Cinder by Marissa Meyer Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Do your kind even know what love is? Can you feel anything at all, or is it just... programmed?”- Cinder, Marissa Meyer

Although eager to impress the prince, Cinder's intentions are derailed when her younger stepsister, and only human friend, is infected with the fatal plague that's been devastating Earth for a decade. Blaming Cinder for her daughter's illness, Cinder's stepmother volunteers her body for plague research, an "honor" that no one has survived.

But it doesn't take long for the scientists to discover something unusual about their new guinea pig. Something others would kill for.

The Lunar Chronicles is one of those series that it seems like most of the YA world loves. So naturally, I'm reading it for the first time now. I'm not crazy about retellings or sci-fi, so I never felt inclined to pick it up. But I'm doing this reading challenge, and one of the categories is retellings (another is sci-fi) so I figured that if I read this series I could knock both those out. 

Rightaway, I could tell that a) I was going to have to suspend my disbelief and b) how the writing was going to be. In my experience, it's rare that writing actually improves as a book goes on, while it might start out rough, usually any improvement can be accounted for me either getting used to the writing, or me realizing how the writing fits the story. The writing in this isn't the best I ever saw- I wouldn't even call it great- but it fit the story and went down easy, with some really nice descriptions that show Meyer's potential as an author. Even if the writing doesn't improve throughout the series, I would still be happy. 

But back to a. The story is fairly ridiculous and also I could tell Cinder's got a serious case of the Special Snowflake Syndrome. There are some authors who have a gift for opening scenes (Markus Zusak is one that springs to mind). Meyer isn't one of them. The opening scene sets up the story and launches us into action, not very prettily, but it gets the job done. We are introduced to Prince Kai, the love interest, Cinder's personality, the mystery of the android, and near the end, the plague. It's a lot to take in at once, with the plague part done particularly poorly. But it's a fairytale retelling ferchristssake.

But when you really think about, it's not a retelling at all. Sure, there are some aspects of the Cinderella story, like the ball and the prince and the color of the getaway vehicle and the "evil" stepfamily and, yes, her name, but other than that I don't get much of a Cinderella vibe. I mean, even if it wasn't advertised as a retelling I could pick it up, but it lacks the core message of the Cinderella story, which is that with hard work and kindness, you will be rewarded. Cinder in this novel isn't particularly kind nor hard working. Sure, she's a mechanic, but honestly it seems more like a natural gift than something achieved through her hard work. Again, she's also got a serious case of Special Snowflake Syndrome. She's attracted some handsome prince, for some reason (they don't really have much chemistry), and she's immune to the plague, as well as other revelations I won't spoil for you even if they are fairly obvious.

Characterization and worldbuilding aren't really Meyer's strong points anyway. Most of the characters aren't really that developed or even interesting. Dr Erland, who I kind of liked, functioned as an info dump/deus ex machina, Kai was the princely love interest, Queen Levana was the evil fairytale queen, etc. The world building was also shaky. Setting it in a world inspired by East Asia was a waste if Meyer didn't worldbuild at all apart from some info dumps courtesy of Dr Erland, as well as other characters. I was also unimpressed with the predictability of the plot. Nothing came as a surprise to me, because I guessed it already. And after reading Marina, I was yet again unimpressed with the attempts at body horror while Cinder was in the testing labs. The plague itself was also unimpressive. Meyer uses all this to fairly mechanically move the plot along, and I'm not entirely sure how successful it ended up being. 

All that said, this book is really readable. I could see how it got so popular, and there are some things that I really liked. I wanted to know more about this world, and about the intergalactic politics. There's a glimmer of interesting features in some of these characters, especially Queen Levana, but as of Cinder her potential is unrealized leaving behind a fairly boring evil queen. Still, I had fun reading this despite everything. 

Now, I actually like fairytales. The original versions, not necessarily the Disney ones (though I do love Disney, don't get me wrong, I have a huge weakness for both pretty things and musicals). I just like my fairytales to be dark and edgy and moralistic. Like the original version of Cinderella, with the stepmother and sisters who get their eyes plucked out by birds before dying in a cave (or something along those lines). And I will say that this book is very evoking of a fairytale. But there's a reason fairytales are typically the length of short stories, if that, and are geared towards children. The characterization in them is almost nil, as well as the worldbuilding, because it would take up too much time and space and ultimately the goal of a fairytale is not only entertain, but also teach a moral lesson of some kind (usually one rooted in religious belief) to children. Perhaps this is why fairytale retellings don't do much for me. They are often aimed towards teenagers and have the message cut out (likely because they see this as a flaw), but because they are essentially longer versions of real fairytales, don't really improve much on character (except to make the female characters "stronger" or the love interest "less flat") or world. At least they entertain, I'll give them that.

And because of that, I'll probably continue on with the series, even if I can probably guess everything that happens in it. Also, the covers of these books are really beautiful and remind me in some ways of the old Unwind covers. Like I love the whole metal bones in the shoe thing. Even the foreign covers are pretty, especially the Spanish one since a doll artist I like had one of her dolls photographed for it. I don't think this series will replace the Unwind series as my favorite YA series ever, but it should be a fun time. I'll probably get the three other books and just marathon them some weekend next month instead of dragging it out like I usually do, so look forward to that.

7 out of 10