“Cinder is an exciting story and a very imaginative retelling of Cinderella while still sticking very close to the original plot-line.”

Review by Rayleigh Setser

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.

Cinder earned the fifth star in the last half of the book; for a while, I was holding at only 4 stars.

I think I would've been on the hype bandwagon if I would've read it in high school, which is how long I've owned it without reading it *oops*. A friend of mine gave it to me as a birthday present and I just never made time to read it until recently.

Cinder is an exciting story and a very imaginative retelling of Cinderella while still sticking very close to the original plotline. I think that because it parallels the original story of Cinderella SO much in the first half of the book is why I struggled so much during the beginning. I felt like I knew what was going to happen because nothing new and different was learned about the Lunars until right at the halfway mark. It just felt like the same story (but with a Cyborg Cinderella) and I had to fight with myself to keep from getting bored. But once I started learning about the Lunars and the plot deviated from the traditional fairytale arc, I got invested and couldn't put it down at all during the last half of the book.

I loved Prince Kai! He was the perfect mix of young prince and soon-to-be king. He was the perfect "prince charming" and I'm invested in his story. Cinder was a good main character as well. I really liked her personality and though I didn't always agree with her actions, she still fit her role very well.

Overall, I wish I would've read this when I was younger because "high school me" would've adored this book!

Content Ratings:

5. Action present (frequent and mildly detailed battle sequences and/or fights).

2.  Mild content (holding hands and mild kissing).

2. Frequent substitute cursing (commonplace "craps" etc. and/or book-specific words).

Other Trigger Warnings:

N/A

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