The Skinny
A cyborg named Cinder works as a mechanic, is in love with the prince, and holds the salvation of the planet in her metal hand–pretty much par for the course for a sixteen-year-old.
Nutritional Value
The author wastes no time getting to the meat and potatoes of the story. It’s like Marissa Meyer thinks cranberry sauce and green bean casseroles are for chumps.
We dive right into the social divide between humans and androids. And of course it’s the androids that are treated as second class citizens. We also meet the dreamy Prince Kai who will act as the protagonist’s love interest, along with Iko, Cinder’s goofy, yet trusty, sidekick.
One of the side characters also gets infected with the plague right before the chapter ends, getting the snowball rolling for the plot of this novel. If the rest of the book’s pacing is this fast, then there’s not going to be any boring lulls. It will be a feast consisting of the main course, with no appetizer or dessert.
Freezer Burn
Even though a lot happened in the first chapter, a cringeworthy amount of the paragraphs have a reference to how handsome the prince is, or how every girl in the commonwealth is in love with him. If I have to read one more reference to Prince Kai’s lips, I’m going to bang my head against this Starbucks table I’m typing on.
Lingering Aftertaste
I’m about 99.85% certain Cinder will end up with the prince by the end of the book. She’ll probably also have the cure to the plague in her body somehow, and that’s how she saves the day.
I’m about 100% sure that each subsequent chapter will have at least one reference to Prince Kai’s lips.
Taste Test Verdict
I’m going to have to pass on this one. The premise of a futuristic commonwealth where humans and androids live side by side is promising, but having to read Cinder pine away for the prince for probably half the book is not.
Memorable Morsel
Cinder pines away so much she might as well hang on my rearview mirror and freshen up my car.
She was met with startled copper-brown eyes and black hair that hung past his ears and lips that every girl in the country had admired a thousand times.
Get Cinder
Gwen thinks that it’s as close to magic as humans can get when a blank Word document is filled with groups of letters, and those groups of letters turn into lines, and those lines turn into a whole new world.
When Gwen isn’t reading or writing, she’s drinking boba milk tea and singing along to Steven Universe. You should sing along with her.