Review Detail

Everybody in Bloglandia loves Cinder. When this book first came out, it was accompanied by so much buzz, hype, and all-around gushing that I just knew, despite my wrinkle-nose reactions to Cinderella retellings, I had to get my hands on Cinder asap.

“Asap” is a relative term, however, since I’m writing this review almost ten months past Cinder’s release date. And this is, honestly, one of the 2012 releases I wish I’d preordered. Cinder is very, very good.

Right off the bat, I was struck by Marissa Meyer’s strong, graceful prose and the way she wrote her scenes and characters. Cyborgs, Lunars, World War IV; they all fit very well together and created a seamless first impression. And even once I got past those initial thoughts, I still found Cinder to be unique and well-written.

Maybe, however, the Cinderella elements weren’t necessary? It felt, to me, that Marissa Meyer had created a really awesome future society, but wanted a quick way to make it marketable. Maybe. The Cinderella bits, while very integral to the plot itself, didn’t feel important. This is a four book series, and Cinder covered all of the Cinderella fairytale—future installments won’t be able to hide behind the fairytale gimmick, and honestly, Marissa Meyer’s writing and story crafting doesn’t need to in the first place. So why do it?

There was also a teensy issue with dramatic irony/predictibility. I’m not a fan of that type of plot. I always see that kind of thing coming a thousand miles away, and it always annoys me more than gets me emotionally invested, which is doubtless the actual intention.

Anyway. Back to characters. I liked Cinder a lot. She didn’t have a standout personality (not super sassy, super beautiful, super intelligent, super anything). That was really nice, since, for once, it really did seem like an author was sticking to the “ordinary girl” archetype and was actually serious about it. Prince Kai, of course, was drop-deadly gorgeous, charming, noble. Typical prince. I wasn’t particularly impressed with him, but both he and Cinder were very realistic, well-crafted people.

Yet while the protagonists were all right, if unremarkable, I was a tad bit annoyed by both of the antagonists, Cinder’s stepmother and the evil Lunar queen. I’m currently going through a stage where “purely evil” characters don’t work for me. I guess, given that this is supposedly based on a fairytale, juvenile black and white characters should be a given. I prefer my shades of gray, personally.

All around, Cinder was unexpectedly good. I really enjoyed the plot and the prose, even if the characters themselves were lackluster. Marissa Meyer is a skilled storyteller, and her writing came across as very smooth and controlled. And while Ella Enchanted will forever have the number one place in my heart (Kai =/= Char), there might be room somewhere in there for Cinder.