The Lunar Chronicles #1
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
Rating:3.5-4 ish Stars
Source: eBook Purchase
Pages: 390
Summary (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.
I have seen a lot in the past about this book being really popular, but I really hesitated to pick this up. I didn't think that the cyborg spin would be my thing, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I liked this book a lot more than I ever thought I would. But I don't believe I liked it as much as everyone else. I finally decided that I had to read it to join the #TLCreadalong hosted by Book Addict's Guide! I was super pumped to join in on something fun like that in the blogging/reading community!
Cinder is a nice fairytale retelling of Cinderella. That is my favorite thing about this book. I have recently decided that fairytale retellings are my all time favorite. The sci-fi spin to it was really interesting as well. It was really easy to see the similarities between this story and Cinderella. Maybe a bit too easy because I just found this whole book to be totally predictable, but I still really liked the story.
Cinder is a cyborg girl living in the incredibly overpopulated city of New Beijing. She was adopted by a man and his family from Europe and brought there. She can't remember the accident (or anything before it) that forced some scientist to put her back together with metal/computer parts, but because of it, she is treated like dirt. By society and especially by her evil stepmother who is forced to care for Cinder after her husband dies. Every market day, Cinder goes to work in her mechanics booth, fixing people's gadgets and androids to earn money for her awful stepmother so she doesn't have to work. When Prince Kai comes seeking her expertise to fix his android which contains sensitive information, things begin to change for Cinder.
I found the characters in this book to be generally likable. Except Cinder's awful stepmother and stepsister and the Lunar queen. I didn't feel terribly strongly for any of the characters and the deaths in this book didn't really affect me the way that I would normally like them to. I really can't think of anyway to describe what I thought about the characters just because none of them really stood out to me in any real way.
The romance in this book was kinda cute. It didn't really feel like real romance to me, it felt more like a mutual crush. There wasn't really any lovey-dovey-ness going on. It seemed more like they just conveniently kept crossing paths before they really started seeking each other out for this or that. I think that any sign of affection shown by Cinder were mainly to try and save Kai from the Lunar queen's tricks. She definitely didn't feel worthy of the attention of the prince after having it drilled into her head for as long as she could remember that she was just a disgusting cyborg.
The main thing that I didn't like about this book was how predictable I found it to be. I would have liked to have been more surprised about things throughout the book. Also I wish that I would have felt anything at all about any of these characters. But really, I think that was just me because August sucks and puts me in a funk.
Overall, I did enjoy this book! I will definitely be continuing on with the #TLCreadalong next month and reading Scarlet! I’m not sure how many stars I feel like I want to give this book. I don’t think it’s 4 stars, but I also don’t think it’s NOT 4 stars. If that makes the tiniest bit of sense at all… I would recommend this book those who enjoy fairytale retellings and Cinderella!
I think I felt the same as you did about this one! I liked it, but honestly, I didn't like it enough to continue the series. I read it the year it was published, and when I saw that there would be four books total, I was like NOPE, never mind. I try to avoid long series when I can, and I find four books "long". O_O Anyway. I hope you continue enjoying the series, Cyra! Fabulous review :)
ReplyDeleteAlyssa @ The Eater of Books!
I hope that I like the second one better. If the whole series is gonna make me feel like this, I don't think that I'll finish it, but everyone loves them so much! So I was really hoping that I would too! Here's to hoping it can only go up from here!
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