Book Review: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1): 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.

Cinder is the first ever fairytale retelling I've read! I've been meaning to read it for so long, not because I was afraid it wouldn't live up to the expectations but because committing to a series is a lot of work - right? Well, with Winter coming out this fall I knew if I didn't start now - I would be spoiled for the entire series. This is because everyone spoils me for every series on Twitter or Goodreads. Depressing, right? Tell me about it. If you spoil big plot points in later books in a series like a character dying - shame on you! 

So the story itself is so unique - a cyborg? What?! I loved how Cinder worked. Me being myself, I was thinking way too hard into what being a cyborg actually means. Come on guys, I can't be the only one here. Well hear me out. It seems that the cyborgs are kind of like people with prosthetic limbs. Obviously not only limbs, but people can get a mechanical heart valve, larynx, pancreas. We are getting closer to artificial lungs. So - what makes Cinder different from those people? For me, I think it's that mechanism where she can detect that people are lying, and when to cool herself off. Anyway, that part of the book just made me really curious that I wanted to talk about it! Did anyone else think about that? Besides Cinder's interesting anatomy, her personality was even better. She was orphaned at 11, and despite the fact that her adopted mom was a total bitch - Cinder remained sarcastic and had the funniest carefree outlook on life. Until of course, she is reminded she doesn't have the same life as everyone else.

Fan cast of Cinder: Malese Jow 

“I'm sure I'll feel much more grateful when I find a guy who thinks complex wiring in a girl is a turn-on.” 

I really loved Prince Kai. I think we had just enough enough interaction with him and Cinder, especially since this is a series. Ok, so at first I thought the stories were on their own and just in the same universe: like Cinder was just about her, Scarlet was just about her, and so on. So I was like wait, wait, wait - we can't end Cinder's story like this! But I see now that everything is connected somehow, am I right? So the think I liked most about this whole entire story was that Kai and Cinder weren't stupid. It's hard to find that in main characters these days, ok! They each had their own problems, and they were doing what they thought was best to fix the problems. Basically, I liked that they weren't throwing all common sense and good reason out the window so they could fall in love. And it worked because they worked. They had such a connection that radiated through the pages of the book and they didn't need to tell each other words for you to know that they meant them. Does that make sense?

Fan cast of Prince Kaito: Harry Shum Jr.

“Imagine there was a cure, but finding it would cost you everything.

 It would completely ruin your life. What would you do?” 

Queen Levana is one of the meanest book villains I've ever encountered. It's so scary that she can make people do things with her mind, basically anything - even kill themselves! I think she's such a good villain because she literally shows no emotion whatsoever. The only person Queen Levana cares about is herself, she has no obvious weaknesses. She just wants to destroy and conquer. If people don't know that she has all of the power, she will make sure to show them. She is ruthless and gorgeous (or is she?). Anyway, she is definitely in the running for cruelest villain of all.

I totally loved Cinder! It channeled so many emotions, like a good book should! The plot was intense with nonstop action and the setting was just as awesome. I'm kicking myself that I didn't pick it up sooner because I loved it so much, but then again I would have had to wait even longer for Winter! I already ordered Scarlet with my B&N coupon and it should be here today sometime! If you didn't read Cinder yet (which I'm sure you all have because I'm usually the last one to board the almost finished series train), you should read it soon! I even think I'm going to give more fairytale retellings a chance, because I do love fairytales after all :) 

- Jocelyn