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Monday, December 19, 2011

Cinder, by Marissa Meyer

PHENOMENAL new YA book. Sci-Fi Cyborg retelling of Cinderella, and a fantastic, thrilling and thought-provoking beginning to a new series, the Lunar Chronicles.
Cinder is 36.7% artifical- a terrible accident as a child left her orphaned, and her adoptive new guardian had her body repaired with the best technology available, until he died too, leaving her with his wife and 2 daughters. In this version, only Pearl, the eldest sister, is truly evil, Peony, the younger, does love her cyborg adoptive sister and Cinder loves Peony and Iko, her android. Cinder is licensed mechanic, with a knack for fixing all machinery, and is known throughout New Beijing for her skills.
I've read a lot of re-told Cinderella tales (a recent favorite being the lesbian twist in Ash, by Malinda Lo) but this was really a stunner- impossible to put down, great classic sci-fi imagery, and a heroine whose human-vs-artificial rights/and intelligence was so much better addressed than in The Fox Inheritance.
LOVED IT.

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