“Cinder...how fitting. Ashes. Dirt. Filth.”

The prince had the stairway smeared with pitch, And when Cinderella tried to run away, her left slipper got stuck.

🅁🄴🅅🄸🄴🅆 🄵🄾🅁 🄲🄸🄽🄳🄴🅁 🄱🅈 🄼🄰🅁🄸🅂🅂🄰 🄼🄴🅈🄴🅁
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Futuristic. Unearthly. Realistic.
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This is a reread so I knew I was going to enjoy it but I can’t believe how much of this world and story I had forgotten. It follows a young cyborg mechanic who is loathed by her stepmother after she is left to look after her when she’s widowed (are you getting the fairytale hints yet?). To start with, Cinder leads a pretty unremarkable life until the young, handsome Prince Kai shows up at her repair shop with a broken android and a fuzzy excuse as to why he’s brought it to her. And thus begins the extraordinary turn of events that is Cinder(ella).

I thought the characters were well developed in this story. The MC wasn’t the usual fairytale damsel in distress but she wasn’t a complete bad ass either. Yes she was strong, but she was normal. Relatable. However, I think the physical description was lacking in places which made it hard for me to imagine her face (without a clear description my imagination makes the character look like myself which can be unsettling...) or her cybernetic parts at certain points in the story.
I think the villain in this story was very well-executed and thoroughly unlikeable; I am interested to see how Fairest delves a little deeper into that one.

The world that has been created is futuristic but at the same time traditional. It’s a completely different setting to the traditional fairytale but it works and the story was blended well. As someone who has never visited any part of Beijing or any Chinese province, it would have been nice to have had a little more from the world of New Beijing. There were hints here and there (Kai’s kimono, eating with chopsticks) but I feel like I could have been more immersed in the world of the commonwealth than we were given. Meyer had an opportunity to really appreciate that setting and culture and I think it was lost a little a bit.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this retelling of Cinderella but I appreciate with the advanced technology and change in time period, this will not be to everyone’s taste as it has a very sci-fi feel. However, I really enjoyed it and I’m excited to see what the rest of the series has in store.

Rating: 👠 👠 👠 👠 👠

 


Thanks for reading!
Rochelle 🦄 xxx

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