Cinder
(The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
Published: 5th January, 2012 Publisher: Puffin
Source: Bought From Amazon Format: E-Book Pages: 400
Cover Art
I actually really love this cover. I usually hate shoes on covers but this one has a twist and the title font and image together just scream quirky fairy tale to me.
Plot Synopsis
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. . . .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.
My Rating:
First Line:
'The screw through Cinder's ankle had rusted, the engraved cross marks worn to a mangled circle.'
Pocket-Size Review
Possibly the most disappointing book I have read in 2012. I almost hated it. SO MUCH HYPE I DON'T GET IT.
Highs: The concept itself is interesting and the bustling Beijing setting is cool...however Meyer wasted both, in my opinion, with a limp story and dull characters.
Lows: I disliked Cinder and hated the predictability of it all. Also...things don't add up...plot wise...hmm.
Review
Well. To be brutally honest, after reading Cinder I am left wondering how it has managed to garner the huge amount of praise and amazing reviews that it has. A quick look at Goodreads shows that it has an average 4.01 out of 5, and all of my Goodreads friends have rated it a 4 or a 5 star book. I honestly don't understand why; I could not finish it quick enough.
I think the main problem was that Cinder isn't my kind of person/android/person with machinery in her and shit. She is self centered and immature, and unbelievably self-pitying. She is one of those annoying author-worshipped characters who doesn't REALLY have flaws, and is moral and good to the point of disgust and nausea for the reader. She is the kind of girl who will clutch at the hands of people with a plague and be patronising and judgmental to those around her, as though she is the only person in the whole world who has ever suffered. Which is another thing: has she actually suffered that much? She seems to live in a nice apartment with her stepmother and stepsisters, one of whom she gets on with well, and she doesn't seem to particularly despise the other two (she worries about them when she thinks they might be dead.) For me, that is not what Cinderella is about. The suffering and humiliation and loneliness just didn't ring true in Cinder's character, and it just made her seem overindulgent. She acts all hard done by as though she is on the cusp of death at the hands of the evil perpetrators and then she is jealous of her stepsisters' dress. If you are REALLY suffering and desire nothing more than to escape from the hell your family has built around you, I don't think pining for pretty dresses and batting your eyelashes at prince's is going to be first on your list of things to do.
That brings me to my next problem: the relationship between Cinder and Prince Kai. Prince Kai is a naive fool. As I said before, Cinder has that author-worships-character syndrome where she assumes that the reader will automatically trust and love Cinder because she has told us too, rather than Cinder herself making us love and trust her through her actions. In other reviews I have read people have argued vehemently that there is NO insta-love but I kinda felt like it was. The Prince trusts Cinder as soon as he meets her for no particular reason and flirts outrageously with her and confides in her with the monarchy's most dark and sordid secrets as though they've known each other for years. I didn't buy it. I didn't feel real chemistry between them and when Prince Kai declared that he 'needed' Cinder a couple of times after meeting I was ready to slam this book down and never look back. He is another character who is always on his high horse about something or the other, and takes the moral high ground in ever situation. SO DULL. IF I WANTED TO READ ABOUT SAINTS I WOULD READ THE BIBLE.
Another character I didn't understand and didn't like: Iko. It is just me or is it really hypocritical that Cinder hates being a servant for her family yet has a servant of her own? Why did her stepmother get it when she has Cinder? Why does Iko come to market with Cinder when she should be waiting on the family while Cinder is at work? I just didn't understand her role in all of it. I think it was an attempt at cuteness and comic relief that didn't wash with me, as I felt like I was being manipulated into liking something and was suspicious that my heartstrings were being tugged. I will say no more. It all made me feel uncomfortable. Especially when Cinder says that she wants to turn Iko into an escort bot with 'tauntingly ideal feminine curves.' I did not understand.
The world building in this book is lazy. Calling moon people Lunars? Ugh. There is a lot of weird facial reading that only happens in badly written YA such as 'Cinder detected a shadow lingering behind Kai's eyes.' Seriosuly, take a minute and think about that sentence and what it means. IT MEANS NOTHING. The thing that bothered me the most in this book, however, was not the sloppy and obvious world-building or the bad writing: it was the horrible prejudice that Cinder had against the Lunars! Call me weird, but I felt like I was reading something racist. Obviously, Lunars do not exist in the real world, but the mass racial stereotyping that was rife in Cinder's world was never really addressed or defied and came dangerously close to racist fanatics in the real world. Lunars are described in this book as, 'a greedy and violent race' and 'a cruel and savage people who murdered their shell children'. Do they eat their children as well or did you think that might be going a little far? I'm sure it is an issue that will be addressed (and probably righted) in the next book, but it still made this one feel slightly grubby and...not right. The nice Lunars are the EXCEPTION to the general vileness of the race, and most of the Lunars we have seen DO act in a very greedy and violent way. I think the fact that they are constantly described as a 'race' and 'a people' made me feel uncomfortable about the whole thing. Maybe I am just being completely strange but I didn't like it.
Good things: I like the Beijing setting. It was a-bustlin. Also, as Disney films go I am quite partial to a bit of Aladdin from time to time and this book is very similar (as the Cinderella story is in general). Cinder is working in a market, the prince comes along in disguise, she can see the palace from her garage etc etc. It made me watch Aladdin which I enjoyed.
Overall, I couldn't enjoy this book. It was SO predictable and added nothing new to the Cinderella trope except an interesting concept that never found it's own feet (much like Cinder...guffaw). Perhaps I am being exceptionally harsh on it because I am currently reading Shadows on the Moon which is another Cinderella retelling that is just amazing and lovely. Read that instead.
Other Thoughts
This Book has Inspired me to Read: I don't think I'll be reading the sequel.
Three Words to Describe this Book: Boring, Tedious, Disappointing.
But Don't Take My Word For It...
- Blog Reviews of 'Cinder':
Bunbury in the Stacks says:
'This is the first book I’ve read this year that I closed and immediately starting bouncing my legs in ancy anticipation for the next installment. '
