BOOK REVIEW: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Before reading this book; I heard nothing but great things about this book and when I saw it sitting on my shelf still unread I couldn't believe that I had not yet read this high rated book.

Summary:

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.
In this thrilling debut young adult novel, the first of a quartet, Marissa Meyer introduces readers to an unforgettable heroine and a masterfully crafted new world that’s enthralling.

My overall opinion:

It is the future, years after World War IV and the planet is plagued by a deadly disease called letumosis. In New Beijing, teenage Cinder is a Cyborg – part human, part robot – whose talent for mechanics is exploited by her selfish Stepmother, who is her official Guardian, after the death of her adoptive father. As a Cyborg, Cinder is universally despised and the thing she fears the most is the Draft: in which Cyborgs are drafted by the government to become test subjects to find the cure for the plague and no Cyborg has ever survived it. Unfortunately for Cinder, her beloved stepsister Peony catches the disease the same day that her services as a mechanic are required by cute Prince Kai. Both occurrences set in motion a chain of events in which she discovers the truth about her own blood and finds herself at the center of political intrigues with the horrible, warmongers Lunar people.

Story-wise, Cinder has different yet interconnected threads. On one hand, there is Cinder and her family life, her difficulties at being unloved and exploited by her stepfamily which in this novel are further complicated by the fact that she is a Cyborg in a world that doesn’t exactly welcome them as equal beings to humans. On the other hand, there is the world in the future and the plague, the stress of the politics between the Earth and the Moon and its Lunar people and their Queen. All of this combines in a way to build Cinder’s internal and external conflict and I thought all was really well done especially with regards to the world-building and the fairytale crossover. Although the Cinderella elements are almost secondary to the story, I thought they were expertly handled by the author and it was fun how certain aspects of the tale were incorporated differently here (like the shoe, the carriage, etc). It also has to be said that there is of course, a certain level of predictability stemming from the connection with Cinderella as well as fairly obvious plot twist about Cinder’s true identity. In fact, this was so obvious that I suggest this was done on purpose. To me, it made it all the more fun to follow Cinder through the discoveries she was making.

That said, whilst I thought these elements to be well done, and the world-building to be fairly developed, the same can’t be said about the particular setting of this story. The story is set in a place called New Beijing and for all intents and purposes everything sounds Chinese and it seems that everything should be Chinese but there is never a clear description of its people (I still don’t know how Prince Kai LOOKS LIKE, for example. I know he is supposed to be cute and hot but in what way I don’t know), is places, its culture. It is a potentially cool, different setting that is grossly under-developed to the point where I wondered what was the point? It was not a deal-breaker because I truly enjoyed everything else but it was quite frustrating.

It also needs to be said that Cinder is the first in a new series so although this first book follows the story of Cinderella, I believe this fairy-tale element is basically over now. It will be interesting to see how the story develops.