Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Honestly, this book had me at "Cyborg"…

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.

This is another one of those books that I read it like two days. I just devoured it. I tend to do that with books that seem new and inventive. We’ve all seen the whole reimagining of fairy tales into something different yet familiar. But cyborgs? A strange illness effecting the population of the world? People who live on the moon called Lunars? Sweet baby, Jesus…where do I sign up?

All the characters are perfectly balanced. The main characters are interesting and have many layers (like onions!), and the secondary characters, though interesting, were perfect in the background. They helped push Cinder along with her development. She has always been strong and tough because, well, she had to be, which is perfectly demonstrated at the beginning of the book.  And it’s one of my favorite images in the entire book. Cinder is sitting on a stool, taking off her own cybernetic foot and she is just waiting for her android to bring back a brand new foot for her. For whatever reason, that particular scene just seems to set the stage for everything Cinder is about to go through.
And yeah…she goes through a lot.

Prince Kai, well, he’s an okay character. He is struggling with the death of his father at the same time dealing with the crazy Lunars who are pretty much going to invade Earth. Just saying. He represents the mystery and intrigue that is forced into Cinders life. For the most part, she handles herself pretty well…up until the end that is. What happens you say? Well, you know how Cinderella runs from the big party at the end and loses her slipper? It’s sort of like that…except it’s way more tragic…and kind of pathetic.  Anyway, back to Kai. He was for the most part a flat character for me. Not as interesting or well developed like Cinder. But I do see Kai’s importance and hopefully in the following books he gets a bit more interesting.

I’ve been thinking about the best way to describe this book and I think this phrase will work: Cinder is a Futuristic space opera filled with love, betrayal, moon people and cyborgs…and it’s just way too much fun. Action with just a bit of longing romance. But really, it's all about the action and political intrigue.

Thanks for taking the time to read this review! Here’s hoping I can stay on top of my blog in the following weeks. Also, I’ll try to reintroduce some little features on this old blog, Momo’s Pick and Hump Day Meme, and introduce a few new things. I’m thinking I might feature a copy kiddo books on here and maybe do a Book vs. Movie thing on here. My dreams of YouTube Vlogging is very far away as all my laptop is ancient and well, recording on my phone is a pain.

Until next time!
Remember to always be yourself, unless you can be a pirate...
Then ALWAYS be a PIRATE!