Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



**3.5 Stars**

The title brings to mind the story of Cinderella…and that is intentional. Cinderella is kind of the theme of the book…BUT IT’S NOT THE WHOLE STORY!!

Cinder is a cyborg…part human, part machine. She was in an accident that killed her parents when she was very small. The parts of her that could not be saved are machine. Some it has skin grafts covering it, some of it does not.

Cinder was adopted by a kind man and brought back to Beijing to live with his wife and 2 daughters. Unfortunately, the man contracted the plague that’s killing Earth’s populace shortly after his return with Cinder…Cinder’s step-Mom blames Cinder for her husband’s death.

Now Cinder is 17 and she supports the family as a mechanic for all things electronic. She has a small shop in the basement of the building where she lives, as well as a stall at the market square. It’s at the square where she meets the Crown Prince, Kai. He needs his robot fixed and he heard Cinder is the only one who might be able to do it. Fixing the bot and befriending Kai, sets Cinder off on a journey where she may find herself, or she may lose her life

The title intrigued me, especially with that cover! I was fully expecting a futuristic treatment of the Cinderella fairy tale, but this was much more than that. It was the back story that was the most surprising, and it quickly became the focal point of the story. The quest to find a cure for the plague is the driving force and begs the question “What are you willing to sacrifice for the needs of the many?” In this case, all of humanity?

Cinder is an incredibly smart girl, but by virtue of the fact that she is cyborg, she has no rights…she is merely a possession to be done with whatever her owner, step-Mother, chooses to do with her. I felt tremendous sympathy for Cinder! The fact that she didn’t kill her step-Mom while she slept shows she is much more human, or humane, than I would have been…LOL!

And like the romantic sucker I am…I totally fell for Prince Kai! Even if he did disappoint me in the end. I know there is more of the story to come so I am going to hold out hope that he pulls his head out of his hind end and gets it together!

And I just loved the Doctor at the palace…his name is escaping me…he made a great, if totally unlikely, “Fairy Godmother”!

I loved the juxtaposition of the classic fairytale in a futuristic world. So often the dystopian stories have an almost primitive feel to them, but this one didn’t. And I did consider this dystopian, it’s just that the apocalypse, plague, is still happening. While it was futuristic, it didn’t feel that far off…maybe only 50-75 years in our future…yet another thing I really enjoyed about the story. Can’t wait to see what the author does next…So many possibilities! Is she going to ditch the fairytale theme? If not, what fairy tale theme will she adopt for the next book. And more importantly, will Cinder and Kai get together? Stay tuned!




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