Cinder by Marissa Meyer Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1
Published by Feiwel & Friends on 3 January 2012
Genres: Science Fiction, Suspense, Young Adult
Pages: 390
Source: Kindle Purchase
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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.
Cinder was up for a slow start, but after a while, things were happening more quickly, and while I was able to guess pretty early on who exactly Cinder was, I was still amazed at the way the story unfolded.
My Cinder review:
Cinder is part cyborg, and her adoptive mother treats her as a servant, so much so that all the money Cinder earns is deposited into Adri’s account rather than Cinder’s. As a gifted mechanic, with a stall at the market, she meets Crown Prince Kai when he needs help to repair his android. Meeting Kai is like a dream to her, but she knows he would be disgusted if he knew she was a cyborg, so rather than dreaming stupid day-dreams, she vows to repair his android and continue to do everything she can to escape New Beijing and Adri.
The world is not a great place to live in these times, the lunar people are sporting for a war, there is a pest killing more people every day, with no cure in sight. When Peony, the one person Cinder feels close to, becomes ill, Adri and Pearl blame her – as if every bad thing that could happen to their family somehow has to be her fault.
The plot is intricate, with politics, segregation of the cyborgs, death, and ultimately there might be a horrific war. And Cinder is in the center of it all! I have always thought that fairy tale re-tellings are either hit or miss with me, and Cinder definitely hit the spot! Apart from her name, the only thing that made Cinder a little like Cinderella was the fact that she was treated as a slave by her adoptive mother, and that there was to be a big ball where the prince was likely to choose his bride. Our main character has a lot of inner strength, though, and she is confident enough to stand up for herself when it is really needed. Twists and turns were able to show me how New Beijing works, and I enjoyed the way the story unfolded.
Written in third person point of view, from Cinder’s perspective in past tense, the story is both captivating and has a certain fairy tale feel to it, even if the world is bleak, different and quite possible deadly. I look forward to reading more books in the Lunar Chronicles series, and even if I wish I had read this earlier, in another way, I’m happy I waited so that I can read the next books at my leisure, without having to wait for them to be released.
Some of my favorite Cinder quotes:
Tossing the screwdriver onto the table, Cinder gripped her heel and yanked the foot from its socket. A spark singed her fingertips and she jerked away, leaving the foot to dangle from a tangle of red and yellow wires.
Clearing her throat, Cinder refocused on the android. She found the nearly invisible latch and opened its back panel. “Why aren’t the royal mechanics fixing her?”
Iko craned her head, aiming the round sensor up at the prince, who towered more than three feet above her. the light flared as her scanner recognized him. “Prince Kai,” she said, her metallic voice squeaking. “You are even more handsome in person.”
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
I loved this book! So glad you enjoyed it too — great review 🙂
I can’t wait to continue this series, Liza, I’m very happy I enjoyed it so much as well 🙂
I´ve been wanting to read this book for a while now, so thank you for reminding me. I´ll put it further up on my TBR-list 🙂
I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did, Anette! I thought it was really well done.
Yay! I waited a long time to read this one too but once I did I was so happy that I did – and I’m glad to see the same thing happened to you 😀 This is such a unique twist on fairytale retellings! It’s dark, and on the whole, feels like an almost entirely new and original story. I loved that Cinder was so strong and not just some hopeless romantic too! Most readers enjoyed Scarlet even more and for me Cress took it to a whole other level! I can’t wait to read your thoughts on those too!! Wonderful review Lexxie^^ ♥
True, it’s definitely unique, and the mix of cyborgs and just human is well done. I can’t wait to continue with Scarlet and Cress!
I had a good time with this one as well when I did read it but I should buy and try book 2 now. I hope it’s good too! Nice review!
I am looking forward to the 2nd and 3rd book, too, Melliane 🙂
OK, I’m moving it up my to-read list ! I thought everybody had read this book so I feel less lonely to know now that you’ve only just started (or just started posting the reviews ?…) Great review !
Nope, just read it, Iza, so you’re not alone in being late to the Cinder party!
I had to giggle when I saw you were reviewing this since it’s on my schedule. 🙂 Berk read it and I promised to read it as well…we may do a mom/daughter review chat. I’m more excited to read it knowing it has so much wrapped up in the story…that it’s a more intricate re-telling than straightforward. I’m glad you enjoyed it! **BIG HUGS**
Yeah, schedules for reading 😀 I’m happy to do the challenge of reading books I own, and that were published before this year, though, Cinder had been on my TBR (and on my kindle) since it was released! It’s kind of horrifying to know I buy books and don’t read them for years…
I hope you’ll enjoy it, Brandee 🙂
This book has been on my to-read list for a while, I usually don’t read fairytale retellings, but I want to give the genre a try. And everyone seems to love this week, every new review I read of it convinces me more I have to read this. Cinder sounds like a nice character and the story sounds original even though it’s a fairytale retelling, it sounds like it gives it’s own twists to the story. Great review!
The few fairytale retellings I had read before this one did not really appeal to me, Lola, but Cinder is different enough that it makes its own universe and story.
I’m glad you enjoyed this one too! it took me a long time to pick this one up too, I just didn’t think I’d be interested in this kind of read, but I was wrong. I agree with your review , I didn’t feel the Cinderella vibe as much as I expected. I had to go the next book right away after this one.
Great job!
I have always been careful with fairytale re-tellings, as some have not appealed at me at all. Cinder was very well done, though 🙂
How exciting! You’ve entered the Lunar Chronicles, have you by chance started Scarlet?
No, I haven’t had a chance to read the other books in the series yet, but I definitely will. Soon 🙂
Twitter: BerlsS
For some reason I thought you’d already read these! They get better with each book in my opinion. Don’t you just love Iko? Oh and if you’re reading them, stop! Get the audio, the narration is one of my favorites. Oh And read the short story “The Queen’s Army” before reading Scarlet – it’ll make the book better for you. And you can read the short story in an hour or so. Man I’m bossy this morning! LOL!
No, I ‘ve had the first couple of books on my kindle for ages, thank goodness for the #2015HW challenge, helping me read some of those books finally.
LOL, you know i’m always happy to find new audiobooks to add to my collection, so knowing these are amazing is a big plus – I’m behind in my audiobook challenge, so maybe this will help 🙂