Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Iconic Quote

“Do your kind even know what love is? Can you feel anything at all, or is it just… programmed?” 

Book Summary

TLDR: Cinder is a loose retelling of Cinderella but, in this version of the story, she is a cyborg.

Full Summary: It is the future and there has been peace on earth for over 100 years. No wars have taken place between countries. Unfortunately, there is a new kind of war taking place, the war against a highly contagious life threatening disease called Letumosis.

There is also a threat from outside of planet earth. The people who inhabit the moon, also known as the planet Luna, are seeking a new alliance with the people of Earth. However, it is clear that the leader of Luna has ulterior motives.

Cinder is a mechanic in New Beijing and when her step-sister contracts Letumosis, Cinder’s guardian signs her up to be a test subject for the cure. Cinder knows that when they inject her with the disease she will die. It is a miracle when it is discovered that she is the only person who is immune to the disease.

My Thoughts:

Depending on how you feel about reading books regarding deadly pandemics in our current climate, this could be a fantastic or terrible choice in reading material. Personally, it didn’t hit too close to home to cause me discomfort (particularly because of the cyborg aspect), but it helped me relate to the main characters better.

This is my second time reading this book and I have done so because I needed context in order to read the whole series. The first time I read it I was still a teenager and rated it 5 stars. At the time, such a raving review seemed fair because the story excited me, I appreciated reading a YA book that didn’t have a love triangle, and I liked Cinder’s witty comments.

Upon reading this again, I have dropped my rating to 4 stars. As someone who has matured in her reading tastes and added many new books to her finished “pile”, I decided to drop the rating one star mainly because the plot lagged at points. There was also some minor issues in that the love interest was somewhat 2-dimensional and with the book being centered around Cinder being a cyborg, I thought more could have been done with that concept. Instead of explaining why cyborgs were reviled, we as the readers were simply told that they were and the story never delves deeper than that.

This book is perfect for a light and easy read. It is clean and suitable for a teenage audience, contributing to the small collection of age-appropriate YA fiction. I appreciate that it was written for actual teenagers rather than the large quantity of adults who like to read YA (although we can enjoy this too).

The ending is a cliffhanger and so I am excited to see where the series goes.

If you would like to purchase this book, you can do so here