Review: Cinder by: Marissa Meyer

Cinder by: Marissa Meyer

Publicaiton Date: January 3, 2012

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Page Count: 387

Format: Hardcover

Series: Lunar Chronicles #1

Buy the Book: Amazon

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

 My Review:

From what I was hearing about this book from other bloggers and websites, I thought it was just going to be a retelling of Cinderella in a futuristic, cyborg world. This was so much more! It had mystery and sabotage that I certainly wasn't expecting.

Cinder is a mechanic in New Beijing, one of the best. She has the typical Cinderella background with no biological parents, a wicked stepmother and two stepsisters. There's one catch. She was made a cyborg and has a mechanical system keeping her alive. 

Through every chapter, my mouth dropped open several times as new secrets and mysteries were revealed. Cinder keeps learning things about her life she never knew and that the life she thought she had was a lie. Her stepmother volunteers her for a cyborg-only medical research program searching for a cure to a disease that has ravaged New Beijing. Thinking she is going to die, she goes in and cannot be more awestruck at what she learns.

There's this whole other race seeking dominance over humans, called the Lunars. They have this ability to basically brainwash any human and are vile and manipulative. The Lunar Queen is seeking to marry Prince Kai and gain power over the Earthens.

Kai and Cinder meet seemingly by chance when he visits her mechanic shop. He has no idea she is a cyborg, which adds an intriguing element to their relationship. Cyborgs are abominations according to most.  Kai asks Cinder to attend the ball with him and she declines. She can't imagine  someone like him being seen with her.  

Let me just say, I love love love Kai. He is young and about to become king after his father dies of the deathly plague. Unlike the commoners, he tries endlessly to escape the mind games of the Lunar Queen and her subjects. He knows she is up to much more than she says.

The dystopian setting in this book is one of my favorites. Even though there is a plague ravaging the population, gadgetry and machines are rampant and creatively imagined. 

Official Rating:

  Four and a Half Un-Birthday Cakes!