Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Before I jump into the review I want to say that this is the first Audiobook I've ever tried, and boy was I happy that I enjoyed it!

What's the book about?

This is a retelling of the fairy tale Cinderella. It has a hint of futuristic Sci-Fi. Linh Cinder is a mechanic and a cyborg. She lost her family when she was very young and was adopted. Unfortunately, her adoptive father die right after the adoption and her adoptive mother is not precisely thrilled of having her. Unlike the original story, she has a good relationship with one of her step-sisters. At the same time, a big epidemic is threatening the Earth: Letumosis, a strange and deathly plague. To make things worse, Queen Levana, the Moon Queen is pushing for Prince Kay to be her husband and eventually become Empress of the Eastern Commonwealth. 

What was the thing I liked the most? 

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but...I loved Sailor Moon, I watched ALL of the episodes. Well, I would be lying if I didn't mention that I liked the obvious influence that Sailor Moon had in this book. But my favourite thing was the fact that unlike Cinderella and Usagi, Cinder was a strong character. Yes, sure, she had her teenager moments, of course. But she knew how to fend for herself, she didn't seemed helpless to me, and even when things got extremely hard for her, she didn't gave up.

What about the main character?

Cinder, I already mentioned the fact that for me she was a strong character. She was smart and kind. I could've done with a bit less of attitude, but considering her age, I suppose is normal. I guess her "identity" is quite predictable, particularly if like me, you know the Sailor Moon story, but since the book doesn't turn around this part of her story it was ok.

The 10% moment

Cinder has been introduced to Prince Kai, who needs her to fix her android. When she gets home we see the "lovely" interaction she has with her step-mother, or guardian (Linh Adri). We've also met Iko, an android that helps Cinder, and Linh Peony, her step-sister, a teen, very star crushed with the prince, but sweet to Cinder. Also, we've seen the first case of letumosis in the book.

 

Final thoughts

First of all...I hate cliff hangers!!! That's the problem of reading a series that is very recent! Now I want to read the second book but I will have to wait until is available in my library. It will be the physical copy, since the Auidobook is not available. 

I like the book, the characters in general, although not super deep were interesting and had enough on them to keep me guessing about them, except for Cinder off course. I liked the fact that, although SciFi, it wasn't plagued with weird terms, not everything need to sound foreign of high tech for it be SciFi, the fact that the author kept it fairly simple helped for the universe to be consistent with itself. Not everyone can build a huge universe in a first book. 

I've read some people saying that there was not Asian influence whatsoever, and I have to disagree, there is some, not a lot, but is there. Also, people seem to neglect the fact that this is not Earth as we know it now, it was after World War IV so a lot of things had changed, the political divisions have completely changed and that's normal after 2 huge wars.