Cinder by Marissa Meyer – Spoiler Free Review

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series Name: The Lunar Chronicles
Genre: YA Fantasy Sci-Fi Dystopian
Publication Date: Jan 3rd, 2012
Pages: 387 (paperback)
Publishers: Puffin Books UK
Rating:

Sixteen-year-old Cinder is considered a technological mistake by most of society and a burden by her stepmother. Being cyborg does have its benefits, though: Cinder’s brain interference has given her an uncanny ability to fix things (robots, hovers, her own malfunctioning parts), making her the best mechanic in New Beijing. This reputation brings Prince Kai himself to her weekly market booth, needing her to repair a broken android before the annual ball. He jokingly calls it “a matter of national security,” but Cinder suspects it’s more serious than he’s letting on.

Although eager to impress the prince, Cinder’s intentions are derailed when her younger stepsister, and only human friend, is infected with the fatal plague that’s been devastating Earth for a decade. Blaming Cinder for her daughter’s illness, Cinder’s stepmother volunteers her body for plague research, an “honor” that no one has survived.

But it doesn’t take long for the scientists to discover something unusual about their new guinea pig. Something others would kill for.

I put this book for a long time because I didn’t think I would enjoy it as I didn’t enjoy the first book I read by Marissa Meyer, I didn’t hate it, but it was just eh. So even though I had already purchased this book, I put it off. Until both the Forgotten Ya Gems & YA Book Bloggers Goodreads Groups decide to make it their July BOTM. I’m so glad they did because I finally get the hype behind a Marissa Meyer Book.

I love the simplicity of this book cover and how much it conveys. I can say at first I was confused about the red shoe as in Cinderella it is a glass slipper and I’m still confused as in the book if she does wear one of pearl’s shoes, the two that are mentioned is a gold on and one the colour of ‘fresh milk’… So I’m confused. But anyway, I still like the cover and the rest fits the book really well.

I enjoyed the writing, it was simple, easy to understand and flowed well for most of the book. I enjoyed the world building and how descriptive her writing was without being crazy. However, I did find this book kinda predictable to some degree. There were a couple big things that I guessed well before they were found out in the book because there were small hints. I don’t know if this were intended to be hinted by the author but either way I picked up on them and guessed certain things from them. That is a reason why this book got 4 stars and not higher.

This book is a Cinderella retelling so of course, it has to follow some of the basics of the Cinderella story. Those were done well and I enjoyed seeing little things that matched up with the Cinderella story. However, this book was also unique and it didn’t follow some of the major plot points from Cinderella which I enjoyed. This book has lots of action and not very often does it slow down, there is nearly always something going on and I really enjoyed that.

Cinder was an enjoyable character most of the time, sometimes she did annoy me a little, but not enough to make me dislike her character. Kai does kinda annoy me though.

This next bit may be a tad spoilery so just skip this little paragraph if you haven’t read it. So being the prince and soon to be Emporer you would think he would be a bit kinder to the cyborgs. Afterall it is his fathers and then his power that allows surgeons to perform the procedure that turns humans into cyborgs… Yet he clearly isn’t okay with it in this book as is obvious when he simply recoils at a body projection of a patient that is a cyborg. This annoys me in this book, as a ruler of a place where there is both humans and cyborgs living he should be more considerate. And when it comes to this he isn’t that much better than Lavana, he may not be killing cyborgs but he still thinks them inferior to humans, the same as Lavana thinks the shells are inferior to other Lunar…

Peony was a nice surprise from the original Cinderella story. I enjoyed her character and what she meant to Cinder. Pearl & Adri are just annoying and pathetic and exactly what you expect the evil stepmother & Ugly step sister to be, just with less ugly.

Dr Erland was interesting and a little mysterious but overall pretty enjoyable and I am actually keen to see more of him in the next book, hopefully? I don’t fully know how this series works and if Cinder will be in the next book as it follows a different character, so I will just have to wait and see.

Overall I enjoyed this book, I did have a couple little issues with it and a sort of dislike for one character but still an enjoyable book. I enjoy the world and am keen to see more of it. I hope the next book isn’t as predictable though. I don’t know if this is how Marissa Meyer’s writing is as I didn’t notice it in Heartless as everything was predictable to me due to the fact that it was a prequel to a well-known story and was obvious what would happen in the end, but I hope she isn’t always a predictable writer.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts on it?!
If you are going to share spoilers in the comments then please warn it so others don’t get spoiled!

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