REVIEW: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

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.

Buddy Read with Charlie

They took away her beautiful clothes, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes.

I cannot even think of how I should begin this review… So let me try and use GIFs since I haven't used GIFs in my reviews for a while.

This book just really knocked it out of the park for me. And I have high hopes that the rest of the series will too. I haven't been this excited about a book series since the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo that I read last year. After reading the first paragraph from this book, I knew... I just knew it was going to be love.

THE GIST

Once upon a time, there was a cyborg girl who lived in New Beijing named Cinder. Half of her body is a machine and the other half remained human. I know you guys already know what a cyborg is but just thought I'd say it anyways.

So right now, she lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters. She doesn't really know who her real parents are. All she remember was that she was adopted to the family by her stepmother's husband who is now dead (sadly). Her adoptive father has been nice to her, unfortunately, her stepmother was not.

Legally, Cinder belonged to Adri as much as the household android and so too did her money, her few possessions, even the new foot she’d just attached. Adri loved to remind her of that.

Basically, she was treated like a maid just like in the original Cinderella story. Oooppss. I forgot, this is a retelling of Cinderella's story.. But you guys would have figured it out by now seeing her name and the stepmother and stepsisters scenario. Anyways, she works at the market as a mechanic, a good one at that. She is so good that the Prince of the Eastern Commonwealth visits her to ask if she could fix his android.

She was met with startled copper-brown eyes and black hair that hung past his ears and lips that every girl in the country had admired a thousand times.

Yes. The prince is indeed a pretty boy. Lol. But he is a pretty nice guy too. I think I should stop here because things might get pretty spoilery after this. But just when you think this is an ordinary retelling, you got it so wrong.

THE PROTAGONISTS

Cinder

What? Really? And I thought I was just emotionally withdrawn.” 

She pulled her feet up, hugging her knees. 

“I’m also incapable of blushing, if that was going to be your next brilliant observation.

I love Cinder. I wasn't expecting to absolutely fall in love with her character but I did. She was sarcastic, brave, caring, responsible and everything i love in a character. She was also one that is flawed. She isn't a fucking Mary Sue! Thank you so fucking much! You don't see her as a special snowflake that would save the world. You will see her as this damaged girl (literally and figuratively) who just want to fit in. Who just want to be accepted for who she is. For some reason, cyborgs were abhored in this society. I'm not sure if i missed the part where it was explained, but I'm not sure why she should be bothered about being an cyborg. The things she could do is so awesome.

Oh and by the way, she doesn't let those pesky teenage hormones rule over her decisions. This girl has a good head on her shoulders. One other thing too, Cinder does doubt herself sometimes, but then again, who doesn't? She gets insecure but being in her position it was quite understandable.

Cinder is definitely one of the nicely written female character I have ever read.

Prince Kai

"I think you should go to the ball with me.”

　　She clutched her fingers. His expression was too genuine, too sure. Her nerves tingled. “Stars,” she muttered. “Didn’t you already ask me that?”

　　“I’m hoping for a more favorable answer this time. And I seem to be getting more desperate by the minute.”

Prince Kai was charming. Honestly, I don't think this guy has any faults on him. He was such a sweet guy and loyal and responsible. We don't often see guys like him in books anymore. We almost always see the bad-boy-turn-good-guy type and sometimes I get sick of that. Kai was just so nice. And his struggles are very much shown too. His motivations and actions are well thought of. I liked that he wasnt put there just for the sake of having a romantic interest.

THE ANTAGONISTS

QUEEN LEVANA

She was so good. I liked how intimating she was even when she wasn't saying anything yet. Although at this point in the series, I don't get why she was evil. But I do want to know and that's what made her an interesting character for me.

ADRI LIHN

Now we go to Cinder's stepmother. She is so evil. I actually kind of hated her a bit more than Levana on this book because she has no heart. I'm not saying that Levana has one, but on this book you get to see how she interacted with Cinder and how badly she treated her. I just wanted to strangle her all of the time she was in the book.

THINGS I LIKED

✔The world building was just amazing. I love her concept of New Beijing and the Eastern Commonwealth. I felt that it lacked a bit of describing of the environment but I just loved this world. How futuristic but current everything is. How people could be cyborgs and how people use androids (which are basically Artificial Intelligence) and also about the human's relationship with the people from the moon.. Yeah. There are people from the moon.

✔The characters were so well written. Everyone is really fleshed out as if they were real human beings. You get to know them and their motivations and you understand them. I don't think there are characters here that were unnecessary to the story. All of them had their own roles to play and luckily, all of them did it wekl.

✔Cinder as the protagonist is one of this book's highlight. She is not what I was expecting. She wasn't a Mary Sue. She was bitter and hopeful at the same time. I just loved her.

✔There was insta-love but not really. And I actually found it really cute and sweet. I mean anyone would probably be in love with a prince right? Lol.

✔I liked how the story progressed. It will keep you reading for more.

✔I liked the pacing of this book. It was exactly how I wanted a fantasy book to be paced.

✔I surprisingly liked that this was told in multiple, third person point of view. I usually prefer first person, but I liked that this book was in a different POV that I am used to.

✔It has good villans. I think the main villain for the entire series is Queen Levana but Adri (even if she was a smaller scale evil person) is still a great addition to the evil people of this book.

✔Marissa Meyer's writing is so good. I am in love.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE

✘I like being suprised by books. This book had so many foreshadowings that it was so easy for me to guess the plot twist in the book. And true enough, I was right.

FINAL WORDS

I can't recommend this book enough to people who like YA fantasy books. It is everything I wanted to see in a YA book. There's a fantastic heroine, a good-hearted love interest, a scary villain, and a great world they belong in.

I'm currently reading Scarlet and so far it is as good as Cinder, although as a character, I still think Cinder is a better one. The second book actually introduces you to more characters to love and root for.

I'm not going to ask anymore because I know most of you have already read this book. What are you're thoughts about it? Did you like it, hate it, or arent sure? Leave some of your thoughts down below.

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