Amazon Synopsis: A forbidden romance. A deadly plague. Earth's fate hinges on one girl . . .
CINDER,
a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by
her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when
her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she finds
herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an
evil queen - and a dangerous temptation.
Cinder is caught
between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover
secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future.
This is not the fairytale you remember. But it's one you won't forget.
Everyone has been raving about this book for a while now and as the third book Cress comes out in a few weeks I thought I would give this a go. It didn't sound like anything special to me going in and I had never read a fairy tale re-telling before and so had no idea what to expect from this book. Then I was taken on an emotional roller coaster and am restraining myself from sitting on my doorstep waiting for book 2, Scarlet.
The story follows Linh Cinder, a cyborg who works in her families mechanic stall at the order of her step-mother. One day, as she works, the prince of New Beijing shows up needing an android fixed and once he leaves a member of the market place shows symptoms of the plague that is ravaging Earth. At the same time there is a threat of war is coming from the Lunar race on the moon headed by its queen, Levana.
The world is really well thought out and it is incredibly easy to understand as the author has just expanded on already recognisable aspects of the modern world. There are areas of this universe that are harder to understand, such as the political rulers since countries have merged and share the same political power. The attitudes and discrimination towards the cyborg race in this world were really easy to relate to modern circumstances in my opinion which made this book not only an enjoyable read but also one that made you think about society and whether or not it is plausible that this could be how we end up. To me this was incredibly possible as worlds such as the Divergent one seem so structured that it is almost unbelievable to think we could create it whereas this world deals with the chaos of overpopulation and the threat of war. This means the world is easy to become immersed into and, therefore, much more of an epic reading experience.
The characters were also incredibly well executed. Each one had such a different personality and as the third person perspective would sometimes alter to follow another character it was subtle how the mood changed to accommodate that character's feelings and the circumstances they were in. The main character Cinder was basically verbally and mentally abused by her step mother but her feelings about it are so smoothly written in that this detail is not shoved in your face so it is easier to empathise with Cinder as she develops as a character, her emotions progress and more is learnt about her circumstances.
The love story was not too 'in your face' either, unlike is associated with fairy tales where they fall in love at first sight, and it was slow developing but not painfully so. The only way I can think to describe it is realistic. Even at the end of the book they are not pining for each other but there is chemistry there and space for the relationship to continue to be important in the follow up books.
This book was well played and, even though it was kind of predictable in areas, the characters were amazing, the plot line was intense but not overly so and it had me yearning to read the next books.
Rating: 4.5/5
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