Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Pages: 387 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Published on: January 3rd 2012
Source: Bought from National Book Store
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

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.

(Summary from Goodreads)

Review:

Cinder is a refreshing and interesting new take of the Cinderella fairy tale, I can honestly say that Disney did not prepare me for this. Cinder was one of my immediate favorites of this year and it's not just because Cinder managed to make smart look and sound sexy but also because of the way Marissa Meyer literally just flies you over to this new and advance world that you never thought you'd ever go to.

Set in a futuristic New Beijing where androids and humans co-exist, we have Cinder who is cyborg. She's part-human and part-robot (cool, no?) Even the context of Cinder, which is set in this futuristic world, we can still see the dichotomy between the humans and the androids and those in between, the cyborgs. There is a hierarchy in the social classes and it's really interesting that Marissa Meyer included it in the story. We often wonder if there's still going to be a division within the people in the future, and now you have the answer! (Which is yes, by the way.)

I honestly love love love Cinder (and I'm talking about the character here.) She's this insanely empowering girl who is such a great inspiration. It's not that she doesn't take crap from anyone but it's that she has this silent yet really strong will. Even when her stepmother and stepsister, Pearl, tries to demean her and bring her down, she still stands strong even in the face of all this oppression and that's very admirable. Also, I love her relationship with her other stepsister, Peony, this protectiveness she has for her and it really shows how important they are to each other. Peony has the empathy that her mother  and sister lack. And really, who could forget the lovely Iko? This little robot with a lot of personality. She's kept Cinder company through good times and really bad times. These are the characters that made Cinder's life more bearable and all the more interesting.

Now lets go into the juicy stuff. Prince Kai. Oh, how I swoon (mentally) every time I think of him. That smile. Those eyes. Ohhh. He's this really down-to-earth kind of guy and his conversations with Cinder either make me laugh or just giggle outrageously, they are so sweet together. You can really see that he does care for her but he doesn't know how to act especially since he is the Crown Prince. I really love Cinder and Kai together and I'm really hoping to see more of them together in the next books.

Marissa Meyer managed to create a character -- or should I say characterS-- who I personally loved to hate. Bt honestly? Without them, the story wouldn't really have progressed so kudos to you, Marissa. First we have the abhorrent stepmother and stepsister, these two villainesses were pretty much made to ruin Cinder's life. They don't know the word "sympathy" (let's say it together, sim-pa-thee) and that really just gets on my nerves. They can't sympathize with what Cinder's going through and trust me, when you read about the things they've done, you'll hate them too. Marissa Meyer really captures the Evil Steps concept perfectly and it was really entertaining. But now let's move on to the biggest and baddest villain of them all, the Lunar Queen. She's literally the Queen b*tch (yes, I went there.) I absolutely loathed her. She's the Voldemort to Harry Potter, the scissors to the paper and the directions to Dora. If I could have killed her off, I would have. In an instant.

And can I just say that Marissa Meyer writes the biggest curve balls in history. I literally did not see a lot of the things that happened, coming. I was shocked, angered, flabbergasted, astonished, saddened, excited and a whole bunch of different emotions.

Cinder is a book I'd really like to recommend to everyone. Cinder is the end result of beautiful imagery, magnificent writing and relatable characters. It was such a heartwarming and fun book to read and the plot is such a unique idea. Who would've ever thought that robots and fairy tales would look so good together? Marissa Meyer did, that's why she made this book.

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