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isabel_is_reading's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I found this book to have a very interesting setup and the author is definitely talented. A Cyborg Cinderella living in a post apocalyptic futuristic Beijing is a very interesting premise. However, I do think the book wasn’t executed in the best way. I’m going to split this up into sections on characters, plot, world building, and writing.
Characters
Characters
- Cinder- Cinder is a pretty lovable character, she’s stubborn, caring, kind and tomboyish. I liked the fact she’s a talented mechanic and I enjoyed her relationship with Iko and her younger step-sister. She played an active role in the story, which is always a good thing.
- Kai- Kai is an interesting twist to the ‘Prince charming’ character, he’s focused, he’s pretty smart and he has always wanted to lead his country. But, I got so annoyed with the way he dealt with the marriage storyline.
*Let my dramatic interpretation begin*
“We’re going to war!” 💂🏻
“No, I am going to marry her and avoid war!” 🤴🏻
“No, you can’t marry her, war is coming anyway and she might kill you!” 💂🏻
“Despite the fact that I know that marrying her will not help with previous problems and It might hurt me I’m still going to do it for no reason.”
“No, don’t marry her! She’s evil” 👩🏽🔧
“ I have to marry her!”
“I am evil and I will kill your loved one if you don’t marry me!” 🦹🏽♀️
“ I am sorry evil one, now that you want to kill my loved one, so now there is an actual reason to marry you I can’t marry you…despite the fact that I was going to marry you like...one second ago!”
LIKE, Why!!!! Your supposed to be smart, why are you changing ur mind in 6 seconds!
I’m a Libra and I’m not this indecisive.
Rhe rest of the characters we one dimensional and forgettable so I don’t have much to say.
Plot
I found the plot to be pretty interesting, but predictable. Now you can kinda expect this from a retelling since the basic plot outline is already laid out for you and sent it from an old very well-known fairytale. Most people know how the basic structure is gonna go, but some of the twist which were supposed to be impactful, were pretty obvious to me since the beginning. I’m not a huge fan of this genre anymore, but if you enjoy young adult fantasy you might like it. The romance was ok, but it was to insta loving for me and I wish there was a better foundation for the realtinonship.
World building
The world building is my biggest problem with this novel despite the fact, it was the reason why I actually wanted to pick it up. For one this is in a futuristic Beijing and I wanted to see what it would be like to be in this world white with new technology and especially with a culture that isn’t represented a lot and young adult fiction, especially during the time this book was written. However, this wasn’t really explored. I wish we got more details of how life is to live in this area. I wanted to see more about how the world works and the information that we are given is just confusing.
The cyborg discrimination makes no sense to me.
Just to simplify things;
~Cyborgs are people who have one or more metal parts. A human becomes a cyborg when they experience an accident and need this technology to, you know, NOT DIE.
~Androids are robotic machines that are programmed to act like humans. They function according to commands.
~Lunars are people who posses magic and live on the moon. They have the ability to mind control (glamour) humans.
The biggest problem that I have with the world building is that I don’t understand why cyborgs are look down upon and discriminated in society. I mean first of all the cyborg is just a person who have metal part so someone who for example, gets a prosthetic leg and maybe a prosthetic arm is going to be “ more human” then someone who has like a fully metal brain and heart and lungs and arms and legs, and just everything as prosthetic. So if the problem is that they’re discriminated because they’re not fully human wouldn’t certain individuals be treated better than other individuals? Just like the same way with real life racism individuals wear darker skin experience, colorism compared to light skin individuals who don’t experience colorism. Also, I just don’t understand how someone being saved by new technology that gives him another chance at life after horrible accident would be treated badly by society that just doesn’t make sense to me at all and the author doesn’t explain it in a way that makes sense.
Writing
“Vanity is a factor, but it is more a question of control. It is easier to trick others into perceiving you as beautiful if you can convince yourself you are beautiful. But mirrors have an uncanny way of telling the truth.”
This is a debut novel and the writing is actually pretty good 👍🏻.
“We’re going to war!” 💂🏻
“No, I am going to marry her and avoid war!” 🤴🏻
“No, you can’t marry her, war is coming anyway and she might kill you!” 💂🏻
“Despite the fact that I know that marrying her will not help with previous problems and It might hurt me I’m still going to do it for no reason.”
“No, don’t marry her! She’s evil” 👩🏽🔧
“ I have to marry her!”
“I am evil and I will kill your loved one if you don’t marry me!” 🦹🏽♀️
“ I am sorry evil one, now that you want to kill my loved one, so now there is an actual reason to marry you I can’t marry you…despite the fact that I was going to marry you like...one second ago!”
I’m a Libra and I’m not this indecisive.
Plot
I found the plot to be pretty interesting, but predictable. Now you can kinda expect this from a retelling since the basic plot outline is already laid out for you and sent it from an old very well-known fairytale. Most people know how the basic structure is gonna go, but some of the twist which were supposed to be impactful, were pretty obvious to me since the beginning. I’m not a huge fan of this genre anymore, but if you enjoy young adult fantasy you might like it. The romance was ok, but it was to insta loving for me and I wish there was a better foundation for the realtinonship.
World building
The world building is my biggest problem with this novel despite the fact, it was the reason why I actually wanted to pick it up. For one this is in a futuristic Beijing and I wanted to see what it would be like to be in this world white with new technology and especially with a culture that isn’t represented a lot and young adult fiction, especially during the time this book was written. However, this wasn’t really explored. I wish we got more details of how life is to live in this area. I wanted to see more about how the world works and the information that we are given is just confusing.
The cyborg discrimination makes no sense to me.
Just to simplify things;
~Cyborgs are people who have one or more metal parts. A human becomes a cyborg when they experience an accident and need this technology to, you know, NOT DIE.
~Androids are robotic machines that are programmed to act like humans. They function according to commands.
~Lunars are people who posses magic and live on the moon. They have the ability to mind control (glamour) humans.
The biggest problem that I have with the world building is that I don’t understand why cyborgs are look down upon and discriminated in society. I mean first of all the cyborg is just a person who have metal part so someone who for example, gets a prosthetic leg and maybe a prosthetic arm is going to be “ more human” then someone who has like a fully metal brain and heart and lungs and arms and legs, and just everything as prosthetic. So if the problem is that they’re discriminated because they’re not fully human wouldn’t certain individuals be treated better than other individuals? Just like the same way with real life racism individuals wear darker skin experience, colorism compared to light skin individuals who don’t experience colorism. Also, I just don’t understand how someone being saved by new technology that gives him another chance at life after horrible accident would be treated badly by society that just doesn’t make sense to me at all and the author doesn’t explain it in a way that makes sense.
Writing
“Vanity is a factor, but it is more a question of control. It is easier to trick others into perceiving you as beautiful if you can convince yourself you are beautiful. But mirrors have an uncanny way of telling the truth.”
This is a debut novel and the writing is actually pretty good 👍🏻.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Child death, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Death of parent, Blood, War, and Gun violence
noellegrace8's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
This is such a cool modern (future, actually??) retelling of Cinderella. She is NOTHING like any Cinderella we've read or watched before. She is a mechnic with a good portion of her body being mechanical in and of itself. Meyer does a fantastic job creating interesting plot points that surprise the reader yet also point them to the original source material of Cinderella. Overall a quick-paced, clever book. I can't wait to read the next installments! The few issues I had with the book were just that it was a bit hard to get into at first, especially because some of the characters weren't as interesting as they could have been, and sometimes the word usage was odd, almost like she used the word adjacent to what she actually meant.
I don't include the audio performer in my overall star review, but I'd give Rebecca Soler 3.75/5.0. There isn't much to say outside of her performance falling flat. It wasn't actively bad, but there wasn't enough excitement and variance in her narration to intrigue me; my inner reading dialogue is much more enthusiastic than her performance itself is.
I don't include the audio performer in my overall star review, but I'd give Rebecca Soler 3.75/5.0. There isn't much to say outside of her performance falling flat. It wasn't actively bad, but there wasn't enough excitement and variance in her narration to intrigue me; my inner reading dialogue is much more enthusiastic than her performance itself is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Classism, Grief, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Medical trauma, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Deportation, Car accident, Colonisation, Confinement, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Vomit, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, and War
Those listed in "graphic" are central themes, although the ableism is more of metaphor (Cinder is a cyborg and treated poorly because of it) than a direct commentary. Moderate categories listed are related to the death of a loved one in the plot, a medical research focus due to the epidemic theme, and the aforementioned ordeal of Cinder being cyborg. "Minor" category items are straightforward and not too present in the book.melissaslibraryy's review against another edition
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 !!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, and War
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Suicide attempt
hollyheartless's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: War
modernhobbitvibes's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
2.75
It wasn't BAD by any means, just a bit YA-y in places, and not my usual. Seeing the Cinderella adaptation bits was probably the best part.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, and Death
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Classism, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, and Forced institutionalization
Classic "evil stepmother abusive behavior" that you see in most fairy tales. Labeled the anti-cyborg sentiments as "classism" because I'm not sure what else to call it.parfait52's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Car accident, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Ableism, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Xenophobia, Medical content, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Classism, Genocide, Colonisation, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Trafficking, War, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
ariep's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Murder, Body shaming, Death of parent, Child abuse, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Classism, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization
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
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
coryyalva's review against another edition
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!!
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!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Classism
Moderate: Death and Terminal illness
Minor: War
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
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
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