Episode: New Beijing

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

This is a retelling from a Ragdoll: (SPOILER ALERT)

I’m in an anime place but live action.  The business office side, there are  awesomely high tech glassy skyscrapers and on the residential side, dilapidated apartment buildings and a whole lot of people.  I can also glimpse on some pagodas.  Again, a whole lot of people.  In fear of getting my ragdoll-self run over, stomped on, I went to hide on a shop in this weekend market.  Then I saw this girl removing her foot. Yes, her foot. No blood though.  Of course, she’s a cyborg!  Next thing I know, a guy walks in carrying an android.    This totally hot Asian guy’s looking for Linh Cinder who turns out to be the this girl I saw decapitating herself who call’s Mr hot Asian guy Your Magesty! Cinder and a prince? Totally Cinderella!

Cinder and Prince Kai live in New Beijing.  Cinder is the best mechanic and Prince Kai is the heir to the throne. 

After Prince Kai leaves, there were sirens and hovers came.  As I found out while walking around, the world is currently plagued by this blue fever  and it still does not have a cure.  Cinder and her android friend Iko with Prince Kai’s broken android slips out the marketplace.  Of course I follow them.  I can’t be left there.  Once an infected person is found, they test everyone’s blood if they are also infected. Preventive measure, I get it but I don’t have blood. Cotton, I have a lot.

That’s where I saw the wicked stepmom and the stepsisters, Pearl and Peony.  Peony is nice jolly girl, same age as Cinder.  Thank God one of them is nice. I’m done with the one fat, one stick thin and the one bitch and one dumb tandem. I am honestly still traumatized by the tragic sister’s from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.  So the one bitch and one sweet stepsister is a breath of fresh air.  Cinder different from the other cinderella’s I’ve encountered.  She doesn’t really do typical housework. Iko does them.  Being a cyborg and since wicked stepmom does not want to use her money to maintain Cinder, she’s not allowed to get wet.  She might rust.    Instead, she fixes stuff at the house and works as a mechanic to bring in money for Her Wickedness.  Plus, she has more spunk.  But same as the other cinderella’s, she’s not allowed to attend the ball.  Not allowed to dance with the prince that every girl is drooling about.  Well, at least she has Peony and Iko.

But that did not last long. Peony got infected during their trip to the Junkyard. They were looking for a belt to fix the family hover for the ball.  They also found a car among the junk, Cinder’s get away car.  She’s planning to leave New Beijing during the ball.  I heard Iko saying that gas is pretty expensive and as I figured no body uses cars anymore.  That’s when Cinder saw a spot on Peony’s skin.  She’s infected and was taken by the Med-drones.  Cinder was not infected. She did not catch the infection from the market place and infected Peony but she was still blamed.  Ardi volunteered Cinder to be a test subject.  In trying to find a cure for the plague, the government uses cyborgs as test subjects.  They have a list of cyborgs and if you end up on that list, your family would be compensated and the cyborg dies.  In the lab she meet’s Dr Erland. She was a perfect test subject, young, with enough percentage of human left in her.  And like a miracle, the virus does not affect her.  They injected her with the virus and it disappeared.  While she was there, the prince came and he was obviously into her. Obviously!  As much as she was into him.   But then, something weird happened.  The doctor lied.  He didn’t tell the prince why Cinder was there and didn’t tell him what he found on Cinder’s test results.  I wanted to punch him in the leg. He’s a bad man! I was so sure he was planning something devious. Thank god I was wrong and I’m preempting.

The next events were a total chaos.  The King dies.  He’s infected and have been struggling with the illness.  Queen Leevana is coming to New Beijing.  Peony is on stage 4 and dying. I know I failed to mention the queen.  Queen Leevana is the queen of the moon, literally.  They are people who has characteristics superior to humans and their military force is a lot stronger than all 6 military forces of the world combined and they live on the moon.  She and the Earthen Commision led by the emperor of New Beijing (now Prince Kai) are attempting to make a peace pact.  Earth want’s peace, the Moon Queen want’s prince Kai, Emperor Kai to be her husband.

As the queen arrives, she glamors everyone to think she’s beautiful and she tries to control Prince Kai’s mind into thinking he’s in love with her.  Good thing our Prince isn’t only hot, he’s smart to and was able to resist.  She also has a vial of plague cure and hand’s it to the prince.  A day after the king dies, she hands a cure! She wanted the old Emperor dead coz he wouldn’t cave in to her demands.  Prince kai gives the vial to the doctor to see if it’s legit and if it can be replicated.  The doctor in turn gives a part of it to Cinder as a part of their agreement.  Cinder agreed to continue with the tests but Peony has to be the first to get the cure once available.  Oh and money deposited to Cinder’s account.  But the cure is too late, Peony was dead.  So she just gave the cure to another kid.

One thing I don’t get though is Prince Kai’s ability to push aside bigger issues like his dad’s death and Queen Leevana’s motive for being there, whenever he sees Cinder.  I felt that there was no trace of sadness, frustration. He was just focused on asking her to the ball.  Too focused. What the hell is wrong with you? I get it, he likes her, a lot and her being with him at the ball would give him less time with Queen Leevana or his fangirls.  But It’s too flirty, like everything not Cinder dissolves.  Then I remember, it’s YA love.  I love it!   But I still wanted to kick him so he’d come back to his sense…or maybe kiss him. LOL!

Then comes the ball. I always love this part. Cinder said she wouldn’t go but she now has to.  She found out what Queen Leevana’s plan and she needs to warn the prince. Wearing Peony’s gown and riding the car she fixed, Cinder goes to the ball.  She would have looked ok, I guess, if it didn’t suddenly rain.  The drenched Cinder walks in, the prince, now officially emperor, dances with him.  The final dance. Final coz after that the Kai will make his announcement, marry the queen to save his people or start a war. Cinder warned him but he has already decided. He has decided not to marry the Queen. The furious Queen sees Cinder and announces that she is Lunar, moon people. And it is people like her, a Shell,  that has brought the virus to earth.  But she’s not a shell!!!  She’s the princess the prince has been looking for! But she didn’t’ say it.  it’s suddenly like when the clock struck 12, chaos. Words, gun shots, Cinder fleeing, Cinder falling leaving her foot.

Cinder got caught and will be brought back to the moon and for sure will be executed. Good thing the doctor told her to escape and she does…I just hope Kai still believes in her.

I love Cinder. It’s fast paced. It made me dizzy sometimes. It did not have the action scenes that I love but it didn’t matter.  All the conflict and twists made it so interesting.  I also loved that the world wasn’t totally made out. I mean, most stories would describe the world in detail and here Melissa Marr didn’t.  I think it’s coz much detailing is not needed as compared to novels like Partials, Maze runner and Divergent.   It gave me more space to make up my own.  And yes I imagined it like I was watching anime.  For some reason KARAS and Resident Evil kept popping in my head.  I didn’t get sucked in enough to feel like I was Cinder but it was more like watching my favorite series or anime of playing a new game. I’d feel dizzy sometimes coz without realizing it, I’ve been holding my breath.  And the never ending what’s next what’s next what’s next…

See you all in Scarlet!