Review - 'Cinder' by Marissa Meyer

Cinder is a retelling of the classic fairy tale "Cinderella", and is the first book in the Lunar Chronicles series. In this version, Cinder is a teenage cyborg mechanic who must balance her job, her mean stepmother, and crushing on Prince Kai, all while bad things are happening and she must discover who she is and how she can help save her country and her planet.

Let me just start out by saying that in case you didn't know, cyborg means you are still a real human with thoughts and feelings, but that parts of your physical body have been swapped out for mechanical parts. I totally didn't realize this. Going into this book, I had thought a cyborg is the same as a robot, and I was really confused for the first few chapters when Cinder had teenage angst and emotions. Now that we have that straightened out, I can move on to the rest of my review.

This book is so much fun! The universe and the story lines are full and rich, and you can tell Marissa Meyer put a lot of thought into them, setting this up to be the first book in a series where all the plots will eventually tie together into a cohesive whole. Once I got started (and figured out what a cyborg is), I couldn't put this book down. There is so much action and so many things going on, from the plague to palace intrigue to the evil villain making an appearance and wrecking havoc. There is never a dull moment.

Yet, I didn't rate this book higher because there were some things I wasn't a fan of. Cinder is painfully immature at times, from her inability to speak in front of a cute boy to her prejudice against others when she herself is on the receiving end of prejudice. Also, Cinder and Kai are so insta-love, I was genuinely confused. He comes across her filthy from her work as a mechanic and unable to string a complete sentence together, and falls for her? Some of the dialogues are so cheesy and simple, with everything very clearly spelled out for the reader, that it's almost cringe-worthy.

Even with the negatives, there was still so much I enjoyed in the first book. The universe and plot are riveting so far, and I can't wait to see where Meyer takes them. You know that feeling you get when you read the first book in a series and you just know it's the start of an amazing journey? Yep, I have that! I can't wait to dive into the next book.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars