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CINDER by MARISSA MEYER
How can you possibly deny that CINDER may be one of the best retellings out there? Yeah, I went there. OF THEM ALL. All right, maybe I’m getting a little carried away, but CINDER is certainly the best Cinderella retelling I’ve read. It’s fresh, exciting, romantic, creative, and a ton of other adjectives I won’t bog you down with.
THE STORY
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. (From Goodreads.com)
HOW WAS IT AS A RETELLING?
Umm, phenomenal! I loved every bit of Cinder, from how original it was to how well the original Cinderella characters and themes were woven into the story. You know what surprised me the most? How much I loved the sci-fi aspects of it. I never in a million years though that I would be on board with a cyborg Cinderella, androids, robots – you name it – but Marissa Meyer does it so well that it doesn’t really feel super sci-fi. I KNOW I caught Star Wars references in there and that really added an extra layer to the story – I feel like the people who get the references get an extra little laugh in there, which was definitely a lot of fun.
Another thing I really enjoyed (which I don’t usually) was that CINDER can’t really be defined by any specific genre. It’s sci-fi, it’s dystopian, it’s fantasy, it has some romance… There’s something in there for everyone, and I really think that’s part of the reason it’s been so successful! Yes, it is a retelling, but it’s so unique in its own right and Marissa Meyer does a great job of brining in new ideas (like the Lunars, the concept of cyborgs being the reason why Cinder is treated so poorly, taking place in New Beijing, etc).
I can honestly say that CINDER is my favorite Cinderella retelling by far. I’d honestly recommend it to anyone, even those who doubt sci-fi (because you know I did)!
3 thoughts on “PROJECT FAIRY TALE: Cinder – Marissa Meyer”
You are so right about the mix of genres! It hits so many.
Oh yeah, I was so surprised by how much I liked Cinder b/c I really dislike any time of science fiction. And the fact that Cinder was a cyborg – I was definitely thinking I wouldn’t like it. But it was AMAZING!