Author: Marissa Meyer
The Lunar Chronicles #1
Publication Date: January 1, 2012
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Publication Date: January 1, 2012
| +Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo | BookDepository |
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, 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.
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.
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"She was a cyborg, and she would never go to the ball."
I have an undying love for fairy tales and this was my first retellings book. Needless to say, I la-la-LOVED all the Cinderella parallels. It blew my expectations right out the water to be honest. I didn't expect such a complex story or an equally complex yet wonderful group of characters. Cinder quickly became one of my top fave heroines of all time! She's sarcastic, intelligent and brave. She's a take-action kind of character that I always love to read about. She's just so bad-ass and awesome :D
Linh Cinder is a cyborg working as a mechanic in New Beijing of the Eastern Commonwealth (which I've imagined as Asia on the world map). She lives with her scornful stepmother Adri and two stepsisters, Pearl and Peony. Peony is actually a sweet girl though and gets along well with Cinder. Many Eastern Commonwealth citizens are suffering from an 'incurable' disease and a research team is desperately searching for a possible vaccine. In addition, the evil Lunar Queen Levana wants to wed the young prince and basically take over Earth. Cinder was fast-paced and intense. I loved that information about this world was given gradually. And because of that, I found myself striving to finish one chapter after another for more pieces of the puzzle. The narration in this book was wonderfully descriptive as well.
I really enjoyed the dialogue and character dynamics. The scenes with Cinder and Kai were so adorable!! Add Iko in the mix, and I was giggling to no end. I loved that messages via comms were in a different font. I'm quite the visual learner so even that little detail really added to my reading experience. I was able to guess the plot twist early on because there were quite a number of hints dropped before the reveal. I loved Queen Levana, for a villain that is. She was ruthlessly despicable haa. Lunars are able to manipulate peoples emotions and actions. From the moment she's introduced, you see she's incapable of showing compassion or empathy. The contrast between her way of ruling and the Prince's was very evident. I was actually worried that the queen would simply take over but she didn't, so I'm wondering if there's some master plan brewing behind the scenes.
Overall, Cinder was a fantastic introduction to the world of The Lunar Chronicles. There was no info dump at the beginning of the book which I greatly appreciated, and the characterization was wonderful. THAT CLIFFHANGER THOUGH. This is definitely the kind of series you can joyfully binge in a matter of days.
"Soon, the whole world would be searching for her..."
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Iko
Maybe her programming was overwhelmed by
Prince Kai's uncanny hotness.
How could you not love Iko? She's superb comic relief.
Extras: Character Casting, Linh Cinder edit (spoilers)
You're about to read my favorite in the series. :D Scarlet is freaking awesome - love that book/girl/ship haha. But the whole series is seriously fantastic. I'm DYING for Winter!
ReplyDeleteGreat review, lady!
Thanks, Danielle! I finished Scarlet not too long ago and omg IT WAS. I cannot wait to start Cress but I'll probably hold off until closer to Winter haha.
DeleteYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS CINDER is so kick-a and i'm so enamoured with this ship it's insane <3 wolflet will always be my main ship but I always crave more of these two :) ah yes! I think Levana is such a great villain and she gets so much worse in Cress too, you'll be repulsed by her, but it's so intriguing how much hate you can have for a villain. I just love to hate her :P THE CLIFFS IN THIS BOOK I JUST
ReplyDeleteWolflet is my new fave ship in the series!!! I was all Kaider in this book but oh wolflet...they're just...ahhhhhhh. I still hope that Cinder will get a happy ending x)
DeleteI am glad you loved this book Jae! I actually hesitated to read Cinder at first, because I was skeptical about the whole androids and cyborgs concept, but I am happy that I gave a chance because it's amazing! And you should read Scarlet, it's even better than Cinder!:)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mishma <3 I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it! Haha that's what everyone said about Scarlet to me. They were correct :)
DeleteWelcome to the crowd! As much as I resist buzz books, I loved Cinder! I read it when it was up for review, so there wasn't a lot of buzz at the time, and I am sure that that worked to my advantage. It actually changed my concept of what sci-fi was. Regardless of how much I loved this book, I still haven't read the others in the series. That happens a lot with me. Gah!
ReplyDelete