Just had a realization. Marissa Meyer is such a fantastic author (that wasn’t the realization, I swear). I think part of what makes her such a good author is her ability to write… people.
Having read nine of her titles, and working on the tenth, it becomes pretty clear a lot of her character overlap in their character traits. I mean, even in JUST the Lunar Chronicles, you have two men who are sassy, and two men who are devoted. However, they display these traits so drastically from one another that it doesn’t feel like she is making carbon copies. Kai is sarcastic and blunt and is feels more to me like someone who will do exactly what you tell them to while also being high-key condescending about it. Meanwhile Thorne is more just a general kind of difficult. He says sarcastic things/gives off a general air of sarcasm. Then we have Jacin who will do anything for Winter, including nearly ruining a revolution for her, but it is clear he can, and will, stand alone in order to keep her safe. Wolf’s devotion leads more to a “can’t keep her safe if she is out of my sight”. None of these men feel like carbon copies.
It’s the same for her women too. Cinder and Nova? Sassy lassies, both resourceful, both come from incredibly messed up family situations, but it doesn’t feel like Cinder was just ripped from her story into a new one. They both even have similar motivations, but just so completely go about them in different ways. Scarlet and Prudence are both angry, but Scarlet is definitely has that rugged “I was raised on a farm” brutality to her. I cannot at all imagine Prudence back talking hybrid wolf warriors even if she will yell at her high school biology teacher.
I could keep going, but I just really love how these are people. They are going to overlap, sometimes in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t feel like she ever falls into the trap of same story, same characters, different packaging. Maybe that is why it is so easy to get into each of her books. I never feel bored of “already read this four times”.
