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4.5 stars! Thank you so much to everyone who recommended me this series! This first book was a perfect start to the series AND an amazing story to get myself into scifi YA. I honestly cannot find much wrong with this book. It was completely and utterly amazing. I want the whole series in my arms right now to just hug and read and appreciate. Haha. Not to be weird or anything.
This review is spoiler free!
Summary:
This book is a loosely based Cinderella retelling about a girl named Cinder who is a cyborg. The story takes place in New Beijing, China, which is basically a futuristic Beijing that has all this cool android technology and new ways of communication. Cinder is a well-known, top of the line mechanic and one day the Prince of the Empire himself walks in hoping to get his android fixed. The story takes off from there. Now there are some Cinderella related parts that are readily apparent in this novel, but the plot is mostly different and still totally and completely awesome!
*Also, I read this book using Audible! The narrator for this trilogy, Rebecca Soler, is soothing to listen to. I will definitely go back to Audible to listen to her narrations for the rest of the series.
Things I loved:
The dialogue. I always love good character interactions.
The pacing kept me entertained the whole time.
EMOTIONS. I felt so many emotions throughout the book. So. Many. FEELS.
There are so many parts of the book that kinda break your heart and leave you so frustrated and just like “OMG WHYYYYY NOOO."
There’s a good amount of political intrigue intertwined in the plot told from two different points of view, one of a common person and one from the prince.
The characters are all flushed out and full of detail.
Plot:
The world was built really well in this book. I find that Marissa Meyer does a really good job of putting in loads of details in her story without boring the reader to death or making it feel like its just too much words. The imagery is really vivid and realistic. Nothing is too hard to imagine. Also, all the technology introduced in the world is way beyond cool. The androids are an interesting mix between robot, maid, and good company. There are also a whole new species introduced into this book called Lunars. They are.. something. You’ll know when you read.
The pacing of this story was easy going and pretty fast. Something was always happening and you couldn’t turn your head away from the book at any parts because almost every chapter was a cliffhanger. This really kept me sucked in and is most of the reason why I was able to finish the book in less than three days. Oh and all my favorite parts were the interaction between Cinder and Kai because the romance. I am a cheeseball romance type person and their relationship fed me that cheesey cute romance that went so well with this plot.
The Cinderella parts of this book were so infuriating because Cinderella to me was one of those Disney movies where the family really really made me mad. Like I cannot stand characters that are insanely rude for no reason, but I know they need to be there as they are critical to the plot.. but… I had to hold my anger in check during those scenes.
Now, one of the reasons I could not give this book 5 stars though I sincerely loved reading it was that a lot of things could easily be picked out. I was almost never shocked through the book. Besides knowing what would happen, I still found myself in suspense in the actiony parts and basically crying in all the emotional parts.
Altogether, as the first science-fiction young adult book I’ve ever read, I am pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed reading this so much. This was a great start to the series which I plan to continue reading.
Characters:
Cinder is the main character, a cyborg, and is basically considered below regular humans. I feel like she handles herself really well in the face of adversity. She not dumb when she makes decisions like some female main characters. She just has a really good head on her shoulders thought as the romantic trash that I am, I could never understand how she could ever say no to Kai.
Aiko. Oh she is the most adorable android EVER. I needed her comedic relief and easygoingness through all the seriousness packed into this book. Her personality is infectious.
Prince Kai reminds me of most cute, smooth talking, handsome male love interests. Something about him and what happens to him in this book makes me like him in a different way though. See most main male characters always keep their cool because they’re good at keeping their emotions in check (usually), but sometimes Prince Kai just can’t and the parts when he loses him temper are so good. It's just a nice touch of immaturity that shows how young he really is to be thrust into his position.
Lunar Queen/Queen Levana is the villain of the story. What a great great great flushed out villain. She has incredible power and is utterly horrible on all accounts. She is evil incarnate in this world and because of al her evildoings, the last few chapters are so satisfying.