rakioddbooks

[Review] Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

13722513

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.

-Goodreads
Writing (world building, characters, style, etc.): 

I loved the character descriptions in this book. There was enough detail to have a clear picture of who the characters were personality wise and what they looked liked without being bogged down with unnecessary details that added nothing to the story. The world building was well written as well, although there were a few times I had a little bit of trouble picturing the settings. I wish there had been a little more details when describing the palace, but this didn’t really affect how much I enjoyed the book. I really liked Marissa Meyer’s style, it’s easy to read and understand without it feeling childish.

Did I learn anything? Did it make me think?

I don’t really think that the purpose of this book was to be very thought provoking and that’s perfectly fine. I suppose I did learn a little bit about how manipulation and politics work and how when there’s compromise neither side is truly happy. Then of course there is the obvious issue described in the book, discrimination. I think it would have been interesting if the author had delved a little more into the refugee situation mentioned in the book, perhaps there’s more of it in later books.

Overall feelings:

I really liked this book. This is by far one of the best books I’ve read in recent months. I can’t wait to continue the series!

YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE AMAZING?! If the series was turned into an anime! Not a movie, unless it’s animated, not a TV show, AN ANIME! OMG that would be so amazing! Can you imagine how epic that would be? Some please do this! Please!

Score:book 5 icon

Have you read Cinder? What were your thoughts?

32 comments

  1. I am currently reading the third book of the series and it is so good. I was not so sure about Cinder and gave it three stars. I liked it but it was not totally fantastic.The other books however….great reads!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Glad you loved this!!! It’s one of my favorites!! I haven’t read the last two books though.. 😦 but i’ll get there, i’ll get there. Hehe

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. Why does EVERYONE like this. I’m too scared to miss out and I’m too scared to read it and be disappointed. On the other hand if it turned into an Anime I’d happily watch it. Let’s hunt down the anime producers on twitter and suggest it to them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. I read this novel I think a few years ago before all the hype came. I actually thought it was a clever retelling, but I was pretty annoyed at lack of Asian Culture added in. It was set in Neo China. I assumed there would be more references or world building. I did like the characters though. They were interesting.

    Apparently I didn’t like the writing style either. I wrote up a book review on this on my old blog.
    https://dorkiverse.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/cinder-by-marissa-meyer/
    That’s the full link if you want. There’s a copy of that on my goodreads account as well.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Yeah! I wish they had talked about the different cultures that were mixed together. At some point Cinder does mention that different cultures had been integrated but didn’t say which. I got the Japanese references, but as I don’t know much about other Asian cultures, everything else just went over my head.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. Glad you enjoyed this book! It’s become one of my favourite series – it sort of grew on me with each book, and now I only have the last book and final novellas to read 🙂 Hope you enjoy the rest of the series just as much (or maybe even more!)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. I totally agree with you about the anime! I’m currently nearly done reading Scarlet and I love it just as much if not more than Cinder and I really loved Cinder! I think it is definitely one of those that gets better as it goes on

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      • That’s a shame. I kind of find it a bit maddening when books are set in foreign countries but use ‘the future’ as an excuse to avoid giving it any cultural identity. I’ll probably stick to other sci fi/ fantasy then, but might give it a shot once I begin to burn through my kindle downloads

        Liked by 1 person

      • I really liked Big Hero Six. It was a bit exasperating how Westernised it was, as most of the characters were pretty Western in spite of the Japanese names. Just a few little moments would have made the difference (e.g. like having a set of ‘indoor shoes’ when the characters go inside or something like that).

        So, its kind of like ‘anime action’ land rather than Japan?

        Liked by 1 person

      • I think so, it’s actually a bit hard to tell. We know the setting is “New Beijing” and that the palace is supposed to resemble a traditional style, but we don’t get much description when it comes to the rest of the city. And there’s nothing about taking your shoes off, there are a couple of…hints… regarding food and somebody somewhere wears a kimono once, but that’s about it. Have you watched The Fifth Element? Do you remember this scene? I think it’s a little bit like this. http://pop-verse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The_Fifth_Element_G_01.jpg Actually, now that I think about it, the descriptions in the book fit The Fifth Element settings pretty well + hints of Asian cultures.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment