Winter (Meyer novel)

Plot

Due to Princess Winter's refusal to use the Lunar gift, the ability to manipulate what others see and do, she has Lunar sickness, a state of mental illness that causes occasional hallucinations. Despite having scars on her face (suspected to be the work of Winter's evil stepmother, Queen Levana), Princess Winter is known for both her stunning beauty and the kindness she shows towards her people. Her relationship with her stepmother Levana is strained at best, especially as Winter is secretly in love with her childhood friend Jacin, who is Winter's royal guard.

Meanwhile, Prince Kai has been sent back to Earth after being kidnapped and recruited by Cinder and is now part of the plan to overthrow Queen Levana. The Crew sneak onto Kai's ship as he heads for Luna for the wedding. They are noticed by Levana and she locks down the Ports and they barely make it away, forced to leave Cress behind as she secures their getaway by hacking the security systems. She hides behind a crate and is spotted by Winter. Winter puts on a show and manages to smuggle Cress into a crate without being spotted.

Jacin has managed to stay alive by lying about his time on the ship with Cinder, and offers the queen enough information about the Blocking chip Cinder's adoptive father designed, she punishes him but he lives. She then places him on Winter's personal guard to "keep her in line". When Winter refuses to marry Aimery, Levana believes she is of no more use. After Queen Levana orders Jacin to murder Winter, Jacin finds Winter in her personal 'zoo'. He explains the queen's orders, kisses Winter, and then stabs Winter's favourite pet—a wolf named Ryu—all so Winter can escape unharmed, and Queen Levana will believe she is dead. (Cress had planned to go with Winter and Scarlet but realized she was needed to stay behind secure the way for Scarlet and Winter). Scarlet, an important protagonist who was captured by the now dead thaumaturge Sybil Mira and brought to Luna as prisoner, is given a pod key and a knife by Jacin and told to find RM9, Wolf's home Sector, and the two manage to escape with the help of Cress.

Cinder, Thorne, Iko, and Wolf have made it to RM9, and have taken refuge with Maha, Wolf's Mother. Wolf scents Scarlet and the group reunites. Cinder then uses the program made by Cress to hack into all the sectors to display her video proclaiming to be Princess Selene and asking for the people to become her army. When RM9 begins to take over the guards, intending to kill them, she runs out to stop them. This lets Levana find her, and she sends her guards and thaumaturges to RM9. In the confrontation, Cinder gives herself up, Wolf is taken, and Maha is murdered by Aimery. Winter and Iko are attacked at Maha's Home, and two thaumaturges are killed, one by Kinney, a guard who decides to protect Winter from Jericho who decides he wants to "play with her", although Winter is injured during the altercation.

The group separates, Scarlet and Winter going into the lavatubes, to find the wolf-like mutations of human soldiers, to recruit more mutineers for Cinder's rebellion, while Captain Thorne and Iko arrive to try and save Cinder and Wolf, picking up Jacin and Cress after an uneasy encounter. Kai receives Cinder's Robotic finger right before the wedding as a wedding present, letting Kai worry as to whether she is dead or captured.

Levana and Kai's wedding goes off without interruption, although Kai does take pair of scissors and stabs Levana's arm, stating he won't be controlled and won't submit. He is pleased to see she can be hurt. At the wedding dinner, the entertainment is the Trial of Pearl, Adri and Cinder (Pearl and Adri having been brought to Luna for "aiding" Cinder in kidnapping Kai by using their stolen tickets). Levana is more interested in Garan's invention, although Adri knows nothing. She decides to keep them as pets. During Cinder's "trial", Cinder stops fighting her Cyborg eye sight and decides to record Levana without her glamour. Levana seems to have scar tissue like from a fire on her hand and side of her face, and her lip on one side dips. Cinder announces to the room, and live feed to Luna, that she is Princess Selene, Levana is an imposter and a traitor to the crown for trying to murder her as a baby. Levana loses control of the guards for a second and Cinder takes control. In the battle, which is being viewed throughout Luna still, all of the thaumaturges are dead, most of the guards controlled by Cinder are dead, and the Wolf like guards who are "uncontrollable", have attacked anyone they could get. Cinder dives off the tower into the lake. Her systems are damaged and she almost drowns, but saved by Thorne and Jacin. Levana in a bid to quell the uprising from the disastrous trail, announces Cinder is dead with a fake body to prove it.

Meanwhile, Scarlet and Winter find the wolf soldiers, and they barely convince them not to eat them. When Levana's thaumaturges arrive, alerted to Winter's presence, they make wrong moves by insulting the soldiers and they are all killed. The soldiers decide to join Winter and Scarlet and go topside to find supporters to rally. An old crone, who is Levana in disguise, offers Winter a petite, an apple-like sweet. However, the petite is laced with letumosis (currently the most serious and incurable plague, mutated strain from Erland). After Scarlet tries to help, she gets infected too. Many soldiers are also infected just by being around them.

Wolf wakes up after being transformed into a "uncontrollable mostly wolf" soldier. His memories seem to be tampered with and has vague memories of Scarlet. His is placed on Levana's Guard for the coronation ceremony.

During Levana's coronation, Cinder, Jacin and Iko break into the labs that house all shells, in comatose states, to steal the letumosis cure. Iko gives distraction to a thaumaturge and guards so that Jacin and Cinder can get out the vials. They transport the vials to LW-12, where Winter and Scarlet are. All but seven of the infected get the cure, those seven dying before they could be helped, and Jacin pulls Winter out of the suspension tank to give her hers.

Cress and Thorne go to the coronation at the palace. After a manipulated kiss and a "I love you" to a lunar woman, Cress is heartbroken and admits her frustration with Thorne never seeing her as he does other girls. He proceeds to kiss her. Then tells her that the girl must have glamoured herself to look like Cress, because he thought he was kissing her. They get interrupted and they must move on. They get separated and Thorne is captured. Cress continues to the Security Center. She successfully gets in with help from Kai, and loads Cinder's recording as well as unlocks the correct sectors for the revolting sectors can riot, but gets trapped inside.

Jacin and Winter are to go in the terrain-speeder to already revolting sectors to rally. Cinder starts a revolution. Levana has just been crowned empress when Wolf attacks her when Cinder's message distracts everyone. Though he fails to kill her, he slices her neck. He is then forced to act as her guard/shield. They go down to the gates to meet Cinder and her people. Cinder is taken down quickly as her cyborg brain has not been working since the fall and cannot fight off Levana's control. Iko shoots at the queen, who ducks and it hits Wolf. When the queens true self is revealed in a new message, she loses control and runs into the palace.

Cress is found and offers the guard and technician a chance to switch sides when Kai's ships are detected, ones with bombs capable of destroying the domes. Kai convinces some Lunars to help the Earthans escape to the ports and is joined with Iko and Kinney while Cinder hunts Levana.

Aimery attacks Jacin and Winter, when she is almost forced to strangle Jacin, Scarlet and Wolf come. Winter claims Scarlet before Aimery can and forces her to stab Aimery. Winter's mind can't handle it and shuts down.

Cinder proceeds to find Levana, who has Thorne in the throne room. Levana tells Cinder that her mother set Levana on fire as a child and made her this way. She then demands Cinder relinquish all claims to the throne or Thorne takes a dive. When Thorne calls her bluff, Levana has him jump, with Cinder catching him at the last moment. They wrestle and Thorne is about to shoot Cinder when Cress comes and shoots it out of his hand. Still being controlled by Levana, Thorne stabs Cress. As Cinder is distracted with trying to kill Levana, Throne stabs Cinder. Scarlet and Wolf show up, Scarlet gets controlled by Levana and Cinder is forced to knock her out. Wolf rushes to her aid and as the only one not able to be controlled, helps Scarlet and Cress. Levana and Cinder battle it out, both turning their own guns on their selves. Levana feigns pentance, then stabs Cinder, who in turn shoots her. Levana dies, while Cinder survives due to being cyborg.

Cinder has a meeting with the other rulers of Earthen continents, and places her conditions for agreeing to a peace treaty with Earth. They mostly consist of cyborgs and humans being treated equally, and Thorne and the crew be the ones to deliver the cure to earth. One of the leaders, however, makes a point, wondering how they can trust that Lunars will no longer have the desire to possess humans, as this has been a problem between Earth and Luna for decades. Cinder reveals that her late 'stepfather', the husband of Linh Adri, had invented a machine that Lunars could use to disable their Lunar gift without causing Lunar sickness. Similarly, an Earthen could use it to immunise themselves to the Lunar gift. It is also revealed that the blueprints to this machine were hidden inside Cinder's faithful companion Iko, the android who had stayed with Cinder the whole series. In the final chapter, at the pond where Cinder almost died, Cinder tells Kai that she has decided to make Luna a republic, so that there won't ever be another ruler like Levana. Kai says that once she abdicates, she can come live in his palace, to show that Lunars and Earthens can live peacefully together. The book ends with Kai asking Cinder if someday, she would consider being Empress of the Eastern Commonwealth. Cinder tells him that she would, and drops the foot she had lost in the first book (Kai having returned it) in the lake.

Development

Winter took Meyer two years to complete and at times she thought that she "would never be finished" and that she "would be stuck in this book for the rest of my life." Part of the reason for this was due to Meyer putting the book to the side while she worked on the novel Fairest, which she wanted to work on in order to further develop the character of Levana.

While the character of Winter was initially planned to physically resemble the typical image of Snow White, she chose to make her black after seeing a photo of a "beautiful black model biting into a red apple" and thinking "That’s her! That’s my princess!"

Reception

Critical reception has been positive and Winter has received positive reviews from the School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Booklist gave Winter a favorable review, praising Meyer for inserting "just enough veiled references to the original stories to spur intellectual and emotional connections."