Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder 

by Marissa Meyer

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.

Hardcover, 1st Edition, 387 pages
Published January 3rd 2012 by Feiwel & Friends

A Long Story...Short!

Marissa Meyer did an overall fantastic job with Cinder - there's no better way to put it. Every aspect of this book has been perfected with wonderful care and a love for details. The Cinderella retelling? Very well done. The storyline is so close to the original - it's almost scary! Talking about scary - our villain(s) in this book definitely deserved that spot. Whether we're talking about the evil queen or the mean stepmother - they both are "bad" in a way that is not only fun to watch but also draws you into the story more and more because you. just. want. the main character to have her big triumph in the end. The pacing and plot is another bonus, because even if you don't have the time, or you don't feel like reading you will make time to read Cinder and you won't be able to stop turning pages until the book is over and even then your inner voice will scream for more. So you better head out and get Cinder and Scarlet to guarantee you won't go crazy!

RATING:

3/3 smarties...and a cupcake!

Review for You:

There should be something like a book hype appreciation day. Seriously, the only reason I eventually went and picked up - and read - Cinder was the fact that everyone - bloggers and youtubers united - talked about this book and its sequel. It appeared on every website and in every video and at one point I just wanted to see for myself - and it was worth it. Oh man, what a book!

Even though I consider myself a very avid reader and even though I have not been in a reading slump in a very long time I can be very...petty about the books I read. Very. I can't pinpoint what makes me go absolutely crazy about books like Delirium, Tempest or Cinder. I think it's the mix of combined awesomeness. It's not only good plot and pacing, not only great characters and their development, not only beautiful writing, because none of those details are what I think about when I'm reading.

It happens in the bus as that's where and when I read the most. It's when my mood shifts from sitting in my seat, cozied in next to the heater, and enjoying a good book. It's when suddenly I find myself in the book, shrinking every time the bus stops because I

a) have to realize I'm in the bus, not in a futuristic Asian world and

b) that my bus stop will come eventually and that I'm going to have to stop reading at some point in my life.

This is what happened with Cinder again. The characters were well rounded, realistic, unique and likable - well, almost all of them. Of course, there's no way I could not fall for our love interest in this  book and wish and hope for him and Cinder to be together, but Cinder's very special friend Iko found her way into my heart as soon as she appeared on the pages as did Peony. The awesome aspect in this book is that I also grew to "like" the evil characters because they were so well done! I love when you can feel the danger coming from them or - in the case of Cinder's stepmother - want to punch them in the face nonstop. And that again makes you cheer the heroine on even more.

On to the actual story.

I'm sure almost everyone knows the original Cinderella - or at least one or two versions of it. I myself had a few doubts about how that storyline would be translated into futuristic Asia - but that was unnecessary. Meyer did it perfectly. It's amazing how Cinder's story was wrapped around that storyline and how the whole world evolved around it.

The world, by the way, is not just something for Asia-obsessed geeks like me. Marissa Meyer's dystopian world is a mix of futuristic world building a la carte and fantasy elements that rock your socks :)

Besides, it's easy to understand how everything works together, the social system and hierarchy and everything. For that, maybe, Meyer's writing style is to blame. The author has no problem being precise and understandable while still scoring points for beautiful language and fast pace.

All in all, you might have guessed it already, I was completely in love with Cinder and cannot wait for Scarlet.

Questions for You:

Have you read Cinder? If so, what do you think?

If not, what has kept you from it?

Can you recommend any similar books?