A forbidden romance. A deadly plague. Earth's fate hinges on one girl... CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation. Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future. This is not the fairytale you remember. But it's one you won't forget.
Blurb for Cinder taken from Goodreads.
✼
I saw this series come up in a few different places, as young adult series' have always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. It then took me a little while once I had the books to actually start reading them (six books is a big commitment to make!). I initially had reservations about Cinder. Although I like young adult and fantasy fiction, the bit about the cyborg put me off.
In a nutshell? It shouldn't have.
This series was so lovely to read. You just have to get past the preconceptions you have about what the plot might be like. The books never failed to impress me, and I enjoyed each book more than the last. These are fairytale stories, but don't think for a second that they aren't action-packed and modern. Marissa Meyer manages to keep the heart of our beloved heroines, whilst giving them much more substance than is usually seen in fairytale retellings. And the beauty of it is that as well as the main story, there is also a new story in every book, so it never gets boring.
If you're not sure about this series, I'd urge you to give it a chance, and make sure to read all of Cinder before making a judgement. I bet you'll end up reading the whole series!
Series rating: ✫✫✫✫
SPOILER ALERT
Cinder
As I've already mentioned, I had some reservations about whether or not I would actually enjoy this book. And if I'm honest, it did take me until I was quite a long way through it before I really thoroughly started to enjoy it. I'm just not usually one for sci-fi, and couldn't get past the cyborg thing. When really, the fact that Cinder was part-cyborg was a very minor part of the story that holds no real bearing on events. Once I realised this, I started to focus on the heart of the story.
Cinder actually makes for a great heroine. She has her heart firmly in the right place, and is both passionate and strong. I love a feisty protagonist, but one who wears her heart on her sleeve, and the girl did not let me down. Her determination to save Peony was really sweet, and her whole involvement in the labs was really interesting. I really thought she would be in time to save her sister, but I can see now that the fact that she wasn't was essential to moving the plot forward. It was amidst the regular interactions with Dr Erland that I really started to become invested in the story.
However, the plot was relatively slow and uncomplicated until the end. That's when Queen Levana really shows her true colours, and things start to get veryyyyyyyy interesting! Also, Prince Kai is a sweetheart. I wish I could hate him for bowing down to Levana but you just can't. His interest in Cinder, the nobody mechanic, is endearing, and it was a very sweet story doomed to end in failure. She's not just a maid like the original Cinderella - this girl is a cyborg in a seemingly very unaccepting world. It's not a surprise that this makes for complications.
Finding out that Cinder was Lunar was an interesting moment, but it didn't shock me. I'd kind of accepted by this point that there had to be something very different about her, but it did make for a good plot twist. The real show time was when Cinder received the message, and made the decision to go to the ball. And I'm not ashamed to admit that it broke my heart a little bit! Poor girl just wants to be accepted. Come on, Kai! I could see how much I'd invested myself in the story by this point for being so outraged by the way Cinder was treated at the palace.
But the bit that really got me was finding out that she was, in fact, Princess Selene. I did not see it coming. But looking back - how did I not see that coming? I guess I just assumed that the series had a long way to go, and subsequently I guessed we'd meet Selene along the way. My bad. What a place to leave the story; with Cinder locked up, Dr Erland having just told her of her true identity and given her a means to escape. Oh, and Prince Kai engaged to Queen Levana, for the good (cough) of Earth.
Well. Suddenly I couldn't wait to keep reading.
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
Scarlet
I found Scarlet to be much the same as Cinder, in that it took me a really long time to get into it. I suppose that I'd only just become very invested in Cinder's story, and so to switch to another character's journey was frustrating. It took me a while to really take to Scarlet and Wolf, and I found the build-up to their story rather slow. I did, however, love that it was in a different place, and the newsclips of Cinder helped to show the magnitude of her struggle. It also helped me persevere with Scarlet, as I didn't feel like Cinder's story had just been forgotten. But I'll admit, I did initially find it a bit of a plod to get through the chapters focusing solely on Scarlet and Wolf.
Now, of course, I can see the beauty of focusing on new characters as a means of bringing them into the story. It's a gradual introduction, which, when you've got so many strong personalities, is quite a clever method of bringing them in. And it did pick up quite a lot as they began their journey to Paris; it just took quite a while to get going. The way that Wolf's pack mentality was painted was really clever, and it helped the reader to understand how his personality had been altered into something animalistic. Wolf is also a fantastic counterbalance to Scarlet; she's feisty and impulsive but with minimal aggression, but he's calm and collected, but can switch instantaneously. They made for a good couple to go investigating!
I did think at one point that Scarlet was going to turn out to be Lunar, and thought, "how interesting it would be if all our heroines turn out to be Lunar". I wondered if that would hold some sort of value later down the line. Alas, I was wrong in this case. But now I can appreciate that Scarlet's value in the later books is in fact that she is from Earth.
I felt for Scarlet when her grandmother was killed, but I was glad to see their union with Cinder and Thorne. I couldn't have gone on much longer with their entirely separate stories. I'd felt far more attached to the storyline following Cinder and Thorne throughout, although this was less eventful than Scarlet's journey. Thorne is a likeable character; I was still unsure what to make of him, but he seemed a good egg. We'll see.
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
Cress
Now we were really getting somewhere - I found Cress far easier to get into, and I loved it from the very beginning. I'm not sure if that's because we had already met Cress, albeit briefly, and knew what connection she was going to have to Cinder. Or perhaps I was just more interested in the story by this point - there were a lot more characters to maintain my attention.
The plot of this book was a lot more patchy and sporadic, but it worked in a way that wouldn't have done for the previous instalments. Cinder and Scarlet spent a lot of time introducing new characters, and so needed a solid main storyline. Cinder, Kai and Levana were the first focus, followed by Scarlet, Wolf and even Thorne. Cress already had a lot of established personalities, and it could afford to be a bit more confusing! And I think it worked well to keep up the intrigue. The gang are split up and follow different paths for a lot of the book, but it felt much more like different lines of one cohesive plot; Scarlet didn't feel quite so cohesive.
I especially loved the way the gang found their way back together in Africa, and found Dr Erland. It was such a farce but I thought it was very well written, and I really enjoyed that particular sequence of scenes where the characters all happen to stumble back together. I did, however, think that Scarlet was short-changed in this story. I could see that her separation served a purpose, as it landed her on Luna (and it wasn't difficult to see that that was a key plot move). Yet we barely hear anything of her over the rest of the book. I understand that there was less key information that could be conveyed in her journey in Cress when compared to the other characters, but to just ignore her seemed silly. So much more could have been made of her story, and it's disappointing that she wasn't acknowledged as much, and once she had served her purpose, was just left on the side-line.
I still found myself wanting to read about Cinder and Kai the most, maybe because their characters were the most well known by this point, but I also felt more of an emotional attachment to them. Cinder is my true heroine. However, Thorne grew on me more and more by the second; his animated and funny personality was so endearing! He just captures attention in every scene. He's the equivalent of Finnick in The Hunger Games or Uriah in Divergent. I wasn't as taken by Cress. She's sweet but in a sickly way, and she was primarily just annoying. She did grow on me, but remains by far my least favourite character out of the Rampion team.
I loved the climax of the book, though, where they storm the palace and capture Kai. It was about time he was brought into their clan! They all had different roles and I thought these scenes were a massive success; written really well, and clearly properly thought out. I also loved that it brought Kai and Cinder back together. Although, I must confess I did find their reunion a little too easy. They barely know each other, and have been out of contact for weeks, with nothing really to make them believe that the other wasn't a monster. Then, all of a sudden, their differences are irrelevant, and all prejudices are cast aside. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing them reunite and be all happy families and rainbows. I just felt that in order for it to feel more natural, there should really have been a longer and more natural session of heated discussion and resolution.
BUT. My favourite instalment so far. Loved, loved, loved. I was intrigued to see what happened next.
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
Fairest
I finished Cress in a little over a day, and wanted to keep reading. But when I picked up Winter, I could see that it was going to be a huge time commitment. I'd read somewhere that Fairest was written before Winter, and that reading it before would help the reader to really understand Levana's story. Fairest, after all, follows Levana from a young adult until deep into her reign. I decided that it was a good idea to follow this advice.
I'm really glad I did, and I would urge others to do the same. It was just the break I needed, without leaving the world of The Lunar Chronicles entirely. At only 220 pages, it was just a short break away. It also really did give a good understanding of Levana, and her relationship with Winter. Without first reading Fairest, I can see that it would have been a lot less clear exactly what Levana's feelings and motives were.
It wasn't a complex plot, by any means. It was gentle, and progressed easily. But that's part of the beauty of this book when contrasted with the main series, and it was fascinating to read about the queen from a different perspective. Did I think, from reading the other books in the series, that I could feel sympathetic towards Levana? No. But did I? Yes, partly. This story balances the very fine line between making you feel sorry for the queen, and for making you despise her, and I'll admit that I found myself feeling both during my time reading the book. It really captured that emotional pull that made you want to pursue with the story. I felt sympathetic towards Levana, yes, but that didn't excuse her actions, and I think that's the fundamental idea. She didn't deserve Evret, she didn't respect him, and she treated him, quite frankly, awfully. What a deluded woman to think that Evret could love her after her constant manipulation of him. Then her attempted murder of Selene really tipped her over the edge into full blown psycho. Ah, the queen we had already come to know and hate.
This story gave the perfect insight into Levana's past, and although I didn't feel sorry for her, I began to understand her pain. No excuses, but I felt for her at times. She's still crazy, though. It was a really great addition to the series, and I'm glad Marissa Meyer chose to write it, and publish it before Winter. It really was the perfect place for it, and I felt far more eager to read the final story after finishing this one.
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
Winter
Let me just start by saying that this book is long. like, LONG. Which doesn't need to be a problem. It was a very gripping story, and I didn't ever feel like it was never going to end. But it has so many twists and turns that it's hard to really look back and pick out the key points. Kai sneaks them into Luna, which was a good start. Solid. Then they get split up. Necessary, I think, in this final instalment of the series. There need to be multiple complications or the whole thing gets a bit boring.
The build-up to Winter and Scarlet's escape is great, too. It's the perfect embodiment of the classic Snow White story (although I was very upset that Ryu had to be sacrificed). I felt so sorry for Jacin that Levana asked him to kill Winter. It's clear that his refusal would bring his own death as well as Winter's, and my heart bled for him. But his help in Winter's escape with Scarlet was great. And don't get me started on the scene where Wolf is reunited with Scarlet. I read it through at least three times - my heart melted! Although I wonder if it would be possible to get a couple in the series who aren't sickeningly in love. Scarlet and Wolf, Winter and Jacin, and even to some extent Cress and Thorne and Cinder and Kai. I did feel the urge to throw up occasionally, but I suppose it's all in the good spirit of fairytales...
However, my biggest problem with the book (although it was a minor rather than major grievance) was that the same thing seemed to happen over and over again. I get that it's a build up to a war, but a lot of this book was rallying the troops. Then rallying the troops. Then doing some more rallying the troops. There were some key moments, such as when Winter and Scarlet convinced the pack of special operatives to join their cause, but it felt a lot of the time that it was very much of a muchness. Like taking a step forward, and then taking a step back again soon after. Maybe it's because the book was so long that it felt like this, but it was a thought that I had for a lot of the time reading this story. Cinder manages to hold the story through this tedium, but I felt much more engaged when reverting to Kai and Levana, and Torinn. When Cress and Thorne finally sneak into the palace, it's an overwhelming sense of FINALLY (and not just because they finally admitted their feelings for each other!).
When Cinder finds Levana controlling Thorne, threatening to send him over the cliff, it got intense! It was such a dynamic scene! I really thought one of our beloved characters was going to die at this point. It was such a wonderful climax to the story, seeing Levana defeated (with difficulty) and Cinder emerging victorious - except for being stabbed. Dun dun dunnnn...
My criticism of the ending is that Cinder is stabbed, and then all of a sudden she's fine. I know that it is stated in a late chapter that she'd been unconscious for a few days, but it would have been good to see this time pass in a more effective way. A chapter from Kai's perspective, perhaps, worrying about Cinder, or a chapter where Cinder wakes briefly and overhears murmurs, but returns to a state of unconscious. I don't know what would have been better, but it was an alarming jump that wouldn't have taken much to be more effective, and build some more suspense. I did, however, love Cinder's decision to change Luna into a republic, and abolish the monarchy. Brave, but clever. Could that allow for a reunion between Cinder and Kai later on? I think so...
All in all though, I'm happy with the ending. The story carried itself beautifully through a whole host of different heroes and heroines, and it made it that much more interesting. And they all got their happy ending. It is a fairytale, after all.
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
Stars Above
I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm not a major fan of short stories. But I was really keen to give this collection a go, as I knew the stories would be about characters that I had come to really love. Here's some thoughts I had about the stories in Stars Above:
The Keeper: I surprised myself by enjoying this a lot, considering it's not about any of the main characters in the story. It was actually nice to get some more padded information about what happened to Selene, and what role Michelle Benoit actually played.
Glitches: I did enjoy this one, but not as much as I thought I would. It was classic Cinderella, but that's what made it quite boring. It didn't have any interesting twists like I've come to expect from this series.
The Queen's Army: I really didn't expect to enjoy this one. Wolf isn't a character that I'd found particularly interesting, except for his relationship with Scarlet. I surprised myself, therefore, by really enjoying it. Wolf is the character that the reader comes to know least about, and I loved getting some backstory. I thought this one was really great and actually really relevant if we're to truly understand his brooding character.
Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky: I enjoyed this mainly because Carswell is cute with a capital C. But it didn't have an overwhelming amount of relevance to the general story.
After Sunshine Passes By: Cress didn't cease to be annoying in this story; she became even more so, in fact, as her character is younger here. I also didn't feel like this added much to her backstory. It was just what we already knew, very slightly padded out.
The Princess and the Guard: This was really cute, and it tied in really well to the main plot of Winter. It gave us a good idea of Winter and Jacin's relationship. They're such a great pair. I've really enjoyed reading about them.
The Little Android: It was nice to read something a little different, and I understand this was a take on the Little Mermaid, but it just felt out of place amongst the other stories. Everything else is linked together, and this felt very odd.
The Mechanic: My favourite. SO CUTE. I loved seeing the same market scene, through Kai's eyes rather than Cinder's. It was really lovely to read.
Something Old, Something New: As much as I liked the end of Winter, I do think this little short story was necessary to wrap up the plot. I'm glad the other stories were all prequels, so didn't interfere with the main narrative, but I really appreciated Something Old, Something New. It really tied together Cinder and Kai and their romance, solidifying it. I also loved that Wolf and Scarlet had their little wedding. They really are the most powerful of power couples. Beautiful.
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
The Story
I thought the idea of taking traditional fairytales, and twisting them entirely into a new fantasy story, was wonderful. It's exactly the kind of interesting fiction that I love to stumble across, and I think these original stories were perfectly entwined throughout the series. You can really see it if you look closely enough. Winter, close to death, in the glass cage for everybody to witness. Cinder and her foot. Cress and her confinement in the shuttle. These were clever stories with a modern edge, and I really enjoyed them. I also thought the supporting characters were fantastic. And although Levana was a consistent villain through the series, it was nice to see that the books have their own characters to focus on. Adri as the wicked stepmother. Wolf, Sybil, and more. It was clearly very carefully planned, and I believe was executed beautifully.
I also think the gradual introduction of the heroines worked well too. I initially thought I'd hate to have a different focus in every story; once I'd followed Cinder, I knew I would want to keep following Cinder. And I did, but the story was not at a disadvantage from focusing on new characters at all. Cinder is constant throughout, but there is a lovely balance between the supporting characters too.
The Verdict
I had a lot of reservations about these stories. I'm not really interested in reading about cyborgs, I didn't want these fairytales to be ruined in an attempt to write something unique, and it is a long series to plod through if it isn't totally gripping. I had to have some faith that I'd enjoy them.
Turns out, they're wonderful!
These are not the fairytale heroines we know, but they are so much more interesting. It did take me a long time to get into Cinder, and when I was finally hooked, I was a little bitter about having to start over again with Scarlet. But now I can see how well crafted and considered the series is. It introduces our heroines gradually, giving them each their own voice, their own story, and their own cause to fight for. But they're put together to complement each other, with their respective princes, and they all play a part in the downfall of the evil Queen Levana.
The stories are straightforward in places, and complex in others, and carry all the components of a successful young adult, fantasy, fairytale series. I'm really glad I did persevere and read this series, including the additional books, and I would happily read them again in future.
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