Cinder: A Modern Take on a Classic Fairytale

We all know the story Cinderella, the fairytale where the young girl who is constantly hurt by those around her, has a stroke of luck, and ends up marrying the prince of her dreams. Well, imagine Cinderella but with cyborgs and it takes place in the future. If you can imagine that then you can envision Cinder, an amazing sci-fi book written by Marrissa Meyer that goes places Cinderella would never even dare to. 

The story is centered around Lihn Cinder, a 16-year-old mechanic known throughout the City of New Beijing for her extraordinary ability to repair just about anything. But she’s a cyborg and in a world where cyborgs are treated just as bad (if not worse) than androids, she tries not to draw too much attention to her differences. When the handsome Prince Kaito of the Eastern Commonwealth comes to her for help in fixing his android, Nainsi, Cinder can’t get him out of her head. After meeting the prince, she promises to finish working on his android right away, but her plans are soon derailed after the market where she works is evacuated to contain a Letumosis outbreak. Letumosis is a horrifying, extremely contagious disease that has shaken the world ever since it appeared and to which there is no cure. 

Of course, a Cinderella retelling wouldn’t be complete without a ball that Cinder is absolutely forbidden to go to unless…she fixes her stepmom’s hover (a vehicle). And because for once in her life she wants to feel like a normal teenage girl, she goes to the junkyard at night with her android (and best friend), Iko, and her younger stepsister, Peony. But while they’re there, she notices something on Peony’s arm. A huge red blemish—one of the first signs of Letumosis. She quickly calls emergency services so that Peony can be taken away and quarantined. 

When she returns home, she is met with her stepmother and other stepsister who are angry with her when they learn what happened to Peony. Because of this, Cinder’s stepmom, Adri, volunteers Cinder for the cyborg draft. The Cyborg Draft is the random choosing of a cyborg by a group of researchers to further Letumosis research. But when Cinder is taken to be experimented on, the scientist Dr. Erland learns that Cinder is immune to Letumosis. The revelation that she’s immune changes her perspective on everything and starts a cascade of events that she’s unable to stop. 

The things that I really enjoyed about the book was how fast paced everything was, because when I first picked it up, I was expecting it to be a slow burn. But I was pleasantly surprised that we met Prince Kai during the first 10 pages; normally books like to take time and build up the anticipation of the protagonist meeting their love interest. You would think that since we’re introduced to Kai early on the story would feel rushed but instead, it just made me eager to see more of him and Cinder and their interactions.

Cinder and Kai just have incredible chemistry when they’re together, it makes you feel as though you’re actually watching their relationship play out on screen and are not just reading about it. 

Another relationship I thought was really well written was Peony and Cinder’s relationship, because in the original story, Cinderella, has two wicked stepsisters who hate her. But in Cinder, Peony doesn’t follow the example of her mother and sister and she treats Cinder like an actual member of the family, not just as a source of income. You can tell how much Peony loves Cinder, especially when she contracts Letumosis and forces Cinder away from her because she doesn’t want her to get taken away to be quarantined. 

In my opinion, the best thing about this book are the differences between Cinder and Cinderella. For example, in the original story of Cinderella, she takes a beautiful, elegant carriage and has a wonderful fairy godmother who shows up in the nick of time but in Cinder, she doesn’t have any of that. Instead, she shows up in one of Peony’s dresses, dirty silk gloves, and a beat-up old car from the junkyard. It’s differences like those that set the story apart from so many other fairy tales rewrites. 

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in science fiction books with a twist. If you love romance books, captivating main characters, a fast-paced plot, and books with many different subplots, then this book is for you. But even if you don’t like romance (which I don’t), then you’ll probably still enjoy this book just because of the science fiction aspect of it.