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YA Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

3/10/2012

18 Comments

 
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Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: 1/3/12
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Blurb (GR): 
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.

Review:

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*I know this sounds ridiculous. The whole point of the book is to create a futuristic cyborg Cinderella, right? Meyer is a wonderful writer. Her writing is engrossing and I was engaged throughout the entire book. But it really takes a certain amount of the fun out of a story when a reader already knows a lot of where the story is going. Cyborgs are relatively novel in the YA world. Books set in Asia are relatively novel in the YA world. I still really enjoyed the book the way it was but I think Meyer could do (arguably even more) wonderful things with her own imagination.

3.5/5 stars

I read the ebook version of Cinder but it is also available in audio format from Macmillan Audio.  Here is a snippet of the narration: 
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Source
The audio version of Cinder is narrated by Rebecca Soler, whose work includes narrating Judy Blume's Just As Long As We're Together (a childhood favorite of mine) and Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key. I listened to her read the latter book and she was wonderful. Her conversational tone definitely works well with young adult novels and she fluidly integrates multiple characters without it sounding forced. If the clip from the audiobook is indicative of the entire audiobook, I'm sad I didn't experience it in that format. I'll definitely consider listening to the rest of the series if I can get my hands on them around the book's release date. I have to see what those fairy tale characters are up to! If you've yet to read Cinder (and you definitely should), think about listening to the audiobook. 

*Clip source: Macmillan Audio

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18 Comments
Tatiana (The Readventirer) link
3/10/2012 12:41:31 am

For me, the easy predictability of this story was probably the biggest turn off.

From what I heard, the 2nd book will be based on another fairy tale and with another MC - the Lunar princess maybe?

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
3/10/2012 01:06:17 am

The predictability, you're right, made the book a little less fun to read. That's something that will likely get in the way in the future books as well. An awesome commenter on my Goodreads review said that the following books are as follows:

1) SCARLET (2013) is about Little Red Riding Hood and will take place in France.

2) CRESS (2014) is about Rapunzel and will take place on the moon

3) WINTER (2015) is about Snow White and will take place in the Sahara Desert

This is interesting but I'm still of the opinion that I would've loved to read Meyer's story about a cyborg girl with Cinder's backstory in the world she created but without the predictability of the fairy tale story.

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Tatiana (The Readventurer) link
3/10/2012 01:15:37 am

I am curious about the setting of the next one - France. Wonder what it has become in the author's interpretation.

I believe a lot more people would have enjoyed the cyborg concept without the fairy-tale parallels. The cyborg concept has enough potential in itself IMO.

Catie (The Readventurer) link
3/10/2012 02:14:07 am

Yay for the return of the MS Paint reviews! I've had zero interest in this book since I first heard about it but your comparison of the MC to Kalee has definitely perked up my ears.

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
3/10/2012 11:10:56 am

I have been feeling artsy lately--I need to actually draw some pictures. I'm reading a pretty picture-worthy book right now so we'll see.

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Rachel
3/10/2012 06:06:37 am

Still don't know about this one but like Catie said, the comparison of the MC to Kaylee from Firefly has me intrigued. Loved that show! The thought of three more books....I don't know. The story would have to be really good to hold my interest that long. Hmm...

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
3/10/2012 11:09:19 am

Just finding out that the rest of the books will follow different fairy tale characters has me intrigued enough to continue. And I did really enjoy her writing. I'm even more excited to see what Meyer does AFTER this series, though:)

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Lisa O. link
3/10/2012 06:43:09 am

If you loathe the Eon/a syndrome, please don't read Grave Mercy. The heroine suffers from it too. :(
Awesome review Flann.

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
3/10/2012 11:09:59 am

Oh no! I hadn't heard that yet about Grave Mercy. Blah.

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VeganYANerds link
3/10/2012 02:55:11 pm

This is one book that I really don't know if I want to read. Nothing about it appeals to me but I've had people suggest it to me anyway. I liked the format of your review and the fact that you have more positives listed makes me think I will give this a go!

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
3/12/2012 04:59:15 am

I truly did enjoy it. Meyer has a lot going for her writing style and her imagination is wonderful. I've done this review format (and a lot of other more random ones) before and it is partially a result of laziness. But it absolutely makes me think about the book and list what I did and didn't enjoy, which is always helpful when formulating my opinion.

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Sam @ Realm of Fiction link
3/10/2012 07:37:05 pm

I liked a lot about this book but it didn't blow me away either. Though I'm still not entirely sure why. But I am looking forward to the next book! Hopefully it will be just that little bit better.

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
3/12/2012 05:00:08 am

Me too, Sam:) I'll definitely be reading the rest of them if they continue to come through in the same way as this one.

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jowearsoldcoats link
3/10/2012 08:09:48 pm

I was a bit 'meh' about this book too! I really wanted to love it but... well, meh.

Also, I read somewhere that the next book is going to be Rapunzel (? or Red Riding Hood... I'm not sure...) but it's definitely going to be a different fairy tale. Which could either be great.... or weird.

Great review, Flann!

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
3/12/2012 05:01:09 am

Dear Jo,

Read the comments above before commenting, you lazy bum:)

Love,
Flann

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Chachic link
3/11/2012 02:54:08 pm

Yay for the classic Flannery review format! I haven't read this one but I've seen mixed reviews so I'm not too excited for it even though I enjoy reading fairy tale retellings.

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
3/12/2012 05:02:17 am

I was trying to think in my mind about how much you like science fiction. I guess I just think of you as a fantasy fangirl, hahaha. I bet you'd still like this one, C.

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Wendy Darling link
3/16/2012 06:33:38 am

It DOES suffer from Eon syndrome. Although I'm reading EONA now and *that* is awesome.

Reply



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