Cinderby Marissa Meyer
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Series: Lunar Chronicles { 1 }
Genre: Fantasy
Age Group: Young Adult
Get It: Amazon Barnes & Noble
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .~synopsis provided by Goodreads
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
I am a guaranteed sucker when it comes to fairy-tale retellings. I’m an even bigger sucker when that fairy-tale retelling is AWESOME SAUCE! I started Cinder in the airport awaiting the flight for my trip to Disney World – yes, I purposely brought Cinder with me as I thought it quite an appropriate book to be reading for said trip.
Well let’s hear it for 2 hour long plane trips! I could not put this book down.
I love Meyer’s twist on the fairy-tale. Cinder is adopted (and half android), her younger step-sister loves her, her only friend is a sassy robot named Iko, she’s a mechanic, and she isn't the sing-song sweet Cinderella everybody knows.
I liked the interaction between Cinder and Prince Kai – much more than a love-at-first-sign attraction, which I really appreciated. They formed a bond and met many times before the pivotal ballroom scene. We also get to see more of the Prince and his side of the story, verse everything from Cinder’s point of view.
There were plot points that I thought to be somewhat predictable, but it didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the plot. I knew what the twist was going to be, but I think Meyer took us there is a very enjoyable way and I didn’t care that I had figured it out some x-amount of pages ago.
I also really liked the fact that Livia wasn’t defeated in Cinder and will appear in the subsequent novels. It’s a different aspect than to some series I’ve read (I’m referring to ones where the main character is always different, but they take place in the same universe type deal) where the Big Bad changes with each novel. This will really give Meyer the opportunity to explore Livia’s character and (I think) end in an epic-epic battle where – yes, I’m going to say it – they all live happily ever after.
Bottom LineIf you haven’t read this book yet, do it! Even if you’re not a huge fan of fairy-tale retellings, Meyer creates a story that is so much more than that.
