Title and Author: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Science Fiction

Publication Date: January 3, 2012

Pages: 276 pages

Source: Purchased, iBookstore

Kid-rating:My 13 year old boys would probably find the cyborg parts of this story quite interesting, but wouldn’t appreciate the fairy tale and romance parts of this quite as much as my 13 year old nieces will.

Star Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis

(from GoodReads)
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 review

I am such a failure sometimes. I was supposed be reading this 2 chapters at a time, participating in a read-along.

I read it all in like, two days. I meant to stop, but I couldn’t help myself.

I’m also something of a failure, because I waited so long to read this. I’m not sure why. I think it was because this book seemed to be getting an awful lot of hype, and I didn’t figure a Cinderella story about a cyborg mechanic could actually be any good.

It was, in fact, quite a bit of fun. I’m a fan of retellings/reimaginings, and this was a very unique take on the Cinderella story. I loved seeing how Meyer put bits of the story we know and love in to her very unusual tale.

I did enjoy the fact that this was set in a future China, rather than keeping it a purely Euro-centric story.

Yes, it’s Cinderella, so you are thinking you know how it’s going to turn out, but there are some twists and turns, some of which I thought were a little too obvious. So obvious that I thought it was pretty silly that Cinder herself didn’t make the connections once she learned part of the story of who she is. Also, it’s the first in a series, so of course, we don’t get a complete resolution at the end, we are left hanging on some points, as we head in to the sequel, entry, which is thankfully coming out soon.

I am looking forward to the sequel, Scarlet, which comes out in February. The reviews I’ve seen suggest that it is even better.