A review by impasta_syndrome
Cinder, by Marissa Meyer
4.0
I have to get a few things out of the way before I start this book review. 1. While I adore fairy tale retellings, I have never enjoyed the story of Cinderella. I didn’t love the idea of a girl just hoping and waiting for outside influences to change her life. Before this book, that’s all I felt about Cinderella. 2. This book has completely changed my mind. The story of Cinderella is many of centuries old. Yet, Marissa Meyer found a way to reinvent this story into something new and exciting.
In this version, Cinder is a cyborg in futuristic New Beijing. Cyborgs in this world have metal infused into their bodies for medical reasons. Instead of organic transplants, the lower classes have to take metal ones for nerve and muscle replacements. Once a person has one of these transplants, they are seen as part of an even lower class. They are treated as something to be avoided in society. Cinder has been a cyborg for as long as she can remember. She was brought to live with her “family” at the age of 11 and has no memory before then. Her mechanic “Father” traveled to England for work and returned with her to become a part of his family. He is one of the men who worked on her to save her life. Cinder, now 16, works as a mechanic downtown to support her new family after her Father has died from the plague cursing the country. This could be enough to fuel this first book in the Lunar Chronicles.
However, there is so much more. The Emperor has the plague, the (very handsome)prince shows up at Cinder’s shop to have his android repaired, the colony on the Moon is prepared to wage war on the Earth, and Cinder is on a path that will lead her to find out the secrets of her past. I really liked this book. I read it in a little over a day and enjoyed each moment. Meyer did a great job of making this retelling wonderful and new but still keeping the underlying base story intact. I have only three critiques of this book. The first is that I wish there was more background information of how the world came to be as it is. The second is that 16 seems an unreasonable age for Cinder to be. I imagine her to be around 19 or 20. The third is that there is going to be a year between each new installment of the series. Waiting that long is as far from fun as I can imagine. If you like fairytale retellings, cyborgs, or just a good Sci-Fi novel, you are in for a treat.
In this version, Cinder is a cyborg in futuristic New Beijing. Cyborgs in this world have metal infused into their bodies for medical reasons. Instead of organic transplants, the lower classes have to take metal ones for nerve and muscle replacements. Once a person has one of these transplants, they are seen as part of an even lower class. They are treated as something to be avoided in society. Cinder has been a cyborg for as long as she can remember. She was brought to live with her “family” at the age of 11 and has no memory before then. Her mechanic “Father” traveled to England for work and returned with her to become a part of his family. He is one of the men who worked on her to save her life. Cinder, now 16, works as a mechanic downtown to support her new family after her Father has died from the plague cursing the country. This could be enough to fuel this first book in the Lunar Chronicles.
However, there is so much more. The Emperor has the plague, the (very handsome)prince shows up at Cinder’s shop to have his android repaired, the colony on the Moon is prepared to wage war on the Earth, and Cinder is on a path that will lead her to find out the secrets of her past. I really liked this book. I read it in a little over a day and enjoyed each moment. Meyer did a great job of making this retelling wonderful and new but still keeping the underlying base story intact. I have only three critiques of this book. The first is that I wish there was more background information of how the world came to be as it is. The second is that 16 seems an unreasonable age for Cinder to be. I imagine her to be around 19 or 20. The third is that there is going to be a year between each new installment of the series. Waiting that long is as far from fun as I can imagine. If you like fairytale retellings, cyborgs, or just a good Sci-Fi novel, you are in for a treat.