Review: Cinder(Lunar Chronicles#1)
by Marissa Meyer
TITLE: Cinder
AUTHOR: Marissa Meyer
PAGES: 390
PUBLISHER: Feiwel & Friends
RELEASE DATE: January 3, 2012
SYNOPSIS: 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.
(4 out of 5 quills)
Let me start out by saying that this is a tough one for me. In the beginning of the novel I was having a hard time connecting to any of the characters. I felt as if we were thrust into this futuristic dystopian world and we were just supposed to know everything. There were people (Lunars) living on the moon and we were just supposed to accept that and dive right in. There were people who had been on deaths door but were saved by scientists with robotic limbs and organs. A 3rd world war had come and gone and the world had changed. Even after finishing the novel I'm left with an unnerving feeling that I just don't know enough about the Lunars or the war. I don't like that feeling, I like resolve.
Our main Character Cinder is a cyborg (one of those people saved by the scientists) who lives under the firm hand of her stepmother Adri. She also has two stepsisters Pearl & Peony, only they are not "evil" per sé. Sure pearl seems cold hearted and distant to Cinder throughout the whole book but Peony is a friend to her. I like the loose basing off the fairy tale and I'm happy that Marissa Meyer didn't follow it to a T, it left a space for you to feel excited rather than expectant as you turned the pages. Of course there is a Prince (what would any tale be without one?), Prince Kai and he was a different sort of Prince. I didn't get the feeling that he was pretentious, I instead got the feeling that he was kind and, well, scared.
For the first half of the novel I felt as if I was just trying to make it to the end to find out about this futuristic world. But, once I reached the halfway point the story really picked up for me. I began to get tingles when Kai and Cinder were together, and I began to become hopeful for their future. Even though the big twist of the novel is predictable within the first 50 pages I really enjoyed the ending. It definitely ends with a cliffhanger and leaves you angry that you have to wait for 2013 to find out the next chapters in Cinders' story.
With that I say this; although the novel is definitely slow to start, it goes out with a bang and I would say it's worth the read.
