Cinder by Marissa Meyer: Book Review!

Hello, everyone! I'm back with another book review! Today, I'm reviewing Cinder by Marissa Meyer. This is the first book of the Lunar Chronicles. This seems to be really hot in Young Adult reading circles. I have to admit, there are some really cool things going on with this novel, but enough about that. Let's get onto the review!

Cinder is a retelling of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella. However, this isn't the classic Grimm version or the Disney-esque version that many of us grew up with. This is Cinderella with a science fiction twist. The story takes place in the future where our lovely girl Cinder works as a mechanic. Her step mother hates her and thinks that Cinder is the cause of her daughter's illness. If that weren't enough, Cinder deals with her growing affection towards the prince of New Beijing while avoiding the evil Lunar Queen. Oh, and Cinder is also a cyborg. In the end, I have to say that this is an interesting take on the Cinderella tale.

First off, let me just say that I may be a bit biased with this review because of my extreme fondness for fairy tales and their retellings. Whether it's Little Red Riding Hood (which may be my personal favorite other than the Twelve Dancing Princesses) or Jack and the Beanstalk, I have loved all types of fairy tales since childhood. I have to say that I was apprehensive due to the science fiction nature of this retelling, but I would definitely call this story a "hit" not a "miss."

It does have the classic elements of the story, but in this story, Cinder is much more proactive. She's not asking help of fairy god mothers, she's out in the trenches trying to help her step sister and get out of the control of her step mother. She also has to deal with the fact that society considers her a second class citizen because of her being a cyborg. She fights the hard fight, and I really like that about her.

I also love Iko. She's an android that helps Cinder in the shop. She's a robot, but her personality chip is quite comical and brings a certain humor to the story. She is also a good foil to Cinder. She wants to dress up and make Cinder go to the ball and just be girly. Cinder wants to make enough money to get out and is a bit of a tomboy. Both of them together make an incredible pair.

Meyer also has a way of making you question character's motives. There's one doctor in the story for the most part, I couldn't tell if he was a good guy or a bad guy, which is new coming into a fairy tale retelling. However, due to the fact that she was sort of following the lines of the original Cinderella tale, I could definitely guess as to wear the story was heading. Even one of the major spoilers that is revealed at the end of the novel was easy to guess within the first quarter of my reading Cinder.

Look, there are a lot of good things that I can say about this book. From the cool specifics of being a cyborg or the fact that the Lunar people can manipulate people's reactions to them, there are just a lot of really cool things going on with the story. However, I do have to knock it down a bit considering its level of predictability. All together, I give this story four and a half sets of fancy gloves out of five.

That's it for now! Comment down below on some of your favorite fairy tale retellings. Subscribe to the blog by adding your email address to the Subscribe Box down below. Add me to your circles by clicking the Google+ button off to the right. Follow me on twitter @KK_Donna_Blog for up to date information about the blog and ridiculousness about my life. Lastly, you can follow the tumblr dedicated to this blog, and you can find it at this link. Read on, lovlies! I'll see y'all next post!