Review: Cinder

Item: Cinder
Rating: 5
Author: Amanda Marie

Posted February 23, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1
Publisher: Square Fish (2012)
Paperback (390 pages)
Rating:
Also by this author: Scarlet, Cress, Fairest
Also in this series: Scarlet, Cress, Fairest
Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup, 2015 Fairytale Retelling, Read 2015

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.

Find the book: Goodreads

I was resistant to reading this book at first. I typically prefer to read fantasy over sci-fi. The idea of a cyborg Cinderella really threw me off. However, I am helpless to resist beautiful covers and multiple recommendations. Plus, it is a fairytale retelling.

So, I picked up Cinder at an awesome bookstore that I have posted about a bit before. I still put it off for a week and a half and finally started it a two weeks after I bought it on a drive down to see my sister. I read the entire book on the drive to her place. I then had to get my hands on Scarlet and, thankfully, the same awesome bookstore had a copy as well. (Sadly, no copies of Cress or Fairest.)

I am pretty sure I fell in love with this series even though I totally did not expect to.

Cinder is amazing. The unwanted ward of a self-centered woman, Cinder is the one who brings in the money for the family working as a mechanic. She is the best mechanic of all in New Beijing. When Prince Kai shows up at Cinder’s marketplace booth with a broken android, things start to change for Cinder.

Kai is great. He is facing so much both politically (with the Commonwealth as well as Luna) and emotionally (his father mainly) throughout the book. He always wants what is best for his people, even if it isn’t what is best for him. I really admire how much he is willing to sacrifice for his people.

Levana. Everything about her makes me hate her. She is totally evil and basically the embodiment of why the Earthens distrust and despise Lunars.

I don’t want to say too much so as not to give away spoilers, but I kind of have a bone to pick with Dr Erland. If he had just told Cinder from the beginning, things might have gone a bit easier, but I digress. He likely had his reasons.

This was an amazing book and I cannot believe that I waited this long to read it.