Meyer,
Marissa. Cinder. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2012.
390
pages.
Reviewed
by J. d’Artagnan Love
Linh
Cinder is a cyborg. She can detach her cyborg ankle and it’s during the process
of attaching a new ankle that she meets Prince Kai, the smoldering emperor-to-be
of New Beijing. Kai must figure out a way to protect his kingdom and the rest
of the earth from the evil Lunar Queen who has left her moon-based home to pay
respects to the death of the emperor (Kai’s father). The emperor died from
Letumosis, a plague infecting many people across the planet, including Peony,
Cinder’s stepsister. It is up to Cinder to fix Kai’s android that contains
important state secrets, and work with leading scientists to find a cure from
Letumosis while attempting to avoid the stiff curfews and rules set by her
unrelenting step mother. All in a day's work.
Cinder
was a fun read, like, really fun. It is, in fact, one of the best young adult books I’ve
read in a long time. It is also the first book I’ve read in a long while that I
missed reading when I wasn’t reading it. I found myself wanting to read it any
spare second of time I had. I loved the way Meyer skillfully injected several
fairy tales into one futuristic sci-fi, fantasy novel. I picked up on elements
of Anastasia, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella with Cinderella being
the predominate fairy tale. I’m sure if I read it multiple times, I would find more fairy tales that I didn’t catch the first time. Maybe it’s the
nostalgia of these tales eliciting emotions, but I found the characters to be
wonderfully real and satisfying. Cinder is worth loving, her stepmother is
worth loathing and Kai is worth rooting for.
Meyer
did a great job creating Cinder’s world and all the gadgets therein. It’s
sci-fi without being suffocated by the typical "alien invasion" theme. The plot
was believable and it is easy to see Cinder’s world as a potential future for
us all without having to suspend our disbelief much. Cinder was Meyer’s debut
novel and I’m excited to see how she develops as a writer in her future
novels. The next book in the Lunar Chronicles has been added to my reading
list!
4 darts
out of 5
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