Reading Cinder was a great way to get back on the YA train after my last misadventure. It’s actually well-written in addition to being well paced and having a heroine who doesn’t completely suck (the opposite, in fact — Cinder is a total badass.)
The long and short of it is this: set in the future in “New Beijing”, the story is a retelling of Cinderella, except our title character is a cyborg. If that sounds awesome, it’s because it is, but the citizens of New Beijing don’t feel that way — in their city, cyborgs are second-class citizens who are required to live under the supervision of guardians and are essentially completely at the will of said guardians. Cinder’s job is to work as a mechanic and bring home the dough, and that’s lucky for her because she happens to be a great mechanic, owing partly to being partially cyborg and just getting how machines work. Everything changes forever when Prince Kai of the Eastern Commonwealth brings in his droid for repairs, and he’s instantly taken with Cinder. He develops a crush, invites her to a ball, and she loses her shoe not just a shoe. And that’s just the Cinderella framing of the story!
Because there is so. much. else. going on. Cinder does a great job of worldbuilding, introducing characters you care about, creating actual stakes, and not relying overly much on the fairytale to support the majority of the plot. The inspiration is clearly there, but the actual story is Meyer’s own.
I don’t have overly much else to say, but if you’re a fan of YA sci-fi and haven’t read this yet, you definitely should.
