Aesthetic Addict: 'Cinder' by Marissa Meyer

Another month means another Aesthetic Addict!
The theme for the month is retelling. 

My book is Cinder by Marissa Meyer!

CinderMarissa Meyer

Retelling, Sci-Fi

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. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here's my aesthetic post!

Time to explain my choice of pictures.

 This is a picture from the animated movie by Disney. The animated Cinderella. But it's a pretty important scene from the movie. So I decided to add it!

 In the book, Cinder is given a really nice pair of gloves from her prince. So...obviously important. 

I know that this foot is creepy. And super realistic. But Cinder is an android. So we need this. And as in Cinderella, Cinder has a foot that doesn't fit. An android foot. 

The book is set in futuristic China. So I chose a skyline of present day Shanghai. Which looks pretty fantastic, by the way.

And, last but not least, is a picture of the crystal/glass high heel shoe that Cinderella wears. But, even though, Cinder is an android and doesn't wear shoes like this, but it's important to the original myth. 







Check out the other Aesthetic Addict posts!

Jamie from Books and Ladders

Mariam from Flying Through Fiction

Charley from A Writer Named Charley

Sabrina from Beyond the Book Reviews

Nori from ReadWriteLove28

Have you read Cinder? Who's your favorite character? Who's your favorite couple?

Ask the Author Halloween Edition: Mackenzi Lee

Ask the Author

This time on Ask the Author...

I'll be interviewing Mackenzi Lee author of This Monstrous Thing.

Who is Mackenzi Lee?

Website / Facebook (Gasp! People still use Facebook?!?!) / Twitter / Pinterest

Mackenzi Lee is a reader, writer, bookseller, unapologetic fangirl, and fast talker. She holds an MFA from Simmons College in writing for children and young adults, and her short fiction for children and teens has appeared in Inaccurate Realities, The Friend, and The Newport Review. Her young adult historical fantasy novel, THIS MONSTROUS THING, which won the PEN-New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award, as well as an Emerging Artist Grant from the St. Botolph Club Foundation, is out now from Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.

She loves Diet Coke, sweater weather, and Star Wars. On a perfect day, she can be found enjoying all three. She currently calls Boston home.

Note: I do not own any of these pictures. The credit goes to the owners. 

What is so appealing about the story of Frankenstein?
Frankenstein is a story that has never stopped being relevant, in spite of the fact it was first written two hundred years ago, and I think this due to the fact that, at its core, it’s about what makes us human. There is the science aspect, obviously, which continues to become more relevant as we get closer to being capable of the things Mary Shelley was imagining, but I think everyone wonders at some point about the quality of their own humanity and, inversely, their own capacity for monstrousness. It’s pretty compelling stuff.

How did you get your idea for your retelling?
From a lot of places! It partly came from hearing Frankenstein misidentified as a steampunk novel, partly from a trip I took to Germany at Christmastime, and partly from my first exposure to Frankenstein via a stage production at the National Theater. It’s also a lot inspired by a lifetime of being the older half of a sibling pair. 

What's your favorite Halloween costume that you've worn?
I was pretty darn proud of my Buster Bluth costume last year. I even had a seal with a yellow bow tie. 

(I, truthfully, don't know who this is.)

What's your favorite Halloween costume you've seen?
At a Halloween party in college, a girl came as Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Ever since, I’ve wanted a wolf suit. 

(Being Max is one of many goals in life.)

What's your favorite memory of Halloween? (Trick-or-treating? Handing out candy? Pranking old neighbors?)
Growing up, my sister and I were really good friends with another family in our neighborhood who had a son my age and a daughter my sister’s age. We all were obsessed with Star Wars, so one year, the four of us and their middle brother all went as various members of the Jedi order. My little sister was so committed to her Yoda costume that she had my mom buy her green gloves and, since Yoda only has three fingers, sew the pinkie and ring finger and middle and pointer finger together so she would similarly only have three digits. She then walked around all night flashing the perpetual Spock sign. 

(Enjoy this picture of an adorable Yoda baby.)

What's your favorite horror story?
Frankenstein. Is that cheating? (Nope. Not cheating.)

What would you do if you saw Dracula outside your window?
Invite him in. I’d have a lot of questions. 

(Technically, you'd be inviting in Vlad the Impaler, but that's all semantics.)

In a zombie apocalypse, who would you choose for your survival team? (Fictional or real!)
Teddy Roosevelt. Captain Malcom Reynolds. Imperator Furiosa. Jacky Faber. 

(Look at Teddy. All dashing and mustache-y. And NATHAN FILLION. WOOHOO. And badass females FTW. And I have NO CLUE who Jackey Faber is!)

What's your favorite Halloween-themed drink? (Alcoholic or not.)
I don’t know if I have a specifically Halloween-themed favorite drink, so I’m gonna say Diet Coke drunk from a Halloween-themed glass. 

Would you rather stay a night in a haunted mansion or walk through an empty graveyard?
Empty graveyard. I’m the sort of creep who thinks graveyards are actually super cool and beautiful.

Thank you, Mackenzi Lee!

Eight Reasons to Love 'Spinning Starlight' by RC Lewis

Spinning Starlight

RC Lewis  

Goodreads / Amazon

Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it's hard to escape it. So when a group of men show up at her house uninvited, she assumes it's just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired.
Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi's vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: One word and her brothers are dead.
Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home-a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strength and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers' survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?
Haunting and mesmerizing, this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen'sThe Wild Swans strings the heart of the classic with a stunning, imaginative world as a star-crossed family fights for survival in this companion to Stitching Snow.

Note: I got this as an eARC from NetGalley. 

Eight is an important number in 'Spinning Starlight', so I decided to make this post about eight things to love about this book. (Not that I don't have things I disliked.)

1) The Retelling

I really liked the comparisons to the original fairy tale. I like the original 'The Wild Swans'. It definitely is a fairy tale about family.

The comparisons were pretty simple. Missing brothers. Lost voice. Etc etc etc. The fact that the fairy tale was adapted was pretty awesome in my book.

2) Liddi's personality

I truly loved Liddi's character. She was brave. She went into the unknown for her family. She was dedicated. She gave birth to some awesome ideas. (Non-fashion related, of course.) She was a great and admirable character. Definitely not the usual ditzy heiress. (Or even the rude one. Ehem Eadlyn ehem.)

3) Romance's slow build

I hate insta-love. Hate it. When this book introduced a slow-moving romance, I was thrilled. 'At last,' I thought, 'a slower romance!' (Not that I haven't read slower-moving romances before. I have. This was just nice.)

I may not have loved the romance, but I loved the slow build.

4) Tiav's love for Liddi without knowing who she is

He didn't care who she was before they met. He could barely communicate with her. He loved her anyways. I thought that was interesting. He saw past the Liddi Jantzen everyone else saw. He saw her. (Cheesy, I know. Spare me.)

Isn't that romantic?

5) Brotherly love

I'm an only child. I don't know how older brothers are supposed to act. If I had older brothers, though, I wish they were like Liddi's. These guys were cool. Smart and kind. Warm and loving. They are what I think older brothers are supposed to be. I loved it.

And I appreciate it when books have an emphasis on familial love. Family is forever, you know?

6) The memories

These memories really gave depth to Liddi's relationship with her brothers. (All of them.) They showed family. And love and care. The brothers' love of Liddi really showed.

It was a nice peak into why Liddi cared so much about rescuing her brothers. (Other than the fact that they are her brothers.) Without it, I might have wondered why. (Only child thinking.)

7) The world and tech

The streamers. The Khua. It was so cool. I loved it. The futuristic world was interesting. I loved the advancements in technology. I wanted to live in this world. (After the book, of course.)

8) Liddi's growth

Liddi really grew in this book. She was some paparazzi girl in the beginning. She went to fashion shows and wore expensive jewels. As time wore on, she discovered her potential. She discovered her genius. I really admired her transformation. It was truly amazing.

Rating:

4/5

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Fairytale Retellings I've Read/Want To Read

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This Week's Topic:

Ten Fairytale Retellings I've Read/Want to Read

I don't particularly adore fairytales anymore. I don't believe in the prince charging in to save the day. I can save my own person, thank you very much. I do read their retellings, though. Some are really amazing. They can be dark or humorous. The authors work their magic and change things to make the fairytale their own. 

All the books on this Top Ten are ones I've finished. 

Cinderella: Cinder, Throne of Glass, Shadows on the Moon, Ash
Red Riding Hood: Scarlet
Beauty and the Beast: Cruel Beauty, Of Beast and Beauty, Stung
Rapunzel: Cress
Alice in Wonderland: The Looking Glass Wars