I bought this book based off the same tumblr post that had recommended The Selection and The Giver to me, and once again it did not disappoint me.
I didn't realize until I was a page into it that this book is based on Cinderella, and after further research I learned that the other three books in the quartet will be based on Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White. It also set in the future where the Earth is going through difficult times against Lunars - people who live on the moon - due to their Queen wanting to manipulate and conquer the Earth. This book is told from varying perspectives based on who is central to the plot at that point, so about halfway through it is pretty much just alternating chapters of Cinder and Kai, but earlier on it is mainly Cinder and I think there was one or two from Dr Erland in there. I actually really enjoyed that because I got all the information straight away and it wasn't as confusing as switching perspectives can sometimes be. My favourite character was probably Iko, I thought she was really funny and I imagined her like Eve from Wall-E which was so cute when she did some things. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fairytales and novels set in the future.
Cinder is a cyborg mechanic in New Beijing who has to work for her stepmother who never lets her keep any of the money she makes and always has more to demand of her. When Prince Kai comes to her shop to get her to fix his android they become fast friends and when she goes home and tells her stepsister, Peony, who is the only person in the family who she actually likes, and who likes her, she immediately insists she go with her on her trip to the junkyard to hear the details. Once there Peony contracts the leutemosis plague, a terrible fast-acting disease that means the person is taken immediately to quarrantine before they die within the next few days. Once Cinder returns home her stepmother Adri blames her for Peony's illness and gives her up to the draft, which is where one cyborg each day is recruited to test new leutemosis cures on. Once inside the palace medicinal ward Cinder becomes friends with Dr Erland who tells her she is immune to leutemosis, Prince Kai then runs into them and asks Cinder to come to the upcoming ball with him, she refuses because he doesn't know she's a cyborg but he says the offer's open is she canges her mind. The next day the Emperor, Kai's father, dies of leutemosis and when Cinder returns to the doctor's office she learns that she is a Lunar, a person born on the moon and can manipulate people into seeing her however she wants and doing things she wants them to do. Lunars with that ability were killed off by Queen Levana, the Lunar Queen, as she knows they are a threat to her power because they will realize she is holding her people's loyalty through manipulation. When Cinder fixes Kai's android she learns that someone had put a communication chip in it and had learned all the information that Kai had learned about the real heir to the Lunar throne who was previously thought to be dead. On the night of the ball Cinder makes contact with the person who had the communication chip and it turns out to be Cress (who the third book will be about) a girl who was forced into hacking the palace by her stepmother, the Queen's right hand woman, and she tells her that even if Kai marries Queen Levana she'll still wage war on Earth to get support of another planet. Cinder then goes to the ball to tell Kai the Queen's plans but once there he finds out she's a cyborg and a Lunar after she has a head to head with Queen Levana. She is then placed into custody until Levana can take her back to Luna but while she is in her cell Dr Erland comes to her and tells her that she is the lost princess and that she should escape before Queen Levana takes her and come meet him in Africa where they can work together to dethrone her.
No comments:
Post a Comment