Cinder (novel)

Plot

The story is set in a futuristic city, New Beijing, when the countries of the world have re-organized to form various new empires and alliances and the moon has been colonized. Asia is now an emperor ruled country known as the Eastern Commonwealth. A disease with an unknown cause or cure, Letumosis, nicknamed the "blue fever", is raging throughout the world. The protagonist, Linh Cinder, is a cyborg who operates a mechanic stall at a local street market in New Beijing and lives under the guardianship of her stepmother, Linh Adri. Early in the story, she meets Prince Kai, who asks her to fix a personal android. Cyborgs are treated as second class citizens, so Cinder hides her identity from Kai. Soon, one of Cinder’s stepsisters, Linh Peony, falls sick with letumosis after accompanying Cinder to a junkyard to collect spare parts for a repair. In anger, Cinder’s stepmother "volunteers" Cinder for plague research. When Cinder is injected with the strain of letumosis, it is discovered that she is immune to the disease. Dr. Erland, the head researcher, starts to do research on Cinder’s immunity, which leads to research on Cinder’s unique physiology, her cyborg implants, and eventually to Cinder’s life prior to becoming a cyborg at the age of eleven, which Cinder has no memory of.

At the same time, Prince Kai's father, Emperor Rikan, dies of the plague, resulting in the prince becoming Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth. There is pressure to create an alliance between the Earth countries and the Moon country, Luna, led by Queen Levana. The Lunars have the ability to manipulate the bioelectricity of people around them and make them see what they want them to see and even control their thoughts and actions. The proposed alliance is through Emperor Kai marrying Queen Levana, however, Emperor Kai wants to thwart this plan by finding someone else to marry first. He is also searching for information regarding the Lunar Heir. Earthens believed that somehow Princess Selene Channary Janali Blackburn survived a nursery fire set up by Queen Levana. Which is what his personal android was looking for when it broke. Soon after, Cinder's stepsister dies of the plague and Linh Cinder stores Peony's ID chip and takes it with her. Because of this, Linh Adri punishes Cinder by smashing Iko, Cinder's companion android, to pieces and selling the valuable pieces.

Dr. Erland reveals to Cinder that she is Lunar, resulting in her immunity to letumosis. However, Cinder displays no Lunar abilities. Cinder fixes Kai's android, named Nainsi, and discovers that he has been researching Princess Selene, the true heir of Luna, who is believed to have been killed by her aunt, Levana, when she was a child. Cinder also discovers a Lunar chip embedded in Nainsi, which was the reason for the android's initial breakdown. Through the Lunar chip, which is revealed to be used for direct communication outside the network, Cinder is contacted by a girl with long braids who warns that Levana intends to marry Kai and kill him after she becomes empress.

The story culminates with an annual ball, where secrets are discovered and characters have to make a decision on their future. Cinder warns Kai about Levana's ulterior motives, but her identity as a cyborg and a Lunar are revealed, and she attempts to assassinate Levana. Kai has no choice but to arrest Cinder in the New Beijing Prison and accept Levana's marriage proposal to save the Earth from Lunar attack. Later in Cinder's prison cell, Dr. Erland visits Cinder in her cell and reveals that he is a Lunar fugitive who has been living on Earth and that the Lunars created the plague to target Earth and weaken them. He also reveals that Cinder is truly the lost Princess Selene of Luna. The badly injured baby Selene was taken to Earth in secret, where she was saved by going through the cybernetic operation. Cinder's Lunar abilities had been suppressed by a chip that her stepfather installed in her neck during the operation, however, Dr. Erland tells Cinder that he has disabled it. Cinder now knows that she is the true queen of Luna, and she must rise up against Levana and take the throne back.

Characters

Reception

Critical reception to Cinder has been mostly positive, with the Los Angeles Times calling the book "refreshing" and praising the character of Cinder. Publishers Weekly also positively reviewed the book, saying that the characters "easy to get invested in". Booklist called Cinder a "fresh spin on "Cinderella,"". The Wall Street Journal wrote that the book was an "undemanding and surprisingly good-natured read". Kidz World stated that Cinder was "an amazing story about love that comes in mysterious packages".

Kirkus Reviews wrote that the telepathic-enslaver theme was "simplistic and incongruous-feeling" but said that Cinder "offers a high coolness factor". The Horn Book Magazine wrote that Cinder's reveal was predictable but that the book's "twists and turns, complex characters, and detailed world-building to redeem itself". Tor.com wrote that "while Cinder does have its flaws, it’s a solidly entertaining story, and one of the best re-imaginings of Cinderella I’ve seen in ages."

Interviewed at the Bologna Children's Book Fair (Bologna, Italy) in 2012, the author revealed the origin of her novel. She being a "fairy tale geek", she has spent considerable time tracing the origins of the most common Western children's stories. Apparently, the first version of Cinderella was written in China in the 9th century (this justifies the fact that Cinderella was the only one able to wear the lost shoe: small feet were considered attractive in ancient China, so the point is that the young lady had the smallest feet in the world). For this reason, Marissa Meyer decided to set her futuristic version in New Beijing, in order to "close the circle" and re-take the story to its original place. In addition to that, the decision to make Cinder a cyborg started from a hilarious thought: the idea came to her mind that, instead of losing a shoe, Cinderella might lose a whole foot on the stairs.

Sequels and adaptations

There are four books, a prequel novel, and a collection of novellas in The Lunar Chronicles. The second book in the series, Scarlet, is based on Little Red Riding Hood. The third book, Cress, is based on Rapunzel. Book 3.5 which was released in January 2015 is called Fairest, acts as the fourth book and is a prequel focusing on the main antagonist, Queen Levana. The fifth one (officially book four) is called Winter and was released in November 2015. Both Winter and Fairest are loosely based on the story of Snow White. Meyer has also released three free short stories via the website Wattpad. These are entitled Glitches - set prior to Cinder, The Queen's Army - set just before Scarlet, and The Little Android which is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Stars Above, a Lunar Chronicles collection was released in February 2016. This collection included nine stories, five of which have never been published and an excerpt of Marissa Meyer's stand alone novel, Heartless, which was released on November 8th, 2016.

Meyer has confirmed there has been interest in a movie adaptation of Cinder and has signed a deal for the movie, although the studio is being kept secret. The author states the studio is currently searching for a director.