I have read my unfair share of young-adult novels of any genre. The variations in quality are often astounding but always unpredictable, a problem that has recently kept me from branching out. What can I say, sometimes you have to judge the book by its cover!
Some of my policies when shopping in the young adult section at Barnes and Nobles are refusing to buy any books featuring a photograph of a real person on the cover, movie covers (except I might crack on “Dune”), people making out on the cover, Wattpad books, anything mentioning cosplay competitions, Reese’s Young Adult Book Club, witches, hauntings, wolves, horses– you get the picture. It’s tough because books in that section also tend to have extremely formulaic titles that match equally formulaic synopses on the backs of their books.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, I never read fairy tale retellings. It’s a rule! People get too smug on not building a plot and it gets frustrating when the only thing they might have changed is that they live in California. Hillary Duff already did that, move on!
And yet ever since the beginning of high school, one of my best friends and I always talk about books we love, books we buy, books we hated: naturally, we took charge of the Book Club. For the sci-fi month, I chose a classic, but not my friend. She chose a book she’d been trying to get me to read for 3 years despite my pre-agreed-to rules. She chose “Cinder.”
I cracked. What can I say, it was for Book Club?!
I ate every page up. The majority of what I read these days is sci-fi of some kind, and this series is full of top-tier young adult tropes with a healthy mix of sci-fi to keep me going. I tore through the entire series!
There’s so much more to these books than meets the eye, though the new covers are pretty. There’s literally something for everyone when it comes to sci-fi fans.
There is space politics, forced diplomacy, futuristic governments, cyborgs, plague, romance, friendship, adventure, growth, a reluctant heroine– what else do you need? Despite my rule, the entire series being an amalgam of four intertwined classic fairy tales genuinely makes the series a million times more fun to read. Whenever the classic tale makes its way into whatever is happening, I always feel like Marissa Meyer tricked me because I completely forgot that the plot is based on old fairy tales!
The characters are wonderfully written and endearing. I miss them already! Each novel is spearheaded by a young woman determined to do what is right with a slew of likable love interests to keep them human and a band of friends to continue a revolution that culminates steadily throughout the series.
The plot and delivery of these books are so wonderful and well-paced that despite them being on the longer side, I began to plan days where I’d just sit and read the latest book in my room for hours so I could finish it and order the next one. Uncharacteristic of sci-fi, however, is the fact that I guarantee you will not be confused with what is happening. Oftentimes, authors like to throw you in Hondo-style but then never explain what titles or wars or governments mean to the plot of the story. Thankfully, Meyer doesn’t leave you alone to decipher what is happening because she writes with an inviting narration that suits any reader’s interest, sci-fi fan or not. This open style of writing is still not corny or patronizing, often another hallmark of young adult books, but rather addicting and a slippery slope when you only have 200 more pages left at 1:00 am. That’s not that late, is it?
I love when my perspective on a book is shattered by how fun it is to read, and this time, there were four! Being proven wrong was one of the luckiest things that happened to me this year because I got to have an excellent time losing myself in the world of the Eastern Commonwealth vs. the Lunar Monarchy. I read “Cinder” after I read “Dune,” and you know what? Give this series some movies! I’d buy a movie cover just to prove myself wrong yet again.
I guarantee that you will love these characters as much as I do (though not Carswell Thorne, but you’ll have to get to the second and third books where Harry Styles’ “Satellite” will make you sob disgustingly), and it’s one of the best feelings in the world to feel like you’ve transported through time and space when you’ve only closed the book you’ve just finished. Do me a favor and be open-minded when it comes to reading because I wasn’t and I missed out on a fantastic and unique series for way too long.
Check them out and I hope you enjoy them!
P.S. To my friend, you were right >:)