Let me start off this review
by saying that much like Veronica Roth’s Divergent,
Cinder is a book that I’ve wanted to
read for a very long time. Thankfully, it didn’t completely disappoint me like Divergent did. I’d even say
that Cinder actually exceeded my
expectations. That being said, I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t aware of the fact
that Cinder is the first book in a
series called The Lunar Chronicles
until very recently when I saw reviews for the third book in the series, Cress, and a review for the fifth
and final book in the series, Winter,
on one of my favorite book review channels on YouTube, Bookables.
With that said, here are my thoughts on Cinder.
One of the reasons why I’ve
always wanted to read Cinder is
because I’ve always been a huge fan of retellings or “reimaginings” of fairy
tales. I love the movie Hoodwinked,
but admittedly I still need to see Hoodwinked
Too! Hood vs. Evil. I’m also a huge fan of the TV shows Once Upon a Time and Grimm. Much like those examples of
fairytale retellings, Cinder is an
awesome new take on the story of Cinderella.
Another reason why I love this book so much is because I’m also a fan of
science fiction books, TV shows, and movies. This story definitely contains
some elements of science fiction given the fact that the character Cinder is a
cyborg and people apparently live on the moon in the Lunar Chronicles world.
Linh Cinder, who’s usually
simply referred to as “Cinder” in the book, is a very fun and likable
character. I love how she really has a tendency to be sarcastic. At the same
time, she’s definitely a character that has a lot of heart and compassion for others,
despite the fact that her stepmother, Linh Adri, and her stepsister, Linh
Pearl, are both quite mean to her. Cinder clearly cares a lot about her other
stepsister, Linh Peony, who was also a great character. I was definitely very
sad about the fact that Peony died after she contracted the letumosis plague.
The interaction between
Cinder and Dr. Erland as they worked together throughout the book to try and
find a cure for the letumosis plague was a lot of fun to read, and one of my
favorite aspects of the book. I’m really hoping that Dr. Erland will be
featured in the other books in The Lunar
Chronicles series in some capacity. The fact that the citizens of New
Bejing were dealing with the threat of a plague definitely added a really
interesting element to the story and created some very compelling drama in the
story as well, with Peony and Prince Kai’s father, Emperor Rikan, sadly both
dying from the plague.
As I said in my review of Emma Chase’s book Overruled,
it’s very rare that I like every character in a book, TV show or movie. Despite
the fact that Queen Levana is evil and is apparently somewhat inspired by the
Evil Queen from the story of Snow White,
I actually ended up thoroughly enjoying the character, so I’m very happy that
Marissa Meyer wrote a book (Fairest: The
Lunar Chronicles: Levana’s Story) that focuses on Queen Levana. That being
said, I definitely didn’t like Cinder’s stepmother, Linh Adri, or her
stepsister, Linh Pearl. Neither of them has any kind of complexity to them as
characters, or moments in the story where they showed signs of having any
shades of grey to them that might make them seem genuinely sympathetic in any
way.
Honestly, I’m okay with that
though, since I’ve come to expect Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters to be
portrayed as being bad and horrible people without any depth to them, or
redeeming qualities in any kind of retelling of Cinderella. That being said, I do like that Cinder was friends with
her stepsister, Peony. Peony being Cinder’s friend was definitely a fun and
interesting twist to have in a retelling of Cinderella.
One last comment that I’d like to make in regards to Linh Adri is that I was
definitely right when I said in my review for Entwined with You that I was expecting that the book Cinder would continue the trend of me reading
books where the protagonist has at least one rather shitty parent.
Since this is a reimagining
of Cinderella, I was totally
expecting that there was going to be a fairy godmother type of character, who
would help Cinder get to the ball that took place towards the end of the book. I
was really surprised when that didn’t end up being the case, though, because both
the reason Cinder went to the ball and the way she got to the ball ended up
playing out very differently from how I would usually expect a story that’s
inspired by the story of Cinderella to
play out. The reason Cinder ended up going to the ball was because she received
a message from somebody on the moon, warning her that Queen Levana was planning
to kill Prince Kai, so she went to the ball to warn Prince Kai that he was in
danger. Cinder ended up wearing the dress Peony had been planning to wear to
the ball, and it got dirty when she was on her way to the ball. As for how
Cinder got to the ball, Cinder got there by driving an old car that she had
been trying to repair, which felt very fitting given the fact that Cinder is a
mechanic.
Honestly, the only thing
that bugged me about the book Cinder is
the fact that the book really ends on a cliffhanger. I’m not going to hold that
against this book, though, since it’s the first book in the series. However,
the fact that the second book in the series, Scarlet, focuses on a character named Scarlet Benoit, and is
apparently a retelling of the story Little
Red Riding Hood, does make me worry that the resolution of the cliffhangers
in this book won’t be handled very well. Having watched the reviews for The Lunar Chronicles series on the
YouTube channel, Bookables, it’s my understanding that we don’t completely lose
the characters that are in Cinder.
For that reason, I’m going to reserve judgment regarding how Meyer handles the
resolution of the storylines in this book until I read Scarlet.
If Meyer ends up not doing a
good job of resolving the cliffhangers in this book or any other cliffhangers
that the other books in the series might end on, that might negatively impact
how I’ll feel about The Lunar Chronicles series
once I’ve read the entire series, though. Maybe it’s unfair of me to
potentially hold any dissatisfaction that I may end up having with this book
against the other books in this series, but both this book and the series as a
whole appears to be very unique in regards to how each of the books in the
series play out. I don’t really know of any other way I could evaluate the way
Marissa Meyer handles resolving the cliffhangers for this book, or any
cliffhangers that the other books in the series may have.
All things considered, Cinder definitely didn’t truly disappoint
me in any way. This was a really fun book to read, and it had a really great
and interesting plot to it. While this book was full of great characters, Cinder,
Prince Kai, Dr. Erland and Queen Levana are definitely my favorites. I really
regret not having read Cinder a lot
sooner, and as I said earlier, I’ll definitely be reading the rest of The Lunar Chronicles series at some
point.
That being said, my final
score for Cinder is 10 out of 10.
