Book Review: Cinder

“Author Marissa Meyer rocks the fractured fairy tale genre with a sci-fi twist on Cinderella.”

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the 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 (From Goodreads).

Ages: Young Adult (Although reasonably, I would say any girl, and I do mean girl, would be able to read this  by 11-12 years of age. And get it. And like it).

Rated: PG with a teeny tiny touch  of 13, but so negligible to not even see it if you blink. 

Cinder is woefully, and most obviously, a retelling of a well known, much beloved, classic of a fairy-tale, Cinderella. I say woefully, because it seems to me that everyone is talking about how freaking awesome of a rebooted version it is. And honestly? Cinder is like, totally rocking brah. No really, Cinder is great. But it is great without focusing on the preexisting narrative of an orphaned girl being aided by mystical means to marry the prince of her dreams. Er, excuse the rhyme there. 

So what do I want to talk about here? I want to talk about Cinder. I want to talk about society. I want to talk about how refreshing it is to read a book by someone with the last name of 'Meyer' that does not make me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon. I want to talk about family. And mostly, I want to talk about how awesome Cinder is as a realistic individual reacting to extraordinary events. 

See? Girls can be mechanics too!
Although I seriously doubt ANY mechanic would
wear open toed shoes, let alone HEELS. 

So Cinder is a mechanic. A really fabulous mechanic, considering she is sixteen years old, has seemingly never had a formal education of any kind, but-- she is also a cyborg. In this slightly dystopic future, cyborgs have no legal rights as a human being, as they are not fully human. Regardless of being born 100% human, after an accident that would leave them mutilated and unable to work, the introduction of machinery into their bodies renders them less than human. Problematic? I'd say so. On a not so subtle level, Cinder is about humanity, and how we judge humanity, how we think about who qualifies as human, and how, despite all the information in front of us, we can dismiss individuals as less than human because they do not fit into our constructs of human. *cough cough* slavery *cough cough*. 

In the opening of the novel, we see Cinder sitting in her booth in the market place of New Beijing, fixing things, and trying to avoid attention to the fact that she is a cyborg. Everything is normal. Nothing looks like it  will ever change for better or for worse, until the day that Prince Kai, he of the dreamy dreams of dreaming teens, shows up with a mysteriously nonfunctional 'droid. Is it the classic boy meets girl, boy and girl like each other, but extreme obstacles block their path? You betcha! There is a plague ravaging the country, there is a threat of war from the Lunar Queen Levena, a weird subplot with mind control(?), and of course, the no small issue that Cinder is part cyborg. 38 % in fact. She is such a social reject. Ugh, gross. 

There is of course, a ball. Cinder is, of course, not allowed to go. Because, her step-mother is such a witch (Although as a side note, I felt no small amount of sympathy for Adri, because I felt like her reasons for disliking Cinder were never fully explained, and were probably based around the why's and how's of how Cinder became a cyborg). There is of course an orange chariot, that is magically transformed into a cool ride by, of course, a fairy god mo- No. Cinder is indeed, disallowed attendance at the ball. But there is no 'fairy godmother'. Cinder is remarkably self sufficient, and kick ass. She likes a Prince, and he likes her, but she has all the believable characteristics of a teenage girl in serious like with a someone she considers to be so far out of her league that he's practically in orbit. And of course, she is hung up on her looks in a normal teenage way, only instead of obsessing over how small her boobs looks, she's concerned about her robotic appendages, and anyone noticing them. 

From "Glitches"- a short prequel to Cinder. You can check

it out here.

Moving on.

One of my favorite characters in the book was, perhaps not unsurprisingly, not a human to any degree of imagination. And 'her' name is Iko. Iko is Cinder's android partner and only, who helps her run her mechanic business, and does whatever tasks and chores Linh Adri decrees. She is fun, ridiculous, and quirky. Kind of like the sassy best friend you see in all those tween Disney shows, funny, friendly, but one dimensional. Due to a malfunctioning personality chip, Iko really does embody the characteristics of a human servant, with little self mutterings against her employer/owner, enjoyment of trying on the pretty things that belong to the 'Mistress', and a delightful lusting after the ever handsome Prince Kai. 

I do not want to talk much about the plot. I would totally ruin it for you. But the villains, human, alien, and microscopic, are believable. The hero is fighting to keep his kingdom safe from two of the three. The heroine is fighting all three. Ever the two shall meet? I won't say. I will say that this book is a great read. It was fast paced, the characters where all interesting and multifaceted. It ticked off all my boxes for 'Strong Female Lead'. And best of all, it left me waiting in extreme anticipation for the next book. 

Grade: A- Because I am grumpy.