Review - Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Published January 5th 2012 by Puffin

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 46/50

Popsugar 2017 Reading Challenge - A book from a non-human perspective. 

Synopsis from Goodreads 

A forbidden romance.
A deadly plague.
Earth's fate hinges on one girl . . .

CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation.

Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future.

This is not the fairytale you remember. But it's one you won't forget.

My Thoughts

Carrying on with my fairy tale retelling and fairy tale inspired stories I decided to pick up Cinder. I was also really looking forward to this as I have not long read Heartless and loved it so was excited to see what else Marissa Meyer had in store and I was not disappointed.

Cinder is a sci-fi retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale. It is set in a futuristic version of our world where humans live alongside cyborgs. Our main character Cinder is one of these cyborgs, hence the non-human perspective challenge prompt, and we follow her life along with her step mother and two step sisters. There is also a castle, a prince and a ball, can you see the Cinderella pattern, and lots of fun and antics. Alongside this futuristic world is another race of people called Lunars who live on the moon and we also follow some of the tension between these two worlds as they come together.

I really enjoyed this novel. I thought it was a super fun read and I found it quite page turning. I actually finished the majority of the book in one day. You can definitely see the Cinderella influences throughout and I thought it was a super good example of a fairy tale retelling.

I enjoyed Cinders character, I felt invested in her and her story and I wanted to know what happened to her. I enjoyed the idea that she wasn't just a helpless female as you quite often see in the original fairy tales. She didn't rely on others to make things happen she worked hard for herself even if it was against the odds.

I was rooting for the romance in this story. I really hope we see more of Prince Kai and that there's more to his character than what we have seen initially, especially when it comes to Cinder. However, I did admire and appreciate how his character stood up for what he believed in when it came to his country and his people.

The only criticism I have was with the world building. A futuristic version of New Beijing was super interesting to me and I found the world to be fascinating and because of this I would of liked some more in depth information about it. I was also really hoping for some more information about the Lunars, where they came from and how they came to be. We didn't get much information apart from about their powers and I would of liked some more. I know there is a novella called Fairest which is about Queen Levana so hopefully this will give me some more information when I get around to it.

Overall I really enjoyed this story. I've already ordered Scarlett and I can't wait to continue on with this series.

Overall Rating