The story picks up where Cress left off, on the eve of the revolution against Levana, Winter’s wicked stepmother. Winter is a whopping 824 pages, concluding each of her four heroines’ plotlines, but focusing most on Winter, the Lunar equivalent of Snow White. The series has been on our reading list since Cinder debuted on the New York Times bestseller list in 2012, and the finale, Winter, comes out Tuesday, November 10th.

“I can’t stand the idea of writing a female character who doesn’t have a goal in life beyond getting a boyfriend.” The books follow the structure of traditional fairy-tales like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel, but they’re set in a futuristic, post-World War IV world where Earth is plagued with an epidemic of letumosis, and a cutthroat queen named Levana rules a dystopian kingdom on the moon. “When I was creating the characters, I tried to give her some of her own unique strengths, whether that’s something in her personality, or a skill she has,” author Marissa Meyer tells Teen Vogue. Unlike the folktales of yore, The Lunar Chronicles feature a cast of strong female protagonists who can hold their own, even when there’s no prince to be found.

Oftentimes, princesses are trapped in towers, waiting to be rescued by princes. In the original Grimm’s storybook, the wicked queen asks for Snow White’s lungs and liver in a box, and Rapunzel’s prince’s eyes are gouged out. Fairy-tales have never been for the faint of heart.

Cinder meyer series