Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Goodreads description:
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the 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 wasn’t very easy for me to get into. I only started really enjoying it about halfway through. To me, there was just too much going on; Cyborgs, androids, Lunars, the “blue fever”, Prince Kai. I was just overwhelmed with how much was happening.

I found it disrespectful how the author conveyed the blue fever. The symptoms named were nearly identical to that of the black death (Bubonic plague). Then the author even mentioned the black death a few times, such as the nursery rhyme;

                Ring around the rosy

                Pocketful of posies

                Ashes, ashes

                We all fall down

It just seemed like the author twisted the plague and changed the name instead of creating her own work.

Also, I was a little confused by the whole cyborg/android thing. By the end, I’d figured out that cyborgs are humans with robotic parts and androids are just robots with personality chips. Okay. Sure. I wish that had been cleared up right away without just being thrown into the story. I couldn’t help but visualizing them as the cybermen from Doctor Who.

Everything was too predictable. Early on we find out there’s this princess that’s been missing for years. I knew right away what would happen and who the princess was. I wasn’t surprised at all when it was revealed at the end.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked this story. I just wouldn’t recommend it. If you need something to read, sure, go pick this up at the library. It might be your kind of thing. I might read the sequel just to see what happens, but it won’t be something I’m anxiously awaiting.

Sidenote; In Marissa Meyer’s bio, it says she likes to color code her bookshelf. My reaction, “Whoa! I thought about doing that…but most of my books have black covers…”