Poison apple. Old woman. Young girl. Moonlight magic.

In the last compelling novel of The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer continues her series of post-apocalyptic, romantic, fairy tale-based, and sci-fi stories. Each novel takes place after the fourth world war, in a fantastical sci-fi land, with the main character and plot based off a fairy tale.

In Meyer’s first book Cinder, cyborg Cinder realizes instead being a low-life mechanic, she is the lost Princess Selene of Luna, the colonized moon. While evading her evil stepmother, stepsisters, and cruel rival to her throne, Queen Levana, she falls in love with the charming Emperor Kai of the Commonwealth of China. Despite the newly unfolding love story, she has to escape after a disaster at the ball and the book ends before Kai can return the shoepiece she left.

Following Cinder, Scarlet tells the story of the farm girl Scarlet who encounters a half-man, half-wolf mutant named Wolf. They join Cinder in her quest to defeat Queen Levana, who made Wolf out of what used to be a normal human boy and is planning to declare war against earth.

The third book, Cress, describes Cress’s betrayal to Luna and Queen Levana after she escapes the satellite they trapped her in for years. The thief Thorne helps her on her way and they eventually find their way to help Cinder with her cause.

In Winter, the beautiful  princess Winter has been living under Queen Levana’s watchful eye for years, ready to help her atrocities come to an end. She and her guard Jacin help Cinder plan for the ultimate stand against the queen.

With Cinder, Kai, Scarlet, Wolf, Cress, Thorne, Winter, and Jacin’s help, the revolution unfolds. Everything comes together – Levana, thaumaturges, mutants, lunars, earthlings, royals and peasants.

With arranged marriages, love stories, power plays, and intergalactic forces, and the infamous letumosis disease, this book was the ultimate close to the series.

It’s impossible to delve too far into details without spoiling anything, but I will say that like all great series, the last book was the longest and the greatest of them all.

One would expect a fairytale ending for a fairytale based story – then again, this is not your standard fairy tale.