine and fills you with a happiness that fills up places in your soul that only a book, that book, can reach. You hear the author's name and you greet it as if they were an old friend.

The feeling of finishing a book, especially a series, is indescribable. You think that you will never experience the feeling again, because the feeling is for that book. You want the book to be yours. You are horrified when you start reading a different book. And, for me, it isn't a feeling of accomplishment. It's the feeling of letting go and knowing that you'll soon move on and that your deep love won't last forever. And then you go on and move on and experience that feeling a million more times. And it's sad to let go of your old love, but it's amazing to feel your love grow again for something else, someone else, someplace else. So you tear through another book, another series, until you get to the final few chapters and wish that it would never end. You feel guilty to let it end. But you let it end. And people wonder why I am horrified at those who think books are disposable.

Whether or not it's valid, whether or not it makes sense, I feel this. This emotion, this feeling, is one of the few that overwhelms me so much that I cannot even think about it without going into some painfully endless and deep philosophical mood. I want to have rows and rows of bookshelves that contain every book I've ever read, so that I don't forget them. 

I want five of those books to be copies of Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest and Winter. But because I borrowed them from the library, because I don't have unlimited money, because I will likely never read them again for there are so many books in the world to overwhelm me and take my heart and break my heart. So I will just have to keep them in my soul. For forever.

And so I say, farewell, dear Lunar Chronicles friends. I love you so much. Thank you, Marissa Meyer.

Winter by Marissa Meyer, 13+*

*This age recommendation is only my opinion. Some younger people might feel comfortable reading this book, and some older people might not. That's fine, either way. Warning for potentially upsetting and sad scenes/themes, a few sexual references, quite a lot of violence, kissing and all that, and some kinda scary scenes.