THE LUNAR CHRONICLES Part 1 – CINDER/SCARLET

December 7, 2017     jennzahbooknut     Book review

THE LUNAR CHRONICLES Part 1 – CINDER/SCARLETCinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1) by Marissa Meyer
Published by Square Fish on January 8th 2013
Pages: 387
Goodreads

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 center 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.

This is a review of the first part of the 4 book series. Today, I take on CINDER and SCARLET :



THESE BOOKS. These books are simply AMAZING. To be fair, I had purchased CINDER (the first book in the series), just because I thought the cover looked really cool. Then I started to see really awesome reviews about it, so I thought, I’m going to pick that up and give it a go. MIND. BLOWN.

The story is about a cybernetic-Cinderella who lives the future city of New Beijing. And the story is pretty much the way you would think it would be — except much, much more exciting than the original. This story is in a dystopian world where robots, androids, and pretty much anything else you can think of all exist.  Cinder is a mechanic in the marketplace, repairing broken robots for the locals, when she meets Prince Kai there, who brings his android in on “a matter of national security”.  Of course, the spark of an attraction occurs, with Kai not knowing that Cinder is part android.

No Cinderella-esque story would be complete without the evil stepmother nor the stepsisters, of which Cinder has of course.  But while Cinder’s stepmother is cruel and hates her, Cinder’s stepsister Peony is kind towards her.  Unfortunately before the Annual Ball, Peony comes down with the plague that has been ravishing the country, and Cinder’s stepmother blames her for Peony’s illness. Seething, she volunteers Cinder up for plague research — something which nobody ever has survived.

Cinder soon finds herself in the midst of an intergalactic incident that’s just waiting to boil over into war — the Lunar Queen is desperate to get her hands on the Earth, and thinks that Prince Kai is the way to get what she wants.  And what will the scientists find when they use Cinder for research??

The story segues into the story of SCARLET, a produce farmer from France, and the search for her missing grandmother.  Her search has her cross paths with a man named Wolf, who aids her in her search. Soon the worlds of Cinder and Scarlet will collide with both girls looking for their answers while dealing with the threat of intergalactic war.

My point? These ain’t momma’s fairytales.  These are action-packed, exciting, and thrilling. I read them quickly, just with the need to know what happened to everyone next. The characters are well written, quick witted, and clever. My favourite character is that of Iko, Cinder’s robotic sidekick, who doesn’t seem to know she’s not a teenage girl.  Bottom line, these books are like nothing you’ve ever read and probably like nothing you ever well. The wait for the next book in the series was agonizing for me. Marissa Meyer has me hooked on her future-world where anything is possible.

5 Stars

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