Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles

by Marissa Meyer | Teens |
ISBN: 0312641893 Global Overview for this book
Registered by k00kaburra of San Jose, California USA on 12/25/2011
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by k00kaburra from San Jose, California USA on Sunday, December 25, 2011
Rec'd via the publisher for review.
PAPERBACK ARC.

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Amazon Editorial Review

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.

Journal Entry 2 by k00kaburra at San Jose, California USA on Saturday, February 25, 2012
Started reading today.

Journal Entry 3 by k00kaburra at San Jose, California USA on Saturday, February 25, 2012
Finished last night. I just couldn't put this down!


In one of the markets of New Beijing, a young woman named Cinder works hard to keep her stepmother and stepsisters fed and sheltered. She is a gifted mechanic, so talented that word of her reaches the royal palace, and the prince himself brings his android to her for repair. People might wonder how a girl like her became so good at fixing machines, but it’s no surprise, for Cinder is a cyborg, part machine herself. Cyborgs are treated as second-class citizens in New Beijing, though, so she does her best to keep it hidden. There’s enough trouble going around as it is; a horrible plague is sweeping through the city and killing indiscriminately, while the queen of the Lunar people has threatened to declare war on Earth if the prince doesn’t marry her. Through a series of unfortunate events, Cinder becomes enmeshed in the drama of the palace in this sci-fi retelling of the classic fairy tale Cinderella.

I loved Cinder. I couldn’t put it down, so I whizzed through the entire novel in a couple of hours. It was just so much fun! Since the book is a retelling of Cinderella, there are certain plot points that must be hit: Cinder must have an evil stepmother, she must go to a ball and dance with the prince, so on and so forth. But it never seems as if the characters are being forced into certain situations due to plot restrictions by the original tale. The action and events all unfold quite naturally.

One of the best innovations that Meyer brought to the original story was the introduction of a secondary villain/rival for Cinderella. The course of true love never runs smooth and all that, so the beautiful Queen Levana appears to muck up the budding romance between Cinder and the prince. Cold, calculating, powerful and lovely beyond measure, Queen Levana is a classic femme fatale who will stop at nothing to get what she wants…and what she wants is to marry Prince Kai and bring all of Earth on its knees before her. She’s dangerous and cruel, and more than a little power-mad. Levana is the perfect foil to Cinder, who doesn’t even control her own life, thanks to her bitter stepmother Adri.

I also really liked that the story was set in a futuristic China. So much of young adult fiction seems to be set in America, even when the authors themselves are from other countries. It was really nice to get a different culture for once – and wait, does this mean we have an Asian male romantic lead, that rarest of creatures in pop culture? Why yes…yes it does. Score one for cultural diversity!

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