Review | Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Synopsis from Goodreads: 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.

It’s not everyday you read a Cinderella re-telling in which Cinderella is a cyborg. This book was creative and fresh. There were times when I saw how the storyline followed that of the traditional story of Cinderella, but the author didn’t hesitate to tweak things up a bit.  I also liked the sci-fi spin that Meyer added to the fairy tale.

I am excited for the next installment in this series: Scarlet which comes out in February 2013. At the end of Cinder there were a lot of unanswered questions about the world that Meyer has created that need answering so it will be interesting to see where she takes readers next.

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Overall Rating:

Parent’s guide:

• Sex: a boy and girl kiss
• Violence: cyborgs are tested on, a plague kills many, there is blood
  
• Language: some mild swearing (hell, damn)