This is just a really fun adaptation of Cinderella. It's been on my list for ages and I found it enjoyable with a strong female protagonist and fun world-building.
It definitely ends with you wanting to read the next installment right away though but overall this is a fun read that brings up interesting questions regarding The Other given the status of cyborgs in this society.
I received a copy from Netgalley.
Calling it quits on this one. It's been several months since I last picked it up, I read a few pages and am just not interested. Superheroes are not my favourite thing, but it's an author I love and I have enjoyed superhero themed books before and this one is all original characters. So it sounded like something I would enjoy. Heroes vs villains and a POV from each, with the main POV seeming to be from the girl who's on the bad guys team. With a dangerous power and someone no one seems to know much about.
There's a little bit of world building but no real character introductions. There's a list various superheroes before the story starts - names, powers, aliases and what team they're on. So when the story starts going you're supposed to know who they all are.
Personally I never bother with character lists when they're at the front of books. I want to be introduced to who the main people are as the plot progresses - not thrown in at the deep end. So having to go back to the list and flip through even after reading it thoroughly a few times, it was still really confusing and annoying.
I wasn't connecting with the characters and the thought of picking this one up again became less and less appealing especially with it being quite a long novel. So time to call it quits.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for approving my request to view the title.
"Cinder" got on to my TBR pile because I gave in to the hype. Everyone said it was fun. So I bought but didn't read it because, well it's a retelling of Cinderella. It's an affirmation of the Patriarchy. Handsome Prince rescues poor-but-worthy girl. In space! How exciting could that be?
A few chapters in and I knew the hype was right, it was a lot of fun. This mostly because it kept surprising me in amusing ways that kept the story fresh and because the writing is well done
"Cinder" reimagines the Cinderella story in a way that changes the dynamics of the relationships and offers new challenges.
Cinder isn't waiting to be rescued. The Prince is charming in cute but in a charismatic and self-deprecatingly egalitarian way.
Then there's the evil Queen, far, far more evil than any stepmother, gifted with the power of compulsion unfettered by conscience and amplified by narcissism.
And the relationship with the stepmother and the steps sisters isn't so black and white, it's a complicated mix of love and pain and deep damage, the way families can be.
And there's the plague and the death and suffering it brings.
And the stigma of Cinder being a cyborg and the examination that brings of what it means when some lives are judged less worthy than others.
And the relationship between Earth and Luna. And the mystery of Cinder's origins.
And and and...
It was a book I stayed up late with and returned to eagerly. It was fun but not silly fun. It was creative and humane and dramatic.
I'll be back for the rest of the series.
I recommend the audiobook version performed by Rebecca Soler. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.
https://soundcloud.com/audiofilemagazine/cinder-by-marissa-meyer-read-by-rebecca-solersound-sample
I thought the step mother in the original was horrid. Geez Adri's a bitch.
Is the dr supposed to be the fairy godmother? Every time a new character was introduced I kept trying to assign them a role from the original story.
I would like to know why cyborgs are looked upon with such contempt. If it was mentioned, I missed it.
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