Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Date: January 3, 2011
Format: ARC
Acquired: from publisher
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book in return for an honest review.)
Pages: 387
Reading time: two days
From 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.
My review: I had really high expectations of Cinder, and, for the most part, these were definitely met. Cinder is a retelling of the Cinderella story, but I quickly forgot to expect the basic plot of the tale as I was engrossed by the sci-fi story Meyer tells. The outline of Cinder is the same as the fairytale, but all the details are unique and creative. The novel proved to be a quick, easy read, but it was quite enjoyable and I was rarely willing to stop reading.
I was slightly disappointed, however, by the overall writing, which struck me as standard YA writing, nothing special. It took me a while to find Cinder's world believable, especially when the Lunars were introduced; there was generally more an aura of unrealistic fantasy than one of science fiction depicting the future. By the end of the book, though, I was thoroughly engrossed in Cinder's universe. I liked the ending, which is satisfying but open-ended, and I'm eagerly anticipating what the next book in the series will bring!
I'm linking your review to mine. I did give the writing 4 stars, because it was good enough to pull me in. I'm paraphrasing a paraphrase here, but .. we readers are sometimes able to overlook (and often not even notice) not-so-great writing if the story ITSELF is compelling enough! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree! And the story was definitely compelling enough - the writing is just a slight mar on the overall effect.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking my review!