Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

42 reviews

parfait52's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This book was a lot of fun! The world-building and characters were compelling, and the plot kept me entertained. It was super predictable, but that's what you get for reading a retelling. I really enjoyed the pacing of this book, as it felt like something important was happening on almost every page. At times, there was so much happening that I would forget about an element, and then it would pop back up in the plot. I look forward to see where all these plot points are going to go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Car accident, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Ableism, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Xenophobia, Medical content, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Classism, Genocide, Colonisation, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Trafficking, War, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

avacadosocks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Child death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Blood

Minor: War

lawbooks600's review against another edition

tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Representation: Asian main character 
Score: Seven points out of ten.
So. This was originally going to be the first book I would read from Marissa Meyer. It's now the third after I read Renegades and then Gilded. I enjoyed both, but I'm not rushing to finish the series, and that also applies to the Cinder series since Meyer, as far as I know, can't write immersive world-building or relatable characters. I can't connect to Cinder, Peony or any other characters. It starts with the main character, Linh Cinder, or Cinder for short, a mechanic who lives in New Beijing in the Eastern Commonwealth and nothing much happens to her until, for some reason, Prince Kai goes to her shop to get his robot fixed (I think they call robots androids) then the action builds further when someone kidnapped her and took her to the hospital for some medical experimentation if I got that right. Cinder then discovers that she is 60% human and 40% machine. This begs the question: is Cinder still a human, or is she still a machine? The author left that question for me to interpret, but I think it's the former. Also, there is a pandemic of a plague called letumosis which is like the modern bubonic plague, but other than the fact that people first saw it in North Africa, I don't know where that came from. The mention of World War IV implies the existence of World War III, but details are vague except that afterwards, there were only six countries left and that kicked off the "Third Era." The book slowed from that point, with nothing much happening except Cinder living uneasily and investigating Queen Levana out of all people, which led up to the end. Long story short, there was an epic scene where Cinder lost her mechanical foot, then she is revealed to be the long-lost princess and a cliffhanger. The bonus content was alright, but as I said, I can wait until I'm in the mood to read the following book, Scarlet, but now I'm not feeling like it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Blood

Minor: Car accident, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

marissasa's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Although I find less YA dystopian novels that I like as I get older, this one definitely held my interest with its unique sci-fi elements and the Lunar mutant race of people as antagonists. I thought this first entry into the series was well-written and the main character Cinder's emotions and actions felt true to her personality and her status as a misfit teenager who ends up questioning her entire identity, but as an adult reader you have to keep in mind the book's audience and just roll with it when she acts irrationally. The part I am most critical of in this book is the romance subplot, because it felt like their feelings for each other grew really fast despite having limited interactions in person, although maybe this can be chalked up to the way teenagers fall in love really fast in real life too. I liked the high stakes and danger that was ever-present throughout the book, and although some of the major plot points were predictable, they were written with ample build-up and the explanations following the reveals made sense for the story. I will continue this series and am curious to see how it ties in with the other fairytale-inspired sequels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Violence

ayah_reads's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

3.25

I guessed the main plot line like 20 pages in cos the author was very WINK WINK about it all and yet this was still a fun time?? Still a book I wanted to keep reading?? Something I would think about to pick up??

This is my first year post uni, and I feel like I'm a recovering English major who for the first time can read and consume whatever fiction and media she likes when she likes and I've been finding it hard 🤣 I'm either not in the mood to read and only want to watch shows or I keep being trapped into sucky books that take me forever to finish 😭

Then I had the epiphany that I can unlock the power of a dnf. If by 100 pages I'm not vibing, I'm not reading it anymore. Once I committed to this, I suddenly remembered this series existed and that I've been meaning to read it. 

From the get go, I enjoyed this and wanted to keep going. Sure it's pretty predictable, and the characters slightly underdeveloped, but the world is interesting, I like that it's only loosely based on Cinderella, and I was intrigued enough to want to keep reading.

I think also loved that, while yes Kai and Cinder were pretty smitten with each other, it was only like, there was no insta love, which made it cute rather than annoying. And like THE GLOVES AGWHW I LOVE WHEN LOVE INTERESTS GET THOUGHTFUL GIFTS 🥺 

Overall, I've heard this series gets better with each book and I'm keen to start the next one! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gore

good_names_dont_exist's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Terminal illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, and War

rronnniii's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Ableism, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Medical content, and Slavery

Minor: Violence, Gun violence, and War

thumbeleia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical content, Body horror, Gaslighting, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, War, Abandonment, Ableism, Blood, Bullying, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Car accident, Colonisation, Deportation, Child abuse, Self harm, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Hate crime, Alcohol, and Infertility

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

TLDR; 4.5 rating, they’re teenagers??, and I don’t remember a whole lot about this series.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

I first read the Lunar Chronicles when I was in high school. And that was a LONG time ago. My boyfriend got me the pretty cover box set, so I figured now was as good a time as any to read it!

My first major issue is that the main characters are all 16-17 years old. That’s insanity. Since the whole series takes place in like 9 months, Cinder is a <i> child </i>. She’s a baby. 16 is NOTHING. Too young to be causing all this trouble, that’s for sure. She does so much in this book and the next three, like?? Did she have to be 16?

My second major issue is that, even though this book is set in Beijing, there’s very little of Eastern Asian culture in the book. Mayhaps that’s because the author is a white woman with no ties to China, and we all know how I feel about white authors writing outside of their experiences, but I digress.

I’ve always felt so sorry for Kai. Bless him, he’s always getting the short end of the stick with all of this, and it’s a wonder he doesn’t have a full head of grey hair. Poor guy is always stressed.

Dr. Erland is one of the best unhinged characters I’ve read in a while. Morally grey, funny, he’s just a fun character to read. I don’t agree at all with anything he’s ever done, but I do love a moral grey bitch.

Rating: 4.5
Would I recommend? Yes, especially if you enjoy moon people, quippy robots, and sci-fi fairytale retellings.

Content warnings: Car accident, Child abuse, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Bullying, Death of parent, Gun violence, Ableism, Classism, Medical trauma, Blood, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Classism, Child death, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, War, and Ableism

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I enjoyed it and I’m excited to read the next book Scarlett. It is very predictable and I was able to guess what should’ve been a twist ending but I enjoy those types of books, it take out a lot of anxiety lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Genocide, Medical content, Car accident, Confinement, Medical trauma, Murder, and Slavery

Minor: War

Sibling Death