Cinder (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.

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Thursday, 8 Oct 2015: It’s currently 1a.m. and I’m at the airport waiting for my flight to Paris, where I will then catch the next one to Seoul, and I just finished Cinder, like, 5 minutes ago! So, without anything more interesting to do – and still procrastinating on my Queen of Shadows review – I decided to write this one.

Writing:

I absolutely loved Marissa Meyer’s writing style. It’s simple, yet colorful somehow. I liked it, a lot. It flows so so well!

World Building:

Firefly much? I love this World building. I like the idea that after the 4^th World War the countries all band together to create large empires – it goes right along with my ideals. I love the mixture of Western and Eastern cultures as well. And I’m looking forward to see this world expand… Will we be going to Africa next? 😉

Characters:

I really liked Cinder, and I can’t wait to see more of her. I found interesting how, even though she had always been treated as inferior by her family, she still fought back in her way, she wasn’t at all conformed about her position. Also, she knew her priorities well, and that’s commendable. I mean, how many times did she have to say no to the ball?

But Kai, oh my, I love Kai! That guy is gold! I loved how he treated Cinder (especially in front of her awful family) and how he put his people ahead of everything else. I’m curious about his mother though… how long has she not been in the picture? And, although I agreed with his decision by the end, I was a bit sad about what he said to Cinder. =(

Iko, I want more IKO!!!! I do hope we never see Cinder’s stepmom and sister again, though, they were awful. I don’t trust Torin. There’s something about him, but I might very well be mistaken – I hope I am, Kai needs all the help he can get. I do like Dr. Erland, though it’s all very iffy…

Levana is just awful, and all those things that the Lunars supposedly did… horrific! Also, small spoiler, was the lunar girl in the D-COMM Cress?!

Plot:

I liked the plot, for the most part. My biggest problem with it was that I could see that “plot twist” coming from the moment it was first mentioned in one of the first chapters… and then I was literally waiting for the shoe (foot) to drop. I did expect it a bit earlier. I also expected it to be with Kai’s knowledge… oh well!

The plague was a horrible thing, and I hope it gets deal with soon.

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All in all, I quite liked this book, though it didn’t blow me away completely, because I could see what was coming, and I didn’t even read spoilers prior to this. While I like Cinder, I also feel like she didn’t developed much during this book, while at the same time she did plenty.

Rating: 4 Stars