Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Release date: January 3, 2012
Pages: 390

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Cinder is a dystopian retelling of Cinderella with a heroine who is part cyborg.  It's set in New Beijing, a futuristic Beijing featuring crazy technology and cyborgs as lesser citizens.  The story does feature similarities to Cinderella but there is much more to the story than a romance with a handsome prince.  At the heart of the story is a race for control of Earth, being headed by Queen Levana of the Lunar race of the moon.  Surprisingly, Cinder plays a huge role in the coming battle and Cinder is just the beginning of a 4 book series centered on this war.

Cinder is a dystopian with hints of steampunk, fantasy, and science fiction.  The age range would probably be around 13 and up though there is not much content that would be unsuitable for younger teens.

My full review!

Themes:

• discrimination
• death
• friendship
• identity
• love
• family 
• war

Extra content:

Knite Writes' review: "It reads fairly young — much younger than I anticipated it would — and has basically no, even vaguely, mature content."

Nosegraze's review: "Marissa Meyer, you are now one of my favourite authors and the Cinder is right up there with my favourite books of all time!"

Marissa Meyer's website