Cinder (2020)
Cinder is a 2020 young adult fiction book written by Marissa Meyer.
New Beijing is a crowded, restless city where humans and androids share the streets and a deadly plague keeps spreading. Cinder is a gifted mechanic and a cyborg, treated as a second-class citizen and blamed by her stepmother for the family's troubles. She keeps her head down until a repair job brings her into the orbit of Prince Kai. Far above them all, the Lunar queen watches Earth and waits for her moment. Meyer rebuilds Cinderella as science fiction, keeping the shape of the old fairy tale while a much larger threat closes in.
Quick answers
What is Cinder about?
New Beijing is a crowded, restless city where humans and androids share the streets and a deadly plague keeps spreading. Cinder is a gifted mechanic and a cyborg, treated as a second-class citizen and blamed by her stepmother for the family's troubles. She keeps her head down until a repair job brings her into the orbit of Prince Kai. Far above them all, the Lunar queen watches Earth and waits for her moment. Meyer rebuilds Cinderella as science fiction, keeping the shape of the old fairy tale while a much larger threat closes in.
When was Cinder published?
Cinder was published on 4 February 2020.
Who made Cinder?
Cinder was written by Marissa Meyer.
Similar books
Cinder in our writing
- Companion guide: YA Fantasy & Science Fiction: The Complete Guide
- Companion guide: YA Science Fiction: Starships, Cyborgs and the Kids Who Outthink the Adults
A few thoughts on Cinder
Meyer's blend of fairy tale and space opera pairs naturally with Star Wars, which runs the same romance and rebellion under an empire watching from above. For another retold story with a mechanical heart, the film Big Hero 6 shares the warmth and the tinkering.
Ordinary, overlooked girls who turn out to matter more than the royals around them
New Beijing treats Cinder as a lowly mechanic worth less than a full citizen, right up until it turns out she's the one thing the whole Lunar court has been hunting. These stories share that same reversal: a girl written off by everyone around her who turns out to matter more than the crown itself.
Robots, androids, and humans sharing an uneasy city
Cinder is a cyborg in a city where androids and humans share every street and neither side fully trusts the other. These stories build the same uneasy world: artificial or engineered people living alongside everyone else, doing labor nobody thanks them for, until the line between citizen and machine stops holding up.
Secret royalty, forbidden romance, and a queen watching from a distance
Levana watches Earth from above and waits for her moment while Cinder falls for a prince who has no idea what she really is. These stories share that same shape: a romance that crosses a dangerous class line, and a queen or king somewhere nearby who is patient enough to be genuinely frightening.