Review: ‘Cinder’ by Marissa Meyer

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

I know I’m coming a little late to the whole Cinder thing and many of you will have already read it, but IF YOU HAVEN’T THIS IS REALLY GOOD YA.

Take Cinderella, stick her in a future Earth and make her a second-class cyborg. Stir in some political intrigue, a terrible plague and a handsome prince, and I’m so there!

One of the things I really enjoyed about Cinder is the richness of the characters. The wicked stepmother is suitably loathsome (but also kind of tragic). The stepsisters are interesting; Pearl is as shallow and cruel as you’d expect — the fairytale required that someone do it, I suppose — but the younger girl, Peony, is lovely and cares for Cinder despite what the rest of the family think of her.

Likewise, Kai isn’t just a two dimensional Prince Charming looking to marry a hot girl with glass shoes. He’s charming, sure, but also funny, kind and terribly conflicted about some of the diplomatic and personal sacrifices he’s asked to make to save his people. I’m not usally one to crush on the typical main character (I was Team Simon, not Team Jace, for example) — but in this case, it’s all about Kai.

Of course, there aren’t really any other alternatives, unless you count the doctor researching the plague cure, and he’s more of a crazy grandfather type. 😉

Cinder‘s plot moves along at a good pace, the story (and Cinder herself) taking the reader from one event to the next without leaving you time to get bored. There is a plot twist but I saw it coming from the first hint in the first two or three chapters — I don’t really think Meyer intended it to be an OMGWTF moment at the end of the book, though, and I never grew frustrated with the characters not figuring it out like I do in some books.

The only thing that was a little unsatisfying is that the ending is a bit of a cliffhanger. My advice would be to buy the second book and have it to hand so you don’t have to wait to dive into it when you finish this one.

Five stars! 🙂