Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Publication Date: 1.3.2012

Pages: 390

Genre: Fairy tale; dystopian; scifi

Series: Yes (Lunar Chronicles #1)

Source: Purchased finished copy

Rating: A

Summary (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.

Review:

I really think my dog and I are the only ones who didn’t read Cinder, the stunning and original debut by Marissa Meyer that blew up the YA world last year. A lot of times when a book generates that much hype I tend to shy away from it. The only plus side is that I now have a short wait to the sequel because I probably would have been committed if I had to wait 13 months for the next installment in this series.

I have always been a fan of fairy tales, but the retellings can be so hit or miss. Taking the age old tale of the little cinder girl (aka Cinderella) and making her a cyborg was sheer genius. I was a little worried that Cinder was all robot, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. I absolutely loved Cinder—she was heartbreakingly vulnerable one moment and then snarky and witty the next. She’s such a selfless heroine, routinely risking her own happiness and life to protect those she cares for. This girl is everything you could want in a heroine and a narrator.

I’m still not sure how I feel about Kai. There were moments I was swooning along with the girls of New Beijing and others where I felt like I just wanted more. I can appreciate that he’s very much a boy becoming a man and trying to figure out how that works while the world watches. His position is not an enviable one, and I’m excited to see where Meyer takes this character in the next books.

The world building Meyer employs blew me away. I love how she managed to construct this fictional world of New Beijing (of the entire Earth and Moon, really) so that it wasn’t all that unbelievable. I don’t know if anyone else could blend together the dystopian, science fiction, and fantasy genres to seamlessly. She made it look easy and it’s a world I could routinely sink into.

If you’ve been on the bubble about Cinder, grab it now. The sequel, Scarlett, comes out next month so you won’t have long to wait. You’ll only pull out half the hair on your head in anticipation.

Buy: Amazon | The Book Depository