Cinder

By Marissa Meyer

Feiwel and Friends, Jan. 3, 2012

            This book uses the simple fairy tale Cinderella and takes it to a whole new level. A mix of science fiction and fantasy creates a mysterious cyborg named Cinder. She grows up with her stepmother and her three stepsisters who mistreat her, all the while there is a disastrous plague going around the marketplace in New Beijing. The deadly plague ravages the population, which eventually leads Cinder to a future she would not have even dreamed possible. Throughout this book there is a struggle between choosing the feared path or the easy path. You will feel for the main character as the world turns against her, and she has to find a way to fix it.  Caught between freedom and duty, Cinder uncovers many secrets about her past to save her world’s future. The only confusing part about the book was the setting because it never really mentioned how Cinder lived in New Beijing until the end, and since the book was set in the future, it was hard to tell where she was, at times. Other than that, the book was very hard to put down, and there was never a dull moment.