In this retelling of the classic fairy tale, Cinder is a teenaged cyborg living in New Beijing, over a century in the future. A brilliant mechanic, Cinder only dreams of finding freedom from her domineering stepmother and her stepsisters. She has no worries about the prince's upcoming ball, the war brewing with the colonists on the Moon, or the mysterious disease that's slowly devastating Earth's population.
I didn't expect to enjoy this nearly as much as I did. This is a really fresh take on the Cinderella story, and I found myself getting completely sucked in. Cinder has a lot of obstacles: she's under age, so her stepmother has total control over her life; she's a cyborg, which means she's not considered "human," and so she has even less freedom and acceptance that other people; her youngest stepsister (and her only real friend) has been infected with the plague; and finally, the guy she likes a) is the freaking Prince, and b) has no idea that she's part machine. Meyer throws in enough politics to keep things interesting, and the setting is unique, so this manages to be more than a simple love story. And while the twist was something I saw coming fairly early, I didn't see the resolution (or lack thereof) that will lead neatly into the next book. In fact, I only have one complaint about this book: the Lunar kingdom kept triggering flashbacks of my childhood obsession with Sailor Moon. I mean, part of that was the names: the missing Moon princess is named Selene--which is pretty close to Serena from the American dub of the show; part of it was also the descriptions: the evil Lunar Queen in the book bore a striking resemblance (in my head, at least) to the Queen Beryl, the villain of season one. All of which has resulted in my having the Sailor Moon theme stuck in my head for days. So readers, ye be warned.
Resurging geek tendencies aside, this was a great read, and I was happy to have it on hand for a day of feeling under the weather.
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