TITLE: Cinder
SERIES: Lunar Chronicles #1
AUTHOR: Marissa Meyer
PUBLICATION DATE: January 3, 2012
PUBLISHER: Fewel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan
PAGES: 387 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 5 stars
I was actually planning of waiting to read this until after at least the second novel came out because I was sure it would have a cliffhanger, but when a friend won an ebook copy and sent it to me, I couldn’t say no. I was right though, it does have a cliffhanger. Don’t ask me how bad of a cliffhanger it is because I honestly don’t know. When I was about midway through, I started looking at reviews online and almost all of them said that it had one of the worst cliffhangers they had ever read. I really didn’t think it was that bad. I don’t know if it is because I was preparing for the worst or if I am just (sadly) getting more accustomed to cliffhangers, but I thought the ending could have been way worse. I guess I could see how people would think it is so bad, but I didn’t think it was nearly as bad as the ending of Nevermore or Daughter Of Smoke And Bone. This one just ends with (for a not too spoiler-y explanation) ****SPOILER***the heroine in prison trying to figure out a way to escape and the hero in shock after finally learning what Cinder is.****END SPOILER*** Then again, I didn’t think the ending of The Hunger Games was too bad and I had friends who were completely outraged. All in all, though I am really excited to read the next novel, it isn’t one that I am willing to murder my own parents to get my hands on at this very moment.
I would summarize, but I really suck at it, so if you want a summary, please refer to other reviews or the book blurb. Thank you for your cooperation. I really loved this book. I swear, the more dystopian I read, the more I find to love. The only way I can really describe this book is take the Disney film Cinderella, combine it with the 20th Century Fox film Anastasia and set it in iRobot. Except the robots are called androids and they don’t try to take over the human race. My only real complaint is that it was a bit predictable. ****SPOILER****I knew the minute they mention the missing Princess Selene that Cinder was her. In fact, you can check my reading updates and there is a prediction for it. I also knew that the moment Cinder got home after being basically dragged out of the medical center that Iko would be dismantled already. ****END SPOILER****
Things I loved:
-The fact that it was love triangle free.
-I loved the characters. Cinder, Iko, Kai, and Peony especially. Cinder was completely believable and even though her actions weren’t always the right ones, I could always see where she was coming from. Iko was probably my favorite character. Come on, how do you not love a sarcastic android?!?! Peony was a sweet girl who doesn’t deserve her fate. And then there was Kai. He just didn’t come off as the typical prince character to me. He was charming and flirty and sarcastic and incredible resentful of the position he was in. But he also loved his people deeply and spent a good deal of his time worrying about them and was willing to sacrifice everything for them. That description sounds like a typical prince, but he just doesn’t feel like one to me.
-The world. This is a book I would love to see turned into a film just to see the atmosphere it occurs in. Maybe it is just me, but I love sinking into a world completely different than my own…maybe that is why I love romance novels so much. The buildings and the hovercrafts and the androids and geez, I wanna live there!
Things I wasn’t so fond of:
-The cliffhanger. Even though I didn’t think it was too bad, I think cliffhangers in general are bad and shouldn’t be allowed in stories.
-The predictability of the story. I didn’t see everything coming, but the main plot points, I saw them coming a mile away.
This really is an amazing novel. I am truly blown away by it and I recommend it to everyone. Great story, amazing writing, good characters. It really has it all.
Bows & Bullets Reviews 