Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Summary: This futuristic re-imagining of Cinderella hits all the fairytale basics: unappreciated hard-working daughter, spoiled stepsister, cruel stepmother, handsome prince, and a ball for the entire land. But, there are also cyborgs, androids, a fatal plague, a cruel Lunar alien queen set on planetary domination, and magic-well not so much magic as bioelectrical manipulation.
It’s a fairytale like no other, set in New Beijing sometime after the Fourth World War-a war where nuclear and chemical warfare killed millions, decimated entire cultures, and reduced dozens of cities to rubble. This is the world of Cinder, a sixteen-year-old cyborg with an uncanny ability to understand how to fix things. She supports her stepmother and two stepsisters by running a mechanic’s booth in the market and has earned a reputation for being the best in New Beijing. Then, everything changes for Cinder when a disguised Prince Kai brings a broken android to her booth jokingly telling her that fixing the broken robot is “a matter of national security.” Cinder believes there may be some truth to the prince’s joke and agrees to the job.
However, Cinder is quickly side-tracked from the job when her young stepsister, the only human friend she has in the world, is stricken with a deadly plague. The same plague that threatens the life of the Prince Kai’s father, the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth. Cinder’s stepmother blames Cinder for her daughter’s illness and in retaliation she volunteers Cinder for plague research, a task no one has survived. The lead scientist soon discovers that there is something special about the latest volunteer. Something that others would kill and die for.
Who will like this book?: Readers who are looking for something a bit different from typical sci-fi/ fantasy story and open to a bit of fairytale romance.
If you like this, try this: The Pledge by Kimberly Derting, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld.
Recommended by: Jen, Fairfield Woods Branch Teen Librarian