Cinder

Even in the Future the Story Begins with Once Upon a Time.

I enjoyed the book, it definitely kept me interested, but I didn't experience the same amazement as a lot of the people on Goodreads.

Having read 62% of book last night, I replied to Oana that I really loved some of the concepts in it. I though they were quite ingenious, compared to most YA literature. I could have easily adored this book just from the feeling of the first few pages.

I found the take on cyborgs and technology refreshing and I had no complaints about the writing. I liked the fact that the science fiction parts are entwined with fantasy. But I was not a fan of the chemistry between Kai and Cinder or should I say the lack of it. I thought the whole deal was very insta-lovey,and a very bad, bad one for its kind. I know that in fairy tales the “insta” is always present, but I wish Cinder would have detached itself from “Cinderella” regarding this aspect. Since the author decided to go with Cinder being a greasy mechanic, I would assume the most logical thing would have been to get them together more often, to have a chance to talk and discover each other.

By the end of the book I found a few more things that ate away at me. I thought that everything happened in such a short amount of time. The characters needed to be more fleshed out. I needed more time to know about Cinder's life with her family, with the work as a mechanic. How did she end up in this field anyways? I needed more depictions of the “New Beijing” life. More details about the Lunars. More about their special ability.

I also needed to understand why on Earth was the prince so attracted to her after talking for like 3 minutes on three occasions. And I was kind of annoyed at times with both Cinder's and the prince's immaturity. They both kept making such weird, silly, rash decisions. Could you please pause for a moment and think it over, OK? I liked that Kai stood up to the Queen, but he could learn a thing or two about diplomacy. And Cinder kept “forgetting” to fix Kai's android that it made it so unrealistic. If the prince tells you to fix the android, you fix it!

And then I just can't figure out why on Earth wouldn't the doctor just tell her she might be you know what and you know who. It was so frickin' obvious. I saw that coming from the first mention of you know who. He just kept telling her, stay away from the queen. Well maybe, just maybe she would have listed to you if you would have told her the whole truth.

And the ballroom scene was so sad and just pity worthy. Was that kiss supposed to be romantic, cause it looked kinda pathetic to me. I really wanted Cinder to be this ballsy heroine, but for a cyborg and a mechanic she was all gooey inside so many times. Please, YA heroines, can you please fall in love and remain kick-ass and maintain your instinct of self-preservation at the same time? Pretty please?

I'm confused. And disappointed. There's so much love for this book and so much hype around it that I guess I was kinda expecting to be blown away. Especially because Cinder was so full of potential, it does have some really cool ideas and I could really see this as a great novel, with some adjustments. But I'm not sorry I read it.

P.S. And I really did not get why she needed to rebuild a car running on fossil fuel to be able to get out of the Commonwealth? Especially not after the doctor sent her money. And I'm also not happy that there is no mention as to why the “cyborgs” had to belong to other humans, like androids. Why, why, why?