CINDER
by Marissa Meyer

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pub Date: Jan 8, 2013
Publisher: Square Fish
Length: 387 pages
Spoilers: N/A
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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.

Cyborgs & Equality
I loved this book because of cyborgs! Cyborgs offer so many plot options and they’re just the epitome of advanced biotech. That being said, I like how cyborgs were implemented into this story in regards to personal rights and equality. Why? Because if cyborgs ever became a reality, their rights will be a big topic.

Dual POV, but different POVS
Something that really threw me off about this book was the dual POVS utilized. Not only do we read the story from Cinder’s point of view, but we also read it from Kai’s point of view. This bothered me for two reasons. 1) The points of view were not consistent in their percentage of the chapters in the book. For some reason, this just bothers me. 2) While Cinder’s POV is in 1st person, Kai’s is in 3rd person. This just threw me off because my mind kept having to switch back and forth between 1st and 3rd, which took me out of the story.

A little too Clean
With a story as dystopian and gritty as this one was, I was really disappointed with the ending because it was a little too clean for my tastes. Everything fell into place just a little too perfectly. And there weren’t enough negatives and setbacks to make the ending satisfying.

Fairytale Implementation
I was a little hesitant about this book because it was a fairytale retelling. I’ve read some good retellings, some not-actually retellings, and some good retellings. So, this could have gone in any direction. But I was quite pleased with how the original fairytale of Cinderella was implemented into the story.