Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) - Marissa Meyer

Review: Cinder

Author: Marissa Meyer

Rating: 5/5

Genre: Hmm....fantasy, dytopia, sci-fi, retelling?

Recommend To: People who want to live

HOLY MOLY. This book was just amazing. I still can’t shake this crazy world full of cyborgs and Lunars….and LUNAR CYBORGS (yep, both mixed together). Plus it had Kai. And Cinderella. 




The Plot: 

Cinder is an orphan, with an evil stepmother and two overprivaleged stepsisters (surprise! One of them actually isn’t evil, just spoiled). She is a cyborg, so she’s half technology half person. So cool, and very futuristic. Plus she has a lie detector. I seriously want one. Who doesn’t? Anyway, mixed in with all this are a plague, and a society on the Moon headed by an evil queen with an evil agenda who can control minds . And of course this all has something to do with Cinder, the future version of Cinderella. Original much? Of course, this book is so amazing and intense, it would have little girls crying for their mommies. It’s is definitely not the regular take on a fairytale. Except for Prince Kai, yum. Oh and also, it’s incredible how this actually isn’t taking place in America, it’s New China. That gives it an extra super awesome flavor. 

The Characters: 

Cinder is super independent, or at least she wishes she could be. Her controlling stepmother is crazy evil, and hates Cinder (pretty much the same as the original.) But, weirdly enough, we have one evil stepsister, and one actually nice one that Cinder loves. Cinder has a past shrouded in mystery, she has no memory of where she came from, or how she became a cyborg. She has no idea who she is (pay attention there, that’s important at the end, although all astute readers can probably guess her identity midway through the book). Kai is the super sexy Prince who somehow ends up at her mechanic’s stall in the market (China remember?) to get his robot fixed for suspicious reasons (lie detector remember?). Anyway, Kai himself is a guy really devoted to duty, being honest, and working hard for his loyal, loving subjects. Yeah, he’s cute. 

The Romance: 

It’s pretty obvious Cinder and Kai fall in love (I mean everyone has read or seen Cinderella right? If not where do you come from?) It’s easy to see it from Cinder’s point of view, trickier from Kai’s. He just wants her at the ball, he never exactly professes his love for her or kisses her (yet). Plus he’s dedicated to doing his duty, so no, he can’t exactly be with her (also notyet). So basically, we see a mutual attraction but nothing that’s been acted on. Waiting on the second one for that. 

The Style: 

The writing was amazing, detailed and ambitious. This book could so easily have been overdone, with too much craziness happening, but it was just perfect, with a balanced mix of sci-fi, fantasy, dystopia, and fairy tale. Who else could have pulled that off? Not many. 

Overall: 

This was an amazing book, so different from any others. However, it has one of the nastiest cliff-hangers ever written. One of those, OMG wait the book just ended or did someone rip the rest of the pages out to make me furious type of cliff-hanger endings. It was crazy unfair. But it’s okay because the rest was just mind-blowing. A need to read with an incredibly, fresh, original plot mixed with characters right out of a fairy tale and some other crazy conspiracies and revelations happening. Seriously.