The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘marissa meyer’

Humans and androids coexist on the streets of New Beijing as scientists try to find a cure for the plague. Cinder is a cyborg. She is a stellar mechanic, who tries to hide her parts. After her father died, she was left in the care of her stepmother and two stepsisters, one of whom she is close with, another who near despises. That’s the same feeling she has for her stepmother.

One day, while in the streets working in her booth, Prince Kai asks for her help on his android, which helped raise him and had very important information that he needs to get his hands on. He and his father, who has the plague, are being pressured by the lunar queen to make a partnership and relationship between herself and Kai. But Kai has other plans. He wants to find one of the queen’s relatives, whom she is accused of killing, but whom rumor has it, is still alive. What Kai doesn’t know is this princess may be living in his kingdom.

So Cinder is helping the Prince and also helping to keep her good stepsister alive after she gets the plague. And when the lunar queen comes to town and sets her sights on Cinder, Cinder must also fight to stay safe and alive.

This is a futuristic take on the classic Cinderella. Obviously, most of us can tell that by the name and the gorg red shoe on the cover. I was so excited to get my hands on this. I loved the fairy tale classic and love when authors can bring them into present day, or the future. It’s author like these that inspire me to keep writing. What an amazing talent.

Now to the book. It took me a while to get into this. I was a little nervous getting started that I wasn’t going to like it. Cyborgs and androids are a little out of the realm of comfort for me. A little too techie for me to understand at first, but it kind of grew on me and became less foreign language and more of the twist on the classic tale that I was looking for. I ended up loving it, but if it wasn’t a take on a story I already knew and loved, 1) I probably wouldn’t have picked it up in the first place and 2) It probably wouldn’t have meant as much to me.

One of the things I loved most about this book was how Meyer pushed the character limits. She didn’t just make Cinder a damsel in distress, living in horrible circumstances. She made her a strong woman who is not only smart, but for the most part stands up for what she believes in. I also really liked how she put a little secret in Cinder’s life that makes her so much more intriguing and rather important than she believes she is.

I also loved to see Cinder at least have someone on her side for a portion of the book, instead of going at it alone. In the classic, both of the stepsisters were enemies of Cinderella, they talked down to her and treated her like help. But in this book, Cinder does get along with one of her stepsisters. This ends up causing Cinder a lot of pain down the line, but I think I’d rather have someone for a short time, rather than no one at all.

We all know that I am a cover girl. That is actually what turned me onto this book in the first place, before I even realized that it was an adaptation. It’s beautiful and I found myself running my hands over it quite a bit before shedding it to get some reading done. Speaking of covers, I was checking out Marissa Meyer’s blog and saw that her book was recently released in Italy. Yay, good work! But…. the cover completely changes the story for me. I have no idea if Cinderella is a classic over there as it is here, but over here, the cover kind of brings it full circle. We know when we see the cover, “That looks like Cinderella’s slipper.” The cover in Italy has more of a lunar take on it

I’ve been looking at some other reviews on Amazon while preparing my review. Some reviewers brought up some great points about there being some holes and unanswered questions. I agree that there are, including how Cinder became such a good mechanic, but I am hoping that there are premature, considering this is just the beginning of the series. I am not going to hold that against Meyer in this review. Come the end of the series and I still have these questions, it may change my viewpoint, but for now, it’s just something I hope works itself out.

I give Cinder 4 bookmarks and am looking forward to seeing how the others pan out.

ISBN: 978-0312641894
Released: January 3, 2012
Author Website
Kari bought this book

I think this is the most consistent I have been with this weekly meme since I started blogging a few years back. The good thing about this is that I am getting some awesome new books. The bad part, I need more time to read all these awesome new books. Oh but I am not complaining!

On My Bookshelf is a slight variation of In My Mailbox by Kristi at The Story Siren, a weekly meme to show off the good books you got the previous week, whether from the library, bought, borrowed, won from a giveaway, downloaded…you know the drill!

This week, I had my eye on a book I’ve been seeing all over Twitter and blogs and HAD to get my hands on it. Thanks to a gift card by one of my husband’s friends, I am considering it a late Christmas gift.

Yes friends, I got Cinder this week and I am PUMPED!!! But, as you can see, that’s not all I got, I also got a new notebook. It’s a canvas material and has an elastic band to keep it closed and a marker inside to let you know where you left off. I get one of these a year to keep track of the books I’ve read, days I’ve written and which agents I have sent letters to. A new notebook always gives me inspiration to do more work so I can fill it up and not waste my pages.

In case you have been living under a book rock, here is the description of Cinder from Goodreads.com:

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.

Did you get any goodies this week???