Cinder by Marissa Meyer

In this futuristic distopian, humans, androids, and cyborgs live together in New Beijing. Many citizens are ill with an incurable plague. On top of that, a ruthless lunar people wait in the sky, watching for an opportune moment to strike.

Cinder is an adopted cyborg who pays her way by being a mechanic.She lives with her adoptive (step)mother and two (step)sisters in an almost nonexistence. Life is pretty consistent.

Everything all changes when Prince Kai comes to her, asking her to repair his android. Suddenly, it all goes haywire from there and Cinder realizes she is part of a much bigger picture than she thought.


I was really excited to read this book. If you've read any of my other book reviews, you might have seen a pattern with what I've been reading - fairy-tale adaptions. Truthfully, this was not my intention. I planned on reading a variety of books this summer, to explore new genres. I really have no idea why the majority of books I'm reading are fairy-tales...it's just what I've been picking up. Now that I've realized this, I'm going to make an extra effort to read different things! (insert applause here)

Anyways, back to Cinder. This book was...amazing. I couldn't put it down. I loved the mix of distopian, sci-fi, and a popular fairy tale. Meyer just sucked me in with every scene. The characters were relatable, lovable, and expressed fantastically. I even cried at parts, and just so you know - I don't cry at books often, it has to be really, truly sad for me to shed a tear.

Favorite characters: 
  
Cinder - she's sarcastic and spunky and totally not your average "Cinderella".

Iko - this sweet little android made me laugh on several occasions. 

Kai - it seems so cliche to admit I like the price charming, but I do. 

Peony - Cinder's nice stepsister seemed a little wimpy/whiny to me, but she's so sweet and lovable that I couldn't help put her on the list. 

Dr. Erland - there where times I wanted to strangle him and in the end I'm glad I didn't. He was probably one of the funniest characters...in his own way.

Least-favorite characters:

Adri - Well, duh. You're suppose to hate the evil stepmother! And whoa, was she ruthless at some points.

Pearl - Evil stepsister. Need I say more?

Queen Levana - The Lunar queen. Yeah, not much to say about her...evil isn't and evil enough word.

Sybil Mira - The queen's head thaumaturge. A.K.A the little henchman that does whatever dirty work the queen doesn't want to get her hands in.

The only thing I didn't appreciate in this book was the brief references to 'sex change', 'reproduction', and the kissing scenes. They weren't horrible, mind you! I guess because I have a bunch of younger siblings I'm more sensitive to those sort of things. So, even with these little parts that I could have lived with out, Cinder was an amazing book and I literally can not wait to read the next one!


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5 Stars

Age 15+ (depends on maturity level)