Cinder by Marissa Meyer: Book Review

Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends; January 3, 2012
Pages: 387
Read Count: 1

Synopsis provided by Goodreads:

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.  

June 21, 2013
**This is a spoiler free review**
I picked up Cinder knowing nothing about it except that it’s very popular. I wanted to see what all the hype was about. So, when I read the synopsis I was surprised. I mean, Cinderella and cyborgs? Not really my cup of tea. But, I tried it anyway, with an open mind, at that. After reading, I thought it was okay. Just okay. Not horrible or really boring but also not really great or awesome. I thought that Meyer did a good job with the premise but I wasn’t really feeling it. I don’t really have any likes so here are my dislikes:

Dislikes

I didn’t find Cinder or the other characters likable in the beginning. I also thought the story dragged on for the first half of the book. One of the biggest things that got me was the predictably of the story. I mean, I know that it’s based on Cinderella so there would be some predicable parts but I was annoyed with the fact that I knew what was going to happen and who Cinder was in the first 50 pages of the book. The last thing I didn’t like that much was the cyborg thing. This is all of me though. Like I said before, I don’t really like robot or cyborg stuff so I didn’t identify with that.

Overall, for me Cinder didn’t deliver. For others who are in to robots and stuff, this book might be for you. For this reason, I don’t know if I’m going to read the sequel, Scarlet. We’ll see. 

Your Turn: What did you think of Cinder? Did you like the Cinderella concept? Do you like cyborgs?

View all my reviews