Cress

Cress is the third book in Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles, the young adult fairy tale science fiction series that began with Cinder and continued with Scarlet. By this entry in the series, the cast has expanded considerably and the larger story arc is reaching the point where the various threads have to start coming together. Each Lunar Chronicles book is built around a different fairy tale heroine. Cinder for Cinderella, Scarlet for Red Riding Hood, Cress for Rapunzel, and the eventual Winter for Snow White.

This novel introduces Crescent Moon Darnel, called Cress, a teenage Lunar shell girl who has been imprisoned in a satellite orbiting Earth for the past seven years. Cress is a brilliant hacker, blind in one eye after years away from natural light, and has been forced to work for the evil Lunar queen Levana through a combination of fear and isolation. When Cinder, Scarlet, and the rest of the rebel cast attempt a daring rescue of Cress from her satellite, things go wrong almost immediately, and the rescued cast finds themselves scattered across the Sahara desert and into wider trouble than any of them anticipated.

Marissa Meyer is doing fairy tale retellings at a higher level than the genre usually offers. The Rapunzel material is honored without becoming simple pastiche, with Cress’s long hair and her tower turned satellite functioning as both literal plot elements and as resonant images of the kind of isolation the original tale was working with. Cress herself is a fully developed character whose arc through the book is one of the most satisfying in the series, with her gentleness and her hidden steel both given room to develop.

The wider Lunar Chronicles arc continues to advance through this volume, with the cast’s growing alliance and the increasing threat from Queen Levana setting up the eventual confrontation that Winter will deliver. For longtime fans of the series, Cress is essential. For new readers, start with Cinder and read in order. The series rewards the cumulative reading with a payoff in Winter that depends on knowing all the characters well.