Cinder

A futuristic retelling of Cinderella’s story, Cinder is a cyborg, forced to use her mechanic skills to make money for her adoptive family. Everyone that knows she is no longer completely human looks down on her, she has no freedom and few friends. A chance encounter with Prince Kai, heir to the Eastern Commonwealth, pulls her into a world of politics and subterfuge but a plague is running rife throughout the world and her kind stepsister falls ill, leaving Cinder with no one on her side.

At first I felt the writing style was a bit basic and aimed at the younger end of the young adult spectrum however it did seem to improve as the story unwound. I wanted more scientific explanation of the plague or at least more history of it although Meyer does a good job trying to explain the powers of the Lunar, a race that settled upon Earth’s moon. I guess the information will come in later books.

There wasn’t any satisfactory resolution for me. There is a growing trend in young adult literature to make everything a trilogy or part of a series. Which is great, except that each book should really stand alone as a novel not an episode of a series that you have to wait over a year for the next one. According to my edition, there are four books planned with the final instalment being released in 2015! I read a lot of series aimed at adult readers and whilst there is always a little something that makes you want to know what happens next, I never end one feeling short changed. Cinder ends in the middle of the story, just because Tolkien did it doesn’t mean it’s right. I do believe Lord of the Rings was meant to be one book and he got a bit carried away.

Great idea and an interesting world but let down by too many loose wires at the non-end.