Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1) in YA and Beyond

Mar 10, 2012 Brigid ✩ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, aliens, fairytale-retellings, young-adult, futuristic, robots-and-cyborgs, steampunk, sci-fi, romance

Ugh I'm sorry guys, I'm like 8 books behind on reviews. Not that there's much of a point in apologizing, I guess ... I just like to imagine that there are thousands of people just sitting there, drooling, waiting on the edges of their seats for my next review! And uh, that's the only thing that motivates me to keep writing reviews. So don't crush my hopes and dreams, please.

Anyway, since I'm so behind on reviews, I'm going to try and put this as concisely as possible.

I liked this book a lot. It Ugh I'm sorry guys, I'm like 8 books behind on reviews. Not that there's much of a point in apologizing, I guess ... I just like to imagine that there are thousands of people just sitting there, drooling, waiting on the edges of their seats for my next review! And uh, that's the only thing that motivates me to keep writing reviews. So don't crush my hopes and dreams, please.

Anyway, since I'm so behind on reviews, I'm going to try and put this as concisely as possible.

I liked this book a lot. It was surprisingly good. I remember seeing advertisements for it on Goodreads a long time ago all the time. And I'd be like, "Umm what? What on earth is that? Cyborg Cinderella? WTF." And I didn't think I'd actually read it. But then, I started hearing positive things about it. So, I decided to give it a try. And, well, I liked it.

When it comes down to it, Cinder is just a very entertaining book. It's not the greatest or most genius thing ever written, but I found it thoroughly enjoyable.

I adore fairy tale retellings––especially ones that make me see the fairy tale in a totally different way. I had never read a retelling of Cinderella in which Cinderella was a cyborg. And although the premise sounds ridiculous, I thought Marissa Meyer pulled it off well.

First of all, Cinder was a likable character. She was a tough, strong, smart female lead. Unlike the Cinderella in the original fairy tale, she wasn't sitting around whining and waiting for Prince Charming or a fairy godmother to pop out of nowhere. She got things done for herself, by herself.

Secondly, the world-building was really cool. It was interesting to see the story reset in a future Beijing, which was a refreshing and unique aspect of the story. I liked all the new technology, the politics, etc. It seemed to be thought out pretty well. It was sometimes a little confusing, and could have used some more development here and there, but for the most part I found it original and intriguing.

Thirdly, there were a lot of interesting takes on the secondary characters. In this version, only the stepmother and one of the stepsisters were bitches! And the other stepsister was actually Cinder's friend. So, I thought that was cool. I also adored Iko, Cinder's robot-friend ... who I guess was the fairy godmother replacement? Errrm I don't know. But she was super adorable and awesome. (view spoiler) And Prince Kai! AAHHHH! He was just so sweet and sexy, and over all a super awesome love interest. He wasn't creeperish or stalkerish or controlling, or any of those other terrible personality traits that a lot of YA male love interests have. HOORAY!

I don't have too much to complain about. Like I said, there were parts/aspects of the story that I found a little bit confusing. And there were also parts that felt a little ... silly? I don't know. It's hard to explain what I mean, I guess. Anyway ... also, I didn't really like the ending. It was that type of ending where I got to the last page and I was like, "Wait, that's it? Am I missing pages?" I'm not a big fan of cliffhangers, and in this case it just left the story feeling incomplete. I know it's a series, but I still would have liked a bit more closure of some sort.

Anyway, this was a fun read and something I highly recommend. I'm excited for the sequels, and to see what Meyer does with other fairy tales! :) ...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Renuka rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, young-adult, romance, favorites, dystopia, fairytales, cliff-hangers, reviewed, fav-couples

HOLY MOLY. This book was just amazing. I still can’t shake this crazy world full of cyborgs and Lunars….and LUNAR CYBORGS (yep, both mixed together). Plus it had Kai. And Cinderella.

The Plot:

Cinder is an orphan, with an evil stepmother and two overprivaleged stepsisters (surprise! One of them actually isn’t evil, just spoiled). She is a cyborg, so she’s half technology half person. So cool, and very futuristic. Plus she has a lie detector. I seriously want one. Who doesn’t? Anyway, mixed in w ...more

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Jun 19, 2014 Stormi (StormReads) rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

Listened for fun through audibles.

First Thoughts: It was better than I thought it was going to be, I am not real big on getting books that have a lot of hype. Normally if they are hyped up I don't like them, so this one was a surprise.

When it comes to fairy tale retellings I am sort of iffy. Some times I like them and some times I don't, so I really wasn't sure if I would want to try this because of all the hype. This one is about Cinderella but at the same time it isn't like any type of Cindere Listened for fun through audibles.

First Thoughts: It was better than I thought it was going to be, I am not real big on getting books that have a lot of hype. Normally if they are hyped up I don't like them, so this one was a surprise.

When it comes to fairy tale retellings I am sort of iffy. Some times I like them and some times I don't, so I really wasn't sure if I would want to try this because of all the hype. This one is about Cinderella but at the same time it isn't like any type of Cinderella I have ever read. Cinder is a cyborg and was adopted. When the man that adopted her dies she is left with the woman who never wanted her and her two kids. Though of the the girls is really mean the other one is actually really nice to Cinder.

Cinder is also based in New Beijing which is also something new for the Cinderella tale. Cinder is a mechanic and a very unusual girl. When her sister who is nice to her gets sick with the plague that is going around Cinder finds out that she is immune. She also finds out some other things about herself that could get her in even more trouble than she is already in. Cinder is a pretty interesting character and has a lot of guts.

Prince Kai, is suppose to be wed to the Lunar Queen. It's not something he wants to do and he has been on a quest to find someone who is suppose to be dead. Prince Kai meets Cinder when he needed to get his android Nancy fixed. Nancy has important information that he needs and hopes Cinder can fix her. The Prince seems pretty cool and has a heavy weight put upon him.

The Lunar people seem to remind me a little be of a cross between werewolves (living on the moon) and vampires (glamours, not liking mirrors, etc). They are not a very nice race of people, especially their Queen.

Cinder has a lot more action and moved at a fast pace which I like. I love all the parts that were sort of like Cinderella combined with all the things that were not. So far there is not HEA in this fairy tale retelling and I kind of like that. (Not to say that it might not happen eventually but that is why it's a series..lol)

Why it's so surprising that I liked it is that it is part of two genres that I am not real big fans of and that is Sci-fi and dystopian. Despite this though it gives Cinderella a really unique retelling. If you haven't picked it up yet, I would recommend you give it a try. ...more

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Feb 14, 2017 Brittany (finally graduated and can once again read for fun) rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, ya-my-first-love, 2017, 2022-aka-the-year-of-mostly-rereads, epic-fantasy-sometimes-w-romance

Full disclosure, if someone told me Cyborg, Cinderella, China, and Pandemic, I would have said, "no thank you", but I've been on GR enough to know to listen to my friends. And even though I'm not on nearly as often, I've been seeing this book around for a while, and I do love fairy-tale retellings.

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. Was it predictable, yes? It was a unique twist on the story, that I very much enjoyed. It wasn't always realistic, the characters were a little fl ...more

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May 25, 2013 Lori Goldstein rated it it was amazing

I loved Cinder. As a writer, I am jealous of the ease of the author's writing. There's a level of sophistication combined with an efficiency of language that creates a thorough, detailed world full of strong, well-developed characters without sacrificing plot or pacing one bit.

As a reader, this is one of those books I didn't want to finish because I didn't want my journey in this world and with these characters to be over. Fortunately number two in the series is out and three is on its way! I'm ...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Charmaine rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

This is the most unique re-telling of Cinderella that I've read so far. It was a little hard to get into at first, because of the mechanical terminology being used in the first section of the book, but after I got past that the story flowed pretty smoothly. I enjoyed seeing the parallels between this story and the original Cinderella fairy tale. The setting was interesting - a future universe, the story centering around New Beijing, a future version of China. I wish I could have learned more abo ...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Haley rated it liked it

Shelves: done4now, 2012debut-author-challenge, retold-fairy-tail

I really hate to put this one my "done for now" shelf but I am just not interested at this moment. I'll give it another try later and maybe enjoy it more. I got about 60 pages in ;( ...more

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