Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

30 reviews

_ren's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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melissaslibraryy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Omg!! The Lunar Chronicles was one of my favorite series back in middle school and being able to reread it the way I’ve always planned too makes me so happy. I forgot how much I loved this book and feeling as though I’m reading it for the first time again makes me live it even more after all this time. If you’re looking for a thrilling, adventurous YA dystopian novel with a romantic side plot, Cinder is the book for you. 1000000% recommend !!

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parfait52's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This book was a lot of fun! The world-building and characters were compelling, and the plot kept me entertained. It was super predictable, but that's what you get for reading a retelling. I really enjoyed the pacing of this book, as it felt like something important was happening on almost every page. At times, there was so much happening that I would forget about an element, and then it would pop back up in the plot. I look forward to see where all these plot points are going to go.

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bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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imskylow's review

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I DNFed this book back in middle school but as an adult it was recommended to me again. I thought I’d give it another shot 12 years later. Turns out, it’s still boring to me as an adult. Only got interesting around page 330. A lot of concepts didn’t and still don’t make sense to me like why there was that extreme prejudice towards cyborgs who are basically just amputees. Like any human, Earthen or Lunar could become a cyborg. All you need is one freak accident. And then all of the sudden you’ren not worthy of basic human rights? What are these people, elementary school bullies?? I do have to give points for this being the first book this author has published but some of the plot felt silly or half baked. If we take out the fact that this is trying to be a retelling of Cinderella (which I feel is bland already), there really isn’t much that’s interesting here. I also felt no chemistry between Cinder and Kai. 

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ariep's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0


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thumbeleia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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brucethegirl's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

An amazing sci-fi retelling of your favorite fairy tales. Cinder opens on the android and human filled crowded streets of New Beijing. Cinder runs a robot repair stall in the over crowded marketplace. Quickly, the authorities swoop down on a woman who suddenly begins showing signs of the highly contagious and fully deadly disease rampaging across the land. In a single scene that post COVID made me check the publication date, the stage is set for an amazing retelling of Cinderella. With robots. 

I loved the way this book introduced the world that Meyer built. From the Prince, to Cinder's step-mother, to all the little details that unfolded as the story progressed. The world building here was stunning. I love this exact kind of slowly unveiled, never to overwhelming, sci-fi. It's high sci-fi without ever getting too wrapped up in over explaining. 

I will say there was nothing revolutionary here, even for when it was published. The twists and turns are almost entirely predictable between genre conventions and the original story itself. There's nothing here that will make you gasp or surprise you. I also didn't care for how the story ends. It really felt like there should have been some semblance of a closing scene. A cliff-hanger in the worst way because there's absolutely no closure to anything introduced in book 1. A personal pet peeve about series. 

All that said, however, it was a super fun book that I finished in one sitting. I am also very excited to start book 2 and hopefully complete the series. Should all books turn out to be as fun as this one, I'll be buying that box set I keep seeing. 

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msradiosilence's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

TLDR; 4.5 rating, they’re teenagers??, and I don’t remember a whole lot about this series.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

I first read the Lunar Chronicles when I was in high school. And that was a LONG time ago. My boyfriend got me the pretty cover box set, so I figured now was as good a time as any to read it!

My first major issue is that the main characters are all 16-17 years old. That’s insanity. Since the whole series takes place in like 9 months, Cinder is a <i> child </i>. She’s a baby. 16 is NOTHING. Too young to be causing all this trouble, that’s for sure. She does so much in this book and the next three, like?? Did she have to be 16?

My second major issue is that, even though this book is set in Beijing, there’s very little of Eastern Asian culture in the book. Mayhaps that’s because the author is a white woman with no ties to China, and we all know how I feel about white authors writing outside of their experiences, but I digress.

I’ve always felt so sorry for Kai. Bless him, he’s always getting the short end of the stick with all of this, and it’s a wonder he doesn’t have a full head of grey hair. Poor guy is always stressed.

Dr. Erland is one of the best unhinged characters I’ve read in a while. Morally grey, funny, he’s just a fun character to read. I don’t agree at all with anything he’s ever done, but I do love a moral grey bitch.

Rating: 4.5
Would I recommend? Yes, especially if you enjoy moon people, quippy robots, and sci-fi fairytale retellings.

Content warnings: Car accident, Child abuse, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Bullying, Death of parent, Gun violence, Ableism, Classism, Medical trauma, Blood, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Death

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strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I enjoyed it and I’m excited to read the next book Scarlett. It is very predictable and I was able to guess what should’ve been a twist ending but I enjoy those types of books, it take out a lot of anxiety lol. 

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