Meyer does it again with this prequel to her popular Lunar Chronicles series. Fairest is technically a prequel as it sets up events years before Cinder but it was released between Cress and Winter. But since it’s such a stand-alone you can read it before, after or in between. The main point is to give insight to the mysterious Lunar queen, Levana before she became the fairest and most manipulative ruler in the realm.

When Levana was princess, she was ugly and invisible.

Horribly deformed after a vicious accident caused by her older sister, Channery, Levana has been alone. Most don’t even look at her even though Levana has perfected her glamour so no one can see the scars. She’s still invisible compared to the natural beauty and exuberance of the cruel Channery. The Channery that is now queen since their parents’ murder.

Meyer starts by weaving in how absolutely loveless Levana’s life had been from Channery’s taunts and maliciousness to her parents’ cold indifference. It’s what Levana grew up with so you can imagine that wen Levana does fall in love, she is unable to handle it.

And she has long been in love with a guard years her senior, Evret Hayle despite his age, his station and the fact that he’s married. She harbors a childish crush that he’ll see their friendship as something more, that he’ll choose her someday. Which comes all too soon when his wife dies in childbirth.

Now that Levana has her chance but Evret is too honorable to accept her. At least that is what she believes, so a little mind manipulation, a little glamouring so she’ll look like his dead wife and she’ll make him see that not only do they belong together but she’s a better wife than Solstice ever was.

Like I said, it’s almost tragic. Levana has been so alone, so abused, that she cannot see what she is doing is wrong. She’s almost delusional in her denial that her manipulation is needed for him to see the “truth.” But as Meyer masterfully weaves that despite the sympathy for where Levana is coming from, she crosses the line so many times. There’s a point where abuse and not knowing better doesn’t excuse the torture she is putting Evret through.

Similar to her rule as Queen as Meyer shows how Levena is a better queen than her sister at least because she cared about the planet’s progress and listened to the updates and speeches given by the advisers. She does want Luna to improve, but in a strict way according to her standards and a willingness to cut costs at the expense of the poorest. So it comes to a choice between a cruel and neglectant queen like Channery who delegates or a cruel and controlling queen like the kind Levena becomes in her eagerness to be a better queen, a memorable queen that forever changes Luna’s history.

But I would remiss to forget her attempted murder of baby Cinder. Meyer does just as well in creating Levana’s pragmatic rationalization of her actions for the sake of Luna. Additionally, in allowing readers to see Channery as she lived and her flighty indifference to her role as queen and her casual brutality to others, it helps to bolster Levana’s justifications. Even so, Meyer doesn’t let Channery fall into one-dimensional villany and even she is given some depth in her interactions with Cinder.

Sostice is also given a nice amount of page-time so readers can see how Winter echoes her in spirit and sweetness next to Evret’s kindness that unfortunately backfired on him when it came to Levana.

And I mean the secret, inner Levana that others will never see in the mirror since she destroyed them all: “She cried for the girl who had never belonged. A girl who tried so hard, harder than anyone else, and still never had anything to show for it. A girl who had been certain that Evret loved her and only her, and now she couldn’t even remember what that certainty felt like.”