Cinder Series by Marissa Meyer | A Wholesome Book Review

The books are Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter. I believe there is a novella between Cress and Winter called The Fairest but it was about the villain so I didn’t have any encouragement to read it. Each book, as you can tell, is based on a specific female protagonist even though some of the girls aren’t actually a princess.

Summary

The precipice is set in the future, over 100 years from now. There is a disease, letumosis, that is ravaging Earth. There is a fight for a cure and humans are too afraid to volunteer themselves so they have a cyborg draft. Cyborg means any percent of your body that contains non-human parts. It could be as little as a finger. The draft is completely voluntary but cyborgs are encouraged and recompensed for volunteering their time.

Cinder is the story of Cinderella but with a twist. She is considered a cyborg; most of her body is not actually human, which is important. An event happens that is the catalyst for her adventure figuring out why she’s so special among all the cyborgs.

Scarlet is the story of Little Red Riding Hood but as a strong female heroine. She is secure in her sense of self and the reader learns early on that she doesn’t need anyone’s help. She meets a man named Wolf who tries to help Scarlet in her journey to find her missing grandmother.

Cress is the story of Crescent. She is a tech genius and ha been held up in a satellite since she was ten years old. Cinder and her team (which she will gather along the way) try to free her from her prison, but things don’t go as expected. Most of this story is the two pieces of the team finding their way to one another.

Finally, Winter is all about Snow White. She is the Princess of Luna, under the watchful eye of Queen Levana (Evil Queen). Winter has a bodyguard, Jacin, that just so happens to be a childhood friend. He will protect her at all costs. It sets up the series’ protagonist, Cinder, and her team to finally defeat Queen Levana.

Opinion

I’m going to be completely honest, this series is meant for kids in the range of 12 to 15 year olds. However, I’m 22 years old and can still advocate this is an amazing series. You can tell the author found her confidence as the books progressed because her writing improved as she told the overall story.

It was pretty freaky reading about a disease that was infecting all of Earth considering our current circumstances.

The author did a tremendous job depicting each heroine but modernizing them. She made them relatable to girls and young women. There were moments that I even thought “dang, that was impressive.”

This series overall has a PG-13 rating so do with that what you will. Good books are good books, despite what age range they are written for. The Cinder series is probably best read as an audiobook. You can listen while you cook or clean. I think it’s also a great way to ease younger kids into more “mature” (I say that lightly) content.

What books have you been reading?

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