Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

* This post contains spoilers. *

* To view reviews for each book in the Lunar Chronicles series, go here. *

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)

Marissa Meyer

YA - Dystopian

400 Pages

(Read 9/29/14)

     Where do I even start with this book? I love it. I am a huge fan of fairy tales and I believe Marissa Meyer did a great job of this spin-off of the classic Cinderella. The whole cyborg/lost princess Selene/supposedly murdered by her aunt/"adopted" by the Linh family/renowned mechanic backstory is spot on. 

     

     Linh Cinder lives in New Beijing, China with her adopted stepmother and stepsisters. True to the original story, Cinder is an outcast in her family after her Stepfather Linh Garan dies from Leutmosis, a plague that is essentially the Black Plague. Cinder is a renowned mechanic, supporting her stepmother, Linh Adri, and stepsisters, Linh Peony and Linh Pearl. Peony and Cinder have been close since Cinder came to live with them. Peony wasn't afraid of Cinder being a cyborg, she just wanted someone to play with. Pearl is just like her mother, Adri, and despises Cinders existence. Pearl and Adri believe that cyborgs should be among androids, as servants and no more. 

     So, Cinder, being a cyborg and all, has a whole computer system and database inside her head. First of all, how cool is that? Second, she learns of her whimsical mechanical abilities when she finds the Linh's broken android in pieces in a box. She fixes up the android, Iko, and miraculously, she works! Iko and Cinder become the best of friends and Iko even works on mechanical stuff with Cinder.

     While working a booth at the market, Prince Kaito brings his broken android, Nainsi, to Cinder to be repaired. Though the palace's mechanics have repeatedly told Prince Kai to "Just get a new android," he can't. He says it is for sentimental reasons, but in all reality, he and Nainsi are searching for the lost Princess Selene, who was supposedly murdered by her power-thirsty Aunt Levana because she was going to acquire the throne. Levana had murdered her own sister, Selene's mother, and husband as well so that she could have the throne and power to herself. She did not want anything to stand in her way. Cinder fixes Nainsi, falls in love with Kai (unbeknownst to him that she is cyborg) and is invited to the Royal Ball as Prince Kai's own guest.

    Fast forward a bit... Cinder finds out that she is the lost Princess Selene while having testing done by Dr. Erland, the Doctor who actually saved her life in the first place, and goes to the ball to declare to everyone (mainly Levana) that she is rightfully Queen. Of course, that doesn't go over very well, considering that she is cyborg, and she is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Dr Earland visits her in prison and gives her a new hand, weird right? Who would visit someone in prison to give them a new hand? Anyway, her new hand has darts, a flashlight, a gun, and some other things that are really helpful to her that I cannot remember off of the top of my head, and she escapes. In the process of escaping, she misreads the blueprints that she so helpfully looked up in her computer head, and drops in to Jack Thorne's cell. Thorne is imprisoned for stealing an American hovercraft. Cinder finds him helpful and they steal "Thorne's" aircraft and take off into space as runaway fugitives. 

     Marissa Meyer is a wonderful author, and I am currently anxiously awaiting Heartless, a retelling of the story of the Red Queen from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland is my absolute favorite, and I cannot wait for this to come out! I recommend this whole series, I have read every book and novella in this series and I really wish that the story hadn't been wrapped up. Though she did a wonderful job of doing so! 

     Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? Is it on your to-read list? Let me know!