Reviews tagging 'Death'

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

98 reviews

imskylow's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Bullying

Moderate: Death, Medical trauma, and Violence

Minor: Genocide

atomicrobin's review

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Body horror, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Child death, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

marissasa's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

Although I find less YA dystopian novels that I like as I get older, this one definitely held my interest with its unique sci-fi elements and the Lunar mutant race of people as antagonists. I thought this first entry into the series was well-written and the main character Cinder's emotions and actions felt true to her personality and her status as a misfit teenager who ends up questioning her entire identity, but as an adult reader you have to keep in mind the book's audience and just roll with it when she acts irrationally. The part I am most critical of in this book is the romance subplot, because it felt like their feelings for each other grew really fast despite having limited interactions in person, although maybe this can be chalked up to the way teenagers fall in love really fast in real life too. I liked the high stakes and danger that was ever-present throughout the book, and although some of the major plot points were predictable, they were written with ample build-up and the explanations following the reveals made sense for the story. I will continue this series and am curious to see how it ties in with the other fairytale-inspired sequels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Violence

thumbeleia's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical content, Body horror, Gaslighting, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, War, Abandonment, Ableism, Blood, Bullying, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Car accident, Colonisation, Deportation, Child abuse, Self harm, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Hate crime, Alcohol, and Infertility

bean_7088's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Cinderella but cyborg Sci-fi


I had some big gripes with how some of the characters were written. 
Kai was my biggest gripe. I just could not believe that a boy raised to be the next emperor would be so bad at politics. So bad at interacting within that political sphere. 
I also didn't quite understand the prejudice against cyborgs? I could understand if people were wary because cyborgs were stronger/smarter/faster whatever but that's not how it was portrayed and so it was a bit forced and weird. 
I hate the died literally seconds before they could be cured thing 🙄 
Even though I had gripes, and the ending was immediately predictable. I still want to read the rest of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Pandemic/Epidemic, Emotional abuse, and Death

Little big of cyborg body horror and descriptions of previous injuries from fire Extremely emotionally/verbally abusive parent. Bigotry against cyborgs and other people Pandemic. Death of sibling.

aiplusyou's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

this was a re-read, but since i first read this book when it came out i only half-remembered the plot. it's as good as i remember, and i would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves sci-fi and fairytale retellings. i will say that in a post-covid era it may be a little triggering to read for some readers, however, as it does deal with a worldwide pandemic. this is not a spoiler, you learn this in the first few pages, but it is a theme throughout the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical trauma, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Ableism, Death, and Child abuse

coryyalva's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This was a beautiful retelling of the story of Cinderella in a magical world that is a beautiful mix of our modern world and a futuristic world foreign to us.

If it wasn't for the fact that I predicted the ending of the book at page 100 (this is a 400 page book, by the way) then I would have EASY given it 4 stars, if not 4.5, but there was no sense of surprise for me.

Nonetheless, I do recommend everyone go read it!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Classism

Moderate: Death and Terminal illness

Minor: War

trs01's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical content, Death, and Child death

mirrorstorm_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional

• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Medical trauma

Minor: War and Gun violence

msradiosilence's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

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