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Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)

Marissa Meyer

Start date: April 1, 2016

Finish date: April 30, 2016

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What Members Thought

May 09, 2012 Carrie rated it it was ok

When I found Cinder on GoodReads, I knew this one was for me. A female main character caught in the middle of a science-fiction retelling of Cinderella? Sign me up! However, I struggled a little bit with my feelings for the book. It's well-written with a solidly built world, but something kept me from completely loving it. That being said, by the time I finished the book, I knew that I wanted to give it a firm 4 stars out of 5.

Cinder starts out slowly by introducing us to the main character, Ci When I found Cinder on GoodReads, I knew this one was for me. A female main character caught in the middle of a science-fiction retelling of Cinderella? Sign me up! However, I struggled a little bit with my feelings for the book. It's well-written with a solidly built world, but something kept me from completely loving it. That being said, by the time I finished the book, I knew that I wanted to give it a firm 4 stars out of 5.

Cinder starts out slowly by introducing us to the main character, Cinder, a cyborg who works as a mechanic to keep her step-family in the lifestyle to which they are accustomed. As a cyborg, she doesn't have the same rights as humans, and is treated as lesser. The action really starts when she meets Prince Kai and is thrown into a struggle that affects her whole country. Cinder is a good character with flaws and strengths, but I found her to be the only character that was fully fleshed out. We get flashes of extra dimensions from the secondary characters in the novels, but I found myself wanting more from their dialogue and actions.

The plot's pace moves in valleys- the book will climb steadily for a few chapters and then there will be several developments happening all at once, leaving the reader's head spinning. There's a lot going on in this book. New Beijing is a country in turmoil with a struggle for the throne, a deadly plague, and a foreign threat happening all at once. This would be enough to fill a book even without the Cinderella parallels, but I found myself realizing that the fairy tale elements fit the universe incredibly well. The fairy tale and science fiction plot complement each other and add emotional depth that sometimes made my heart ache. By the last page, I was completely taken in, and it will be a long week before I can read the sequel to see what happens next.

The main problem I had with the book was that there was a lot of build and not quite enough time to let me immerse myself in the story. I was constantly getting new information, and it took me until I was about 70% through to get really comfortable. Add that to a steady stream of fictional mechanical objects being fixed, and it could get a little confusing at times. I also found the last "twist" to be easy to guess, and felt a bit let down that the clues leading up to it weren't red herrings.

Overall, Cinder was a good book that I think will lead to a great sequel. Now that the world is built, Meyer can let the story breathe a bit, and we should get more interaction and back story from the other characters. This is a solid debut that will stand up to re-reads and I do recommend it to fans of both science fiction and fairy tale retellings.

UPDATE 2/21/2016

Wow. Reading my original review makes me think I read a different book this time around. I reread it in hopes of reading the rest of the series, but it was dull and difficult to get through. I hear the other books are stronger, but I'm not currently in any hurry to read them. This was a wasted concept that had the potential for so much awesomeness. ...more

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