Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer. Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan Imprint) 2012. 400 pgs (hardcover). Young adult, fiction, sci-fi.

Meyer_Cinder

Book summary: 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 know I’ve said this about every book I’ve read, but wow! This book was so good! Meyer has literally reinvented the classic story of Cinderella in a way that I didn’t think was possible. And before we get too far along, I will say this: Cinder is not an exact mirror of the rags-to-riches story you know and love. Not only is this story something everybody will recognize, but it’s also a fresh take on it that everybody can enjoy.

Cinder is a cyborg mechanic living in New Beijing after World War IV whose seemingly mundane life is quickly turned upside down when she meets Prince Kai. Cinder begins to question everything she’s ever known about her life and the world, but in a good way. There is a twist in this book that I, admittedly, figured out during the first mention of it (it was pretty easy to figure out). That didn’t change the fact that I enjoyed the book immensely.

Aside from the very cool storyline, Cinder is also well written. I was never sure what was going to happen next to get to the twist at the end, so I was constantly turning pages and staying up late into the night to read this book. I carried it pretty much everywhere, so I could read it if I ever got a quiet moment. The font was also really neat—definitely a font that’s not used widely in books these days, and it fit the story very well. It’s a font that’s sort of futuristic and sci-fi inspired. It’s also easy to read, which is more important than you might think!

I’ve been eyeballing this book at the store for a few months, but never picked it up. I saw it was on sale so I grabbed it. Best impulse buy in a while! Marissa Meyer’s second book Scarlet, the Little Red Riding Hood sequel to Cinder, is already out as of February 5, 2013. Grab Cinder today, and make sure to pick up Scarlet, too!

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Bonus link to the Cinder audio book