Cinder by Marissa Meyer
31February 5, 2013 by Alice in Readerland
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.
Title: Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)
ISBN: 0312641893
It took me a whole year since it came out to read Cinder, which is quite a long time considering that I was desperately trying to use Lunar mind control to get the mailman to bring me a copy of Scarlet this morning.
You see, I’m always cautious to read books that have received so much hype; for me, the books hardly ever live up to it. But Cinder, on the other (cyborg) hand, not only lived up to my expectations, but totally surpassed them. I’ll try and stay non-babbly and coherent in this review, since the first thing I did after I finished Cinder was call my friend up and say something to the effect of: “It’s Once Upon a Time meets Star Wars. It’s awesome.”
I loved the three-dimensional characters, Cinder and Iko in particular. Iko is just the most adorable and funny character ever, and I loved all her scenes. Cinder learns and grows so much throughout the novel (and seems to grow to be even more hilariously sarcastic in Scarlet) and I love, love, LOVE that she’s a mechanic. As a girl who loves fixing things, tools, and electronics, I thought the Cinder was the perfect character.
Something else I really enjoyed about Cinder was that it was the perfect mix of adding a totally new dimension to what we already know about Cinderella, yet it wove in elements from the original telling that made me smile when I recognized them (for example, Cinder’s “pumpkin carriage”). I also loved seeing the brief mentions/foreshadowing of Scarlet’s grandmother, Wolf, Cress, and Winter sprinkled throughout Cinder, they definitely made me even more excited to see what other stories there were to tell.
Cynical Cindy Says
Quite honestly, I’m not fond of the subject about the plague or *Spoiler* having a character I like get killed off.
Cinder is the perfect book for anyone who loves fairy tale retellings, SciFi, or just someone looking for a captivating and fun read! Also, don’t forget to check out my review of Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) and my post In Honor of SCARLET, a Week of Little Red Post: From Books to Fashion!
5 out of 5 teacups
Extras
According to the Ultimate Gift Guide for YA Readers on Epic Reads I should get a copy of Cinder and a multi-piece toolkit. I can’t even tell you how true that is and how much I’d love it! What about you, do you agree with the gift guide?
Remember to stick around for more Fairy Tale February posts here at Alice in Readerland!
Alice in Readerland 
I’m so happy you loved this one! :) I’m always a little hesitating when it comes to books that get a lot of hype, because I’m afraid I will be the only one who WON’T like it. But then again, those books usually deserve the hype. And yes to your cynical comment! I didn’t like that at all :( And wasn’t expecting it, either! Anyway, lovely review :) can’t wait to get my hands on Scarlet, and see what you think of it too!
Yes, exactly about the hyped-up books! I was so sad with the character death. But I was surprised at how much I loved CINDER! :) Thanks for stopping by & commenting!
YAY! So happy you read it and liked it :) I loved Iko as well. I need to reread this one now, especially right before Scarlet…which I’m in agony for not having. Great review!
Iko was such a cute character! :) Thanks for stopping by & commenting!
I loved Cinder too. I was surprised, since I normally don’t like sci-fi, but there were so many other elements. Great review! I can’t wait to read Scarlet.
I don’t read a lot of SciFi, but I just adored CINDER! :) Thanks for stopping by & commenting!
I’m super excited to read Cinder! I totally get what you mean about reading hyped books, sometimes I get really disappointed by them too. I’m really glad you enjoyed this one though, I’ve been highly anticipating it for ages. Great review!
I definitely recommend CINDER, I was so hesitant to read it but I ended up absolutely loving it! Which surprised me, because I’m often really disappointed in hyped up books. I hope you enjoy it when you read it! :) Thanks for stopping by & commenting!
You have me sold with this one line alone “It’s Once Upon a Time meets Star Wars” I very much need to get my hands on this book. I have been meaning to for a while and now I very much need to.
Great review! :)
That was my first thought when reading the book, and I enjoy those two individually so it was a lot of fun to see them combined in a way! :) I hope you get to read it soon! Thanks for stopping by & commenting!
Yay! I am glad you loved it as well!!
Me too! :) Thanks for stopping by & commenting!
[…] forget to check out my review of Cinder and my post A Week of Little Red: From Books to Fashion in honor of Scarlet’s […]
I think I’m in the minority, I liked cinder, didn’t love it, thought it would be better without the whole cinderella nonsense, as a stand alone story.
I understand, I don’t often like all the hyped-up books! Thanks for stopping by & commenting! :)
I’m keen to find out where it goes from here though, red riding hood – could be good :)
I enjoyed how she wove aspects of Little Red in Scarlet, but didn’t seem to overdo it with the Little Red references.
Confession: I haven’t read Cinder
Goal: To read it in 2013
To you: Amazing review :)
Thank you so much! :) I hope you enjoy Cinder when you read it!
CINDER *waves fan flag* I’m not such a fan of sci-fi, so I was scared to pick this one up. Since it’s a fairytale retelling, I decided to give it a try after all and oh my! I was blown away. I totally fell in love with Cinder and Marissa showed me that I can like sci-fi books :)
Great review!
Mel@thedailyprophecy.
Same here, I picked it up for the Cinderella aspect more than the SciFi aspect, and was surprised at how much I loved it! :) Thanks for stopping by & commenting!
[…] As a girl who loves fixing things, tools, and electronics, I thought that Cinder the strong and sarcastic mechanic (who happens to be a cyborg) was a great character. You can find my review of Cinder here. […]
I have always wanted to read Cinder. And now that I have read your review, I am definitely reading it. Awesome review and blog. I have never seen anything like your blog. Its really cool and I love it!
Thank you so much, that’s so nice of you to say! :)
Your welcome Alice. Thank you for stopping by my blog too :).
And enjoy your March :)
[…] So far, my favorite books I’ve read (for the first time) this year are Cinder by Marissa Meyer (see my review here) and A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan (see my review […]
[…] I just read Cinder this year and I loved it! Cinder is the perfect book for anyone who loves fairy tale retellings, SciFi, or just someone looking for a captivating and fun read! You can see my review here. […]
[…] Cinder Review/Scarlet Review […]
[…] ever given two books I’ve reviewed on my blog 5 whole tea cup rating (those other books were Cinder and A Long, Long Sleep in case you were curious). Well, ladies and gentlemen, there’s about […]
[…] Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (Cinder review, Scarlet review, and Cress […]