Stars Above (The Lunar Chronicles #4.5) by Marissa Meyer - Review

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋

Marissa Meyer's Stars Above is a collection of nine stories from the world of The Lunar Chronicles, some of which had been previously released. I had already ready "Glitches", "The Queen's Army", and "The Little Android" before I listened to this audiobook of short stories. All were very good, but my favorites of the rest include "The Keeper", "Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky", and "Something Old, Something New".

"The Keeper" focuses on how Michelle Benoit comes to take care of Princess Selene before she becomes the Cinder we know and love. Plus, we also get to see young Scarlet develop her relationship with her grandmother. I love all four of our leading ladies, but admittedly Scarlet is my least favorite of the group. However, I enjoyed this quite a bit more than I expected, especially since we get see Michelle and Scarlet forming their strong bond. Of course, we find out quite a bit more about Michelle which just made me appreciate her all the more.

In "Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky", we have a thirteen year old Thorne and we learn about his family life, his big plans involving a spaceship, and leaving his home for good. I'll admit that aside from "Something Old, Something New" this story is the one that I was most excited to read. If you don't already know, Carswell Thorne is my favorite of the guys in this entire series. Honestly, he steals pretty much every scene from the moment he was introduced in Scarlet all the way through to the end of the series. Let me just say that young Carswell definitely has his moments, too.

Finally, in "Something Old, Something New", we get an epilogue as everyone gathers together for a wedding. Essentially, this is the story that I was hands down the most excited for - and luckily it lives up to the hype. I expect you can imagine why - I mean, we get to spend a little more time with these great characters that we've come to love over the course of four novels. It's just a little bittersweet, but still a very satisfying story. It's wonderful seeing everyone when they're not all in some kind of mortal danger. Like I said, it wraps up everything very well, but I wouldn't say no more from these characters in the least.

Overall, Stars Above is a must-read for fans of The Lunar Chronicles. You don't have to read these stories to understand the main series, but they definitely add to the experience. It's great to see more of my favorites before and after the series takes place - ahem, young Thorne and the rest of the cast in that perfect epilogue. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this world with Meyer's upcoming graphic novel, Wires & Nerve, Volume 1 which will focus on Iko and features appearances by the Rampion crew.

I listened to this audiobook from December 2 - 4, 2016 and my review is also on Goodreads.