Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Released: January 3, 2012
Pages: 390
Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

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 centre 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.


I'm just going to come out and say I adored this book. I don't usually read sci-fi books but this book just pulled me in. I loved that it was set in a China, and how it mixed unknown futuristic things with well-known current day things. It had such a different feel from other sci-fi books that I've attempted to read and I loved it.

Marissa Meyer did a great job with this book, coming up with a new type of re-telling for traditional fairy tales. She managed to make Cinder human-like whilst exploring the limitations of being cyborg. There were scenarios in the book (not being able to blush or cry) which builds up our view of this new world, and things that were added in for humour (Cinder having to buy a new foot) but they all fitted together perfectly. I was really pleased with how well the idea was executed, and it really did it for me.

The world-building was okay but I feel like there could have been a bit more, just to give the reader a little bit more context of the world we are in. There were new places that we don't know about (Eastern Commonwealth, United Kingdom, European Federation etc...) and I wish that there was a map in the book so I knew where all the empires (?) were. The place the book is set wasn't really described massively but we did get a little bit of description that actually kind worked. Overall the world-building wasn't as heavy as I expected but there was enough that you wouldn't feel lost.

I loved the characters in this book! They were all so 3-D and well-written. I made a basic break-down of each character:

• Cinder- The protagonist (obviously); she is smart, brave, funny and strong. I was so happy that she stood up for herself and wasn't a push-over.
• Prince Kai- The main guy; he is adorable and funny but does have a serious side to him. He has to put up with a lot throughout this book and I hope he gets a break.
• Queen Levana- I kind of loved her. She is so intimidating and knows what she wants that I just wanted to read more about her. Can't wait to see her role in the next book.
• The family- I hated the stepmother and older sister (Pearl) and loved the other sister (Peony). So much hate for the family, I have no more to say.
• Iko- The robot sidekick. She was so funny and inappropriate, I loved her.   

The ending was amazing, it was such a massive cliff-hanger. I was expecting the surprise at the end but I wasn't expecting anything else that happened at the end. I basically put down Cinder and thought "I need to read Scarlet". I can't recommend this book enough; if you haven't read it yet go and buy it!