Cress
Marissa Meyer, 2014
Fantasy Young adultScience fictionRomance
A girl raised alone in a satellite is the only one who can see the queen's real plan — if anyone will believe her. A lonely girl's escape story with a witty, wondering voice, quick banter, and a streak of satire beneath the longing.
Feels like longing and wonder. About freedom.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy YA science fantasy with romance, banter, and a heroine whose isolation shapes her view of the world. It is the third Lunar Chronicles book, so starting here may mean missing earlier setup and relationships.
Why read it
Cress's confined life and sharp eye for the queen's scheme give the story a tense, hopeful pull, with wit to lighten the dark stretches.
A page from the book
What she had to make up to herself is not in the book.
As a child, Cress had hidden from the moon during those achingly long hours. Sometimes she would escape to the small washroom and distract herself by twisting elaborate braids into her hair. Or she would scramble beneath her desk and sing lullabies until she fell asleep. Or she would dream up a mother and a father, and imagine how they would play make-believe with her and read her adventure stories and brush her hair lovingly off her brow, until finally—finally—the moon would sink again behind the protective Earth, and she was safe. Marissa Meyer.Meyer drafted Cinder, the first Lunar Chronicles book, during National Novel Writing Month, writing around a day job.
Books that feel like this
More by Marissa Meyer
Cinder
Marissa Meyer, 2012
Cinderella as a cyborg mechanic in a crowded future Beijing, where a prince brings her a broken android and the city is quietly afraid.
Winter
Marissa Meyer, 2015
Snow White on a colonised moon: a princess who refuses to use her mind-bending gift, her stepmother's glass court, and the crew plotting a revolution.
Heartless
Marissa Meyer, 2016
The Queen of Hearts was once a girl in love with a court jester—and Wonderland doesn't let anyone keep a soft heart.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Cress for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy YA science fantasy with romance, banter, and a heroine whose isolation shapes her view of the world. It is the third Lunar Chronicles book, so starting here may mean missing earlier setup and relationships.
- What is Cress like?
- A lonely girl's escape story with a witty, wondering voice, quick banter, and a streak of satire beneath the longing. Feels like longing and wonder. About freedom.
- What should I read after Cress?
- If you liked Cress, try The Knight and the Moth (Rachel Gillig), Good Omens (Terry Pratchett) and The Elite (Kiera Cass).
A taste of the feed
The perils of teaching a gargoyle a human figure of speech.
I confess horses are not the intelligent beasts I imagined them to be. Though I don’t think that merits the abuse they suffer postmortem.” That one took me a moment. “No one actually beats dead horses, gargoyle. It’s an expression.” “Really? How morbid.
The Knight and the Moth · Rachel Gillig
A demon's professional failing is liking the people he's meant to ruin.
He rather liked people. It was a major failing in a demon. Oh, he did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves. They seemed to have a talent for it. It was built into the design, somehow. They were born into a world that was against them in a thousand little ways, and then devoted most of their energies to making it worse.
Good Omens · Terry Pratchett
What it feels like when someone doesn't just want you—they orbit you.
It wasn’t like I made his world better. It was like I was his world. It wasn’t some explosion; it wasn’t fireworks. It was a fire, burning slowly from the inside out.
The Elite · Kiera Cass
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