Book Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder

Author: Marissa Meyer

Series: The Lunar Chronicles

Format: Paperback

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads

Blurb: 

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.

Plot: ★★★

Going into this book, I first thought it was mainly going to follow the plot and premise of the classic Disney story, Cinderella. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was not the case. Cinder deals with so much more than just romance, and the struggles of a girl subdued by her stepmother. It deals with illness, death, intergalactic politics, racism, and so on. With that being said, there were some negative sides to the plot as well. A lot of the times, I found myself being able to predict what was coming next, easily guessing all the 'big' plot twists. This was what made the experience worse for me, and hence, the three stars. 

Characters: ★★.5
The protagonist of this book's called Cinder Linh, and she's your typical young adult, rebellious, better-at-something-than-everyone teenage girl. Her type of character is fairly typical for young adult novels, the portrayal isn't something that's new. Compared to her Disney counterpart, she's much more opinionated, stronger, braver. This is a good thing. She reacts appropriately to all the obstacles she's faced with (emotionally appropriate, that is, not intellectually.), and her frustrations and emotions are portrayed very realistically. For the majority of the book, she's accompanied by the household android with a defect personality chip, Iko. The two of them make for the most fleshed-out characters in the book, along with Prince Kai later on. The rest of the characters play a vital role in the story, but mostly stay on the background for the majority of the story. 

Writing: ★★★

The writing of this book's very straightforward. It's engaging enough to keep you hooked, chapter after chapter, but not difficult to comprehend at all. It's very easy to read, and keeps you coming back for more. Simplicity is key here, and it really does wonders for the book.

Ending: ★★★
Cinder ended on a cliffhanger, which is easily comprehendible due to there being multiple entries in the series. It definitely made me want to continue reading, and I'll be picking up the next installment in the series as soon as possible to find out what happens next. 

Reread-ability: Yes.

Final rating: ★★★
Overall, this book was a good read. Maybe I'm negatively biased toward it and scored it so poorly because of it being a young adult novel, but I tried my best to be a fair critic. I initially picked the book up because of the 'Cinderella' theme, and am happy I did. It was a very enjoyable read, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. 

Book Review: Royal Assassin

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

Title: Royal Assassin

Author: Robin Hobb

Series: Farseer Trilogy

Format: Paperback

Genre: Fantasy

Goodreads

Blurb: 

FitzChivalry has survived his first treacherous foray as an assassin, but barely. The poison used by the ambitious Prince Regal has left Fitz weak and prone to unpredictable seizures. Fitz vows to never return to Buckkeep and his king. A vision of the young woman he loves fending off an attack by the merciless Red-ship Raiders convinces Fitz otherwise, and he rouses himself to go back to the royal court of the Six Duchies.

Plot: ★★★★

Like I've mentioned previously in my review of the first installment of this series, I really enjoy the plot and setting of the series. The second book deals a lot more with treachery within the royal family of Buckkeep, has more hints toward some kind of 'beast magic', which made it ultimately more interesting than the first book. It dishes out a lot more details on lore and myths spread around the Six Duchies, which as a reader is always nice to have.

Characters: ★★★★

In the sequel some characters come into the foreground more than they did in the first. One of those characters, and by far one of my favourites in this second book, is Queen-In-Waiting Kettricken. Something about her just stuck to me. Her bravery, the way she's willing to risk her own life for the people of Buckkeep at certain points in the story. She's a very likable character. Patience and Lacey have a more prominent role in the sequel as well, which I adored seeing as Patience was one of my favourites in the first book. The characters, as before, are superbly written.

Writing: ★★★.5

I'm usually not a big fan of books written in the first person, never have been. With that said, Robin Hobb completely won me over with her writing style and her way of describing certain things. Definitely one of the best first-person perspective books I've read-- ever. 

Ending: ★★★★
This book's end doesn't disappoint. It sets up an array of possibilities for the sequel-- and the last installment in the series-- with a highly climactic ending. It definitely instills the desire to continue reading, to find out more about what's going to happen to Fitz.

Rereadability: Yes.

Final rating: ★★★★

Maybe I'm being too generous with my ratings here, but I really enjoyed reading this book. It took me a while to finish it due to college taking over most of my free time, but I'm glad I finally got around to finishing it. Definitely recommended to anyone that's into the fantasy genre.

Book Review: Assassin's Apprentice

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Title: Assassin's Apprentice

Author: Robin Hobb

Series: Farseer Trilogy

Format: Paperback

Genre: Fantasy

Goodreads

Blurb: 

Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

Plot: ★★★.5

I adored the plot to this book. It has a very Game Of Thrones-y feel to it (which I admit, I haven't been able to finish reading the first book of because my memory's not too good and the amount of characters in the GOT books overwhelms me too much). The story's set in a 'Middle Ages' sort of setting, which I'm a complete sucker for. Add that to a multitude of well fleshed out characters, family politics between several royal families, a dash of magic, and I'm completely sold. I enjoyed reading this book from start to finish, though there were some parts that took me longer to get through because nothing particularly 'interesting' happened, they still weren't a burden to read. 

Characters: ★★★★

The characters were by far my favourite part of this book. It's written in first-person, from Fitz's perspective, so he's the one we get to know the best out of the entire cast, but that doesn't mean the rest gets neglected. All of the (main) characters drew several emotions out of me at different points. I went from loving a character, to hating them, to loving them again in the end. The 'evil' characters are evil, but are given a reasoning behind why they are, which I find a really important point that contributes a lot towards character development. The characters were definitely given thought, and that's what I think makes a book great.

Writing: ★★★.5

I'm usually not a big fan of books written in the first person, never have been. With that said, Robin Hobb completely won me over with her writing style and her way of describing certain things. Definitely one of the best first-person perspective books I've read-- ever. 

Ending: /

Rereadability: Yes.

Final rating: ★★★★

The previous points probably already gave it away, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and immediately picked up the sequel as soon as I could. Looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy, and to reading more of Robin Hobb's work.

New Year's Resolution Tag - 2015 Edition!

Another year, another pile of books added to my TBR pile. I'm starting this year off with a simple New Year's resolution tag to give myself an idea of what I'm going to read the coming year (this is clearly subject to change, and knowing myself, it probably will.)

Onto the questions!

An author you'd like to read (that you've never read before).

One of the authors I've been hearing a lot of good things about is definitely George Orwell, so I didn't hesitate to buy two of his novels over the course of the past few weeks, those being 'Animal Farm', and '1984'. I'm currently already reading 'Animal Farm', seeing as it's part of my January TBR, so so far we're still on schedule!

A book you'd like to read.

A book I've been meaning to read (and have put off reading for way too long), is 'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenides. Coincidentally, it's also the book we're reading for our book club this month, two birds one stone, eh?

A classic you'd like to read.

'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf is one of those books I attempted reading in 2014 but couldn't get into very much. Needless to say, I wasn't able to finish this book last year, so I'm hoping 2015 will bring change to that. Second try's the charm... err... We'll see.

A book you'd like to re-read

'The Shock of the Fall' is definitely a book that captivated me when I first read it in 2014. My friend Whitney is planning on reading it this year as well, so I thought: why not join her and re-read it? It's certainly a one-of-a-kind, spectacular book that I'd highly recommend to everyone. 

 A book you've had for ages and want to read.

If you know me, you probably already know I'm a sucker for a good horror story. Especially anything Lovecraftian. While not one of the easiest authors to read, I always enjoy flipping this book open and reading through one of his many short-stories. World-building and creating an eerie atmosphere are just a few things Lovecraft does best, and I absolutely adore him for it. I've had this book for quite a while and have read some of the stories, but have yet to finish it.

A big book you'd like to read.

Another horror novel? Noticing a pattern? This isn't the biggest book I have on my shelves right now, but it's definitely the one I look forward to reading the most. Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining, which I absolutely adored. I can't wait to see how the main character has progressed through the years, and which similarities he's retained from his younger self.

An author you've previously read and want to read more of.

'Never Let Me Go' is another book by Ishiguro that I did manage to finish in 2014, and because I enjoyed it so much, I picked up 'The Remains of the Day' as well. There's really nothing much to say about this question, I just really enjoyed reading Ishiguro's book, and look forward to reading more of his work. 

A book you got for Christmas and would like to read.

Let's all just take a moment to enjoy the beauty that's the cover of this book. ... Okay, ready? Alice in Wonderland has always been one of my favourite fairy tales, and technically I've already read this book when I was little, but I barely remember anything from it-- hence, me re-reading it this year! 

A series you want to read (start and finish)

Everyone's probably in shock right now-- yes, I've never read any of Tolkien's books, but I'm looking to bring some change to that! Obviously I'd be reading The Hobbit first, but you get the point. Lord of the Rings, here I come!

A series that you want to finish (that you've already started)

I've recently started re-reading 'The Philosopher's Stone' and thought-- why the hell not read all of Harry Potter again? I currently only own the first and the last book, but I'll probably be buying the rest over the span of 2015. It's going to be a magical year.

Do you set reading goals? If so, how many books do you want to read in 2015?

The only reading challenge I'll be doing this year is the Goodreads challenge. I set my goal to fifty books for 2015, and hopefully I'll be able to stick to it. Four books a month shouldn't be too hard to do, right? Other than that, I haven't set any reading goals yet-- besides the books we'll be reading for our book club, of course. 

Thank you for taking the time to read through my first blog post, hopefully there aren't too many grammatical errors and typos that I didn't catch-- sometimes I type too fast for my own good. I wish you all a great 2015, and good luck reaching the goals you set! Happy reading!

xoxo André