Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder
by Marissa Meyer

Read: May 11-12, 2016
Published: January 8, 2013
Genre: Science Fiction, Fairy Tale

Human 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. (Amazon)




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Why did you read this book?
I've been meaning to read it for awhile based on recommendations from friends and family. Plus, I'm still feeling the fractured fairy tale books.

What do you like about this book?
I really liked the idea of this book. I'm a big fan of sci-fi and fairy tales, so stick them together and I am a happy camper. I liked that it had the bones of a Cinderella story, but it was fleshed out completely different. What really got me through the book was my interest in the Lunars. I was dying to find out more about them (and the evil Queen Levana, of course), but there wasn't much information in this first book. And yes, I actually liked that. With 4-5 books, I think Marissa Meyer started with just enough information to get the reader through the first book, but enough left as a mystery to entice them to read more.

What don't you like about this book?
As much as I was intrigued by the Lunars, I had a really hard time getting through the book. I finally finished, on my third try, on the assurances that the second one was much better. It wasn't that this was a bad book, it was just kind of boring. The pacing felt very off to me. The first two-thirds of the book dragged and not much really happened, but then the end of the book happened and everything hit the fan. There was too much condensed into the last few chapters. I understand that Marissa Meyer was going for an exciting finish (and she succeeded), but I would have liked the book much more if the rest of the book was written as well as the end. Also, I know I'm supposed to ship Cinder and Kai together, and I could tell that they liked each other because the pages said so, but I didn't feel it. Cinder's response to Kai I could relate to, but it was Kai that I didn't understand. He doesn't have much of a personality, so I'm hoping Meyer will build on his character in future books. I really want to like him, but he's just kind of...blah.

Notes on the ending:
Holy freaking cliffhanger. Cliff. Hanger. Hanger to the cliff. As much as I was bored throughout the book, that ending had me dying to read Scarlet (book 2). I had to know what happened, but I had to wait two whole days to get to the library. TWO DAYS. So, if you do read this book, make sure you've got the second one on hand for when you finish.

Bottom-Line:
This book, as a whole, was okay. Read it if you want to, but it's not something that I will always be telling everyone to read (like The Book Thief or The Night Circus). It was solid, but not amazing. If it wasn't for that fantastic ending, I might not even recommend it at all.  I'll let you know how the next one goes.




"But if there was one thing she knew from years as a mechanic, it was that some stains never come out." -Cinder by Marissa Meyer