Re-Read Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Just a quick warning that as this is a re-read review it does contain spoilers.

Synopsis:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless Lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg.

She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the centre of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Review:

I still really love this book and although I think my previous rating of five stars was a bit too generous, it has withstood the test of time though. I’m going to be giving Cinder a slightly lower rating of four stars, as it is still really good, but it’s not worthy of five stars.

I’ve wanted to re-read this series for years and I think I’ve been putting it off because I was worried it wasn’t as good as I remember, but I do still really like it. We all know the first book isn’t the best in the series, I think Cress might be my favourite.

The concept of Cinder is still super cool and Cinderella retellings are my absolute favourite. Which is weird because Cinderella isn’t my favourite fairytale. It has just the right amount of the original story mixed in with new concepts.

Reading this a second time has made me realise just how obvious it is that Cinder is both Lunar and Princess Selene and I don’t think that’s because I already knew this from a previous read. Everything is already there if you pay close enough attention.

I completely forgot how young the characters are in this. What do you mean Cinder is only 16 but is the best mechanic in all of New Beijing? I get that she’s a cyborg so she obviously knows a bit about mechanics, but to best the best at such a young age. She’s either a genius or something isn’t adding up. I do love that she’s a mechanic though, it’s a nice spin on the classic Cinderella being a maid.

I also forgot that Cress is in the first book. She isn’t named, but Dr Erland talks about his ‘little crescent moon’ and she’s the one that warns Cinder about Levana’s plans. She’s my favourite character, well for now, but this may change as I continue the series. My other favourite character is Thorne, who I thought made a brief appearance at the end of this book, but I was clearly remembering wrong. I did read this for the first time in 2015 (I thought it was earlier than this) so I’m not surprised I forgot some things.

Talking about forgetting things…I did not make any notes while reading and at the time of writing this review, I finished the book days ago. So apologies that this isn’t the most detailed review. I do this every time with physical books, I don’t know why.

Anyway, now that I’ve finished Cinder, I’m itching to continue the series, but I don’t want to review them back to back. It was really fun re-reading it though, it’s been a long time coming and I actually enjoyed the book just as much the second time.