Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

Title:  Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Published: January 3, 2012

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My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★


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.

 

 

“Do your kind even know what love is?

Can you feel anything at all, or is it just... programmed?”

Exciting, heart-breaking, and mesmerizing... this is the story of Linh Cinder.  Cinder, an unwanted stepdaughter, part-cyborg misfit, and extremely brilliant mechanic in Beijing, catches the eye of Kai, Crown Prince of the Eastern Commonwealth, when she agrees to repair his broken android. With Iko, her trusty and hilariously sarcastic android, and Peony, her younger stepsister, as her closest and only friends, Cinder’s life is no fairytale. But she is spunky, full of snark, and a character I fell very much in love with. With a frightening plague and an even scarier queen, Cinder is a clever, but poignant, must-read novel.

Despite the positive reviews I read of Cinder at the beginning of 2012, I held off reading this Cinderella retelling, or “re-envisioning,” rather. Cyborgs? Lunars? Intergalactic struggles? That is just way too science fiction for my taste. But I really needed to give it a try and read it as my final book in the 2012 Debut Author Challenge.

And herein lies the lesson, fellow readers: Never judge a book by its gorgeous, but sci-fi-ish, cyborg-legged cover.

I was nowhere prepared to love this book as much as I did.   A tale so absorbing and captivating that it kept me spellbound until 4:30 in the morning because I could not, for the life of me, put this book down until I reached the final page. My punishment (besides dark circles under my eyes the rest of the day and a slightly sluggish demeanor) was my near breakdown when I reached the final page and I needed more. So. Much. MORE. The world building; the unbelievably beautiful, vivid details; intriguing characters; and Ms. Meyer’s amazing storytelling have turned a book I shied away from into one of my favorite 2012 reads.

Two important things that I learned from Cinder:

1) The book you least expect to love is sometimes the one you end up loving the most.

2) You are never too old for fairytales.

The only reason I’m not kicking myself too hard for waiting to read this as long as I did is I won’t have to suffer a very long wait for Scarlet, which will be out February 5, 2013.

“It is easier to trick others into perceiving you as beautiful

if you can convince yourself you are beautiful.

But mirrors have an uncanny way of telling the truth.”