tweetybugshouse
Written on Feb 6, 2018
A forbidden romance.
A deadly plague.
Earth's fate hinges on one girl . . .CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation.
Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future.
This is not the fairytale you remember. But it's one you won't forget.
- ISBN10 1250768888
- ISBN13 9781250768889
- Publish Date 4 February 2020 (first published 3 January 2012)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Square Fish
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 448
- Language English
Reviews
anastasia
Written on Sep 15, 2017
Cinder is a retelling of one my favorite fairytales Cinderella. In this modern fairytale set in futuristic New Beijing, hundred years after World War IV, we are introduced to the main heroine: Cinder. A deadly and contagious disease is ravaging the Earth and killing its people, not to mention an imminent war against the people who live on the Moon (Luna), the Lunars. Cinder will soon discover that that the peace and safety of Earthens might possibly lie in her hands.
I have to praise the book for its originality. I mean, a cyborg Cinderella in a dystopian world? You gotta give Marissa Meyer props for coming up with that. I personally loved the world she built. It is a very fun read. I enjoyed reading it and I was interested enough to continue flipping through its pages eagerly. The writing is clean and very descriptive. I love Prince Kai and Cinder’s cyborg slash bestfriend: Iko.
Overall, I think Meyer did a terrific job with this retelling of a beloved classic. Likable, believable characters paired with a compelling story that had the right amount of tension and suspense made for a winning combination. The ending has me itching for the next book in the series, and I’m eager to find out what happens to Cinder and Kai, and the fate of Earth and Luna.
I strongly recommend this book to you if you want an awesome dystopian fairy tale retelling with great characters. And you might even have as much fun reading it as I did. :] Now, on to the next book in this series!
Check out my reviews of the rest of this series!
Cinder
Scarlet
Cress
Winter
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thepunktheory
Written on Sep 9, 2017
It's incredibly hard to pull of fairy-tale retellings. Most of those end up a cheesy copy, unimaginative or simply weird. However, Marissa Meyer surprised me by kicking off The Lunar Chronicles with a fascinating modern version of Cinderella.
One of the reasons this works so well is because Marissa Meyer doesn't attempt to stick too closely to the original story. There are many moments where she hints at something but still strays far enough from the fairy-tale to deliver something completely new.
You have no idea what to expect and I can guarantee, Meyer will surprise you numerous times. It's easy to see how much effort and heart she put into this book (and it really pays off)!
Despite the story definitely having sci-fi elements, the characters are still so very relatable and not even the weirdest thing she mentions feels out of place.
The only thing that bothered me is the whole love-story part. It annoys me a bit that whenever we get a strong, interesting female character, there's always needs to be a man she can fall in love with. But granted, you can't do fairy-tales without a prince. So I'm prepared to overlook this flaw, as I really really really want to know what happens next!
Stephanie
Written on Jul 15, 2017
readingwithwrin
Written on Jul 7, 2017
Cinder is a mechanic who is in the care of her horrible adopted mother and siblings after her adopted father died suddenly from the virus that is becoming a huge problem in the commonwealth.
She is forced to work, in order for the rest of them to live high and she gets hardly anything in return. Very similar to the original fairytale I believe. Of course, this one is different though because Cinder is a cyborg and the world that they all live in now has gone through four world wars. Royal monarchs are still around are in charge of whole commonwealths now.
Cinder does end up meeting with the prince in a very different way than the story we all know though. This prince needs help in repairing something very dear to him. This prince though thankfully isn't full of himself and is actually mostly respectful of Cinder's wishes.
“He was the fantasy of every girl in the country. He was so far out of realm, her world, that she should have stopped thinking about him the second the door had closed. Should stop thinking about him immediately. Should never think about him again, except maybe as a client--and her prince.
And yet, the memory of his fingers against her skin refused to fade.”
Tragedy's end up happening to both Cinder and the prince's families that bring them closure together and far apart all at the same time.
Overall I loved this book. Which was surprising to me as I normally don't like fairytales or fairytale retellings in general. This one worked for me though. Not only do we have Cinder who is part human and part cyborg but we also have her robot friend that is hilarious and get Cinder to stop being so cynical and to dream for a change. Cinder's level of sarcasm when it came to dealing with her cyborg-ness was pretty funny.
Obviously like others have already stated this book deals with the world building and giving us the information to know what's been happening. In the next book, I'm hoping more is explained about the Lunar Queen and how that ended up happening, as well as the cyborgs being a thing.
Nessa Luna
Written on Dec 27, 2016
I heard a lot of good things about this book, and seeing as I really like fairy-tale retellings (such as Splintered), I decided to order this book. I personally am not really a fan of Cinderella, but this story sounded interesting. Though, when I started reading it, the story became so predictable to me, it actually ruined the ending a bit for me. About forty or fifty pages in, I already knew how the book was going to end, and who Cinder actually was, a bit of a shame, but hey, what is there to do about that?
I liked the bit where everyone uses ‘stars’ or ‘oh my stars’ in stead of god, because that reminded me of Doctor Who (Clara’s mum said ‘oh my stars’ in stead of omg in Rings of Akhaten). The Emporer’s advisor was called ‘Torin’, which I thought was funny. At first, I kept on reading ‘Thorin’, until I read it more closely, and I saw it was missing the ‘h’.
I had a soft spot in my heart for both Peony (though who calls her kid that? honestly, every time I read her name it reminded me of My Little Pony, and I got that theme song stuck in my head), and Iko; and my heart broke a bit when I found out what happened.
Though I usually really dislike multiple POV’s, this story was actually quite good with them, I think I might be getting used to multiple POV’s, which might be good, because I suspect that a lot more books on my to-read list have them. I liked how the book told both the story of Cinder, and of Prince Kai.
I give this book four planets, because though the story was quite predictable, I did really enjoy it. I really want to know how the story ends, so I am going to go and order the second book in the series!
ibeforem
Written on Dec 23, 2016
The nice thing about this retelling is it hits all the beats of the original without being a point-by-point copy. The inspiration is obvious — there’s a charming prince, and an evil stepmother, and even a pumpkin (of sorts) — but there’s enough divergence to make it interesting. For one, Cinder isn’t in it for love, and she has much more influence on her story than the Cinderella of old.
The setting was a little unexpected. Not so much the dystopian part, or the problem of the plague, but it being set in a future China. Even though you learn early on where they are, there’s not a lot in the story where it matters. There are some Chinese names, but ultimately they could be in any nondescript city. I wish there had been a little more emphasis on the culture so it did matter.
Overall, this was a quick and enjoyable read. The ending leaves some questions unanswered, so I definitely plan to continue the series.
ayla_abbott
Written on Jul 18, 2016
Quick read, good baddie, nice homage to the fairy tale, and I'm genuinely curious where the series will go from here.
wyvernfriend
Written on Jul 6, 2016
Interesting SF retelling of Cinderella
Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews
Written on Apr 8, 2016
I like to pride myself, that I am pretty good about figuring out plot twists ahead of time, I had Cinder's true hidden identity (even to herself) pegged 100 pages into the book. I get on my high horse and gloat but once I come down from the horse I realized that it doesn't matter, its all about the journey.
Cinder is a mechanic, Prince Kai happens upon her booth wanting his out of date robot fixed and a teenage crush begins to metastasize. Of course Cinder has two step-sisters and step-mother. Peony wants to be friends and is a stereotypical valley girl whose annoyance drove me insane. Therefore when she came down with the plague, the epidemic that is sweeping the Commonwealth I did not shed a tear. I found her evil step-family much more developed and interesting, what is Cinderella without a few evil relatives in it? Anyway, after being blamed for Peony's illness her step-mother Adri and step-sister Pearl volunteer her as a guinea pig to find a cure to the disease that is sweeping the nation.
From here on out, all is shed in mystery with awkward teenage love mingled in between. It is cute, endearing and all too true. Due to its originality I sometimes forgot that I was reading a Cinderella inspired novel. I believe this is due to the fact that it was not your run of the mill fairy tale. Earth is in jeopardy, and the united nations are racking their brains to find a solution. Can a trusty cyborg mechanic save the day? The conclusion is at a ball that ends in disaster and is far from a teenage girl's dream, but must be attempted for the common good, but on her dance and dash our spunky Cinder loses her leg with her secret being reveled (I'm a cyborg, no one could love me). Cinder ends with all the elements of the fairy tale we have all grown to know and love with a wrench at the end. I typically am not a sci-fi futuristic fan, but read so many great reviews on this novel that I had to give it a try. Now I'm hooked and await with baited breath to read its sequel.