Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Jul 04, 2016 by Samantha Andrews in Reviews

Synopsis for Cinder

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.

I don’t like sci-fi. Whenever I read a book’s synopsis if I see the words “android”, “cyborg”, “in a galaxy far, far, away”, I instantly disregard it. Cinder was the first sci-fi book that made me think I shouldn’t judge sci-fi so harshly. Though it did take me two attempts to really get into the story, I can honestly say I did enjoy it. Actually, not only did I enjoy it – once I got past all the sci-fi parts, and focused on the story itself, I fell in love with Cinder.

Cinder and Kai were such likable characters. I’m not use to more than one character having so much wit and sarcasm, but both of them excelled at it. They both had sassy attitudes and witty comebacks, not just with each other, but with those around them as well. When Cinder and Kai were together I was almost able to forget it was a sci-fi book I was reading.

Another great character in Cinder was Iko. I have a lot of tabbed pages in Cinder and most of them are because of her. I was laughing at every scene she was in. Where Cinder excelled at sarcasm, Iko was queen of sass; I absolutely loved her. Even though she’s an android, I’ll happily admit she was my favorite character in the book.

The plot of Cinder was great enough to get me past the fact that it was sci-fi, as well. Towards the end the story really picked up and it had me like “Whoa! What just happened?!” I really loved that Cinder was a fairy tale retelling with its own sci-fi twist. I noticed plenty of fairy tale similarities, but many more of its own unique story that made Cinder stand out to me. I was so intrigued with the story that I instantly wanted to start the second book (but I didn’t have it at the time). I’m now anxious to continue on with Scarlet to find out what happens next.