Cinder (novel)

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. Letumosis, a fatal disease started by the Lunars and nicknamed the "Blue Fever," is raging throughout the world and the cure is unknown. 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 cruel adopted mother, Linh Adri along with her two stepsisters, Linh Pearl and Linh Peony, the latter of which treats her as a close friend. As a cyborg, Cinder is discriminated against and often looked down upon by others, despite building up a reputation as the best mechanic in New Beijing.

While at the marketplace, she meets the son of the Emperor, 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, Peony falls sick with letumosis after accompanying Cinder to a junkyard to collect spare parts for a repair. In anger (Cinder's adopted father had died of letumosis as well), Linh Adri "volunteers" Cinder, a cyborg, 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 at 17. There is pressure to create an alliance between the Earth countries and the Moon country, Luna, led by the tyrannical and manipulative 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 rightful Lunar heir, which was what his android was looking for before it broke. Earthens believed that somehow Princess Selene, the daughter of the late Lunar Queen Channary Blackburn, Levana's late sister, survived a nursery fire. To bribe Kai into going through with the marriage, Levana brings one vial of the letumosis antidote, which Cinder attempts to save Peony with, but is too late. After Peony's death, Cinder stores Peony's ID chip and takes it with her after discovering that the victims' chips are harvested after their deaths for an unknown reason. Because of this (and thinking that Cinder taunted Peony with the antidote instead of trying to save her), Linh Adri punishes Cinder by smashing Iko, Cinder's companion android, to pieces and selling the valuable pieces, leaving only Iko's personality chip, and banning her from going to the annual peace ball.

Dr. Erland reveals to Cinder that she is Lunar, resulting in her immunity to letumosis. However, Cinder displays no Lunar abilities, supposedly making her a shell, or a Lunar without any bioelectricity manipulation abilities. Dr. Erland also reveals that he is a Lunar fugitive who has been living on Earth. He had turned against Luna after his newborn shell daughter had been taken away as per the Lunar shell infanticide laws, as shells cannot control or be controlled by the Lunar abilities and are thus supposedly a threat to Lunars. Cinder fixes Kai's android, named Nainsi, and discovers that he has been researching Princess Selene, who is believed to have been killed by her aunt, Levana, when she was a child in order to eliminate her only threat to the throne. Cinder also discovers a Lunar direct communication 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 Lunar girl - revealed in the third novel to be Cress - who warns that Levana intends to marry Kai and kill him after she becomes empress.

The story culminates with an annual ball, which Cinder crashes but is then revealed and announced to be Kai's special guest. Kai is surprised to learn that Cinder is a cyborg, wondering why she didn't tell him earlier. Cinder warns Kai about Levana's ulterior motives and to call off any wedding plans, but Levana intervenes and points out that Cinder is a Lunar shell fugitive, and should be taken into her custody for trial. Levana attempts to brainwash Cinder into shooting herself but Cinder resists the attempt and fires a pistol at Levana. After a standoff, Kai has no choice but to arrest Cinder in the New Beijing Prison and agree to hand Cinder over to Levana to save the Earth from war. Later, in Cinder's prison cell, Dr. Erland visits and reveals that Cinder is actually the lost Princess Selene. Erland gives Cinder a new arm and leg made of titanium, and convinces her to escape on her own in order to join him in Africa.

• Linh Cinder, a 16-year-old cyborg mechanic. She is based on Cinderella.
• Iko, Cinder's android assistant. Iko sometimes forgets that she's not human due to her "malfunctioning" personality chip.
• Kaito, known commonly as Kai, the Crown Prince of Eastern Commonwealth. He is based on Prince Charming of Cinderella's history.
• Nainsi, Kai's android that was brought to Cinder at the beginning of the story.
• Rikan, Kai's father and emperor of New Beijing, who is dying of letumosis at the beginning of the novel.
• Linh Peony, Cinder's stepsister and friend; daughter of Linh Garan and Linh Adri. Early in the book, she contracts letumosis.
• Linh Pearl, daughter of Adri and Garan and older sister of Peony. She regularly degrades and picks on Cinder, her stepsister.
• Linh Adri, Cinder's cruel stepmother and guardian who believes that cyborgs are inhuman and mutants incapable of emotions. She regularly mistreats Cinder and blames her for all the hardships in her and her family's life.
• Chang Sacha, a baker in the marketplace who contracted letumosis at the beginning of the story and consequently had her booth burned down. She disliked Cinder intensely due to her being a cyborg.
• Chang Sunto, the son of Sacha
• Dr. Erland, the head of the letumosis research division at the palace. He discovers Cinder is a Lunar, and later reveals to her and he is secretly a Lunar fugitive. His given name is Dimitri.
• Levana, the queen of Luna. She has a powerful charming ability called glamour to force people to do her bidding and to also give the impression that she looks beautiful.
• Sybil Mira, Levana's head thaumaturge, loyal to Levana and willing to do her bidding. Sybil was originally stationed in New Beijing Palace before Emperor Rikan died of letumosis.
• Konn Torin, Royal advisor of Prince Kai

Critical reception to Cinder has been mostly positive,[4] with the Los Angeles Times calling the book "refreshing" and praising the character of Cinder.[5] Publishers Weekly also positively reviewed the book, saying that the characters "easy to get invested in".[6] Booklist called Cinder a "fresh spin on "Cinderella,"".[7] The Wall Street Journal wrote that the book was an "undemanding and surprisingly good-natured read".[8] Kidz World stated that Cinder was "an amazing story about love that comes in mysterious packages".[9]

Kirkus Reviews wrote that the telepathic-enslaver theme was "simplistic and incongruous-feeling" but said that Cinder "offers a high coolness factor".[10] 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".[11] 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."[12] Reflecting on the novel's blend of fairy tale and steampunk motifs, literary scholar Terri Doughty concludes that Meyer "rewrites the meme of female passivity as Cinder works through a process of identity formation. Compared to the novel’s female characters that use traditional markers of femininity to disguise their manipulations and cruelties, the cyborg mechanic Cinder emerges as a positive role model for girls."[13]

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. According to Meyer, "some scholars believe that a story called “Ye Xian,” which was first recorded in 9th-century China, is the original Cinderella tale and the direct ancestor to the stories we know from Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Additionally, some believe that the iconic lost slipper used to find the runaway girl came to us from China’s tradition of foot-binding and a culture in which women were praised for tiny feet."[14] 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.

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.[15] The third book, Cress, is based on Rapunzel.[16] 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.[17] The fifth one (officially book four) is called Winter and was released in November 2015.[18] 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.[19] Stars Above, a Lunar Chronicles collection was released in February 2016.[20] 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 8, 2016.[21]

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.[22]

• The Lunar Chronicles Website