Actual Rating: 3.5 
 So, er, you know that one book that people either hate and vomit words so they can get out their hate loudly and clearly or love and won't stop talking about, or the people that missed the bus and cried because now their ticket was wasted? (Not that I mean offense to any of these crowds... I really don't, I swear. I'm actually the third.) Yeah, um, Cinder is probably that book. 
 But I defy rules, so I'm right in the squat middle. 
 Maybe I was overhyped for this book, but I expected this book to be perfectly amazing and get everything right. Well, I guess nobody's perfect, not even books :/ But clearly it had to be good. It's a Rebecca Caudill book, and it's been getting severe hype for ages, for god's sake -- if it was bad, why would so many people be suggesting and recommending it to everybody, and why would it be on an awards list? 
 I'm feeling rather meh about Cinder. I rated it 4 stars at first, but now thinking about it, I dragged the rating down to 3 stars. It's creative, fresh, and original, but I felt that the book was lacking in what most YA books are lacking in: a sufficient amount of world-building and background knowledge, and, if you'll count it in the same category, chemistry between a couple. 
 I haven't found a book that executes the world-building (and background knowledge) perfectly in a long time. Either there's too much and every single paragraph takes up at least a third of the page in vivid explanation of the scenery and how the world came to be that way, and it isn't spread throughout, or either there's too little because the characters are too caught up being like "omg i think he loves me wth what should i do?????" 
 Also, I didn't really feel like the chemistry between Cinder and Prince Kai was that believable. Like, the third time they meet Cinder's already in a bit of a state. Then it's like the sixth time they meet, and the time they spent together probably totals up to an hour at the most at this point in time, and already Kai decides to dance with her (spoilers? It's a Cinderella retelling, what do you expect?)! Hell, I think the background knowledge we learn in freakin' Guilty or I Am Not A Robot (both 3-minute songs!) was close enough to resemble the amount of background knowledge in Cinder. Maybe even more. IDK. 
 And when we met certain characters, Cinder never really explained who they were and what relationship she had with them. I had to figure out everything by myself. I didn't even know Iko was an android until a couple chapters after her appearance, and I didn't even know about Adri until Cinder started complaining about her. I guess it's Marissa Meyer's "fun way" of explaining what the characters are and their relationship with Cinder, but I don't like being left in the dark. I like knowing, straightaway. 
 I never really knew what happened to the world too. I guess there were two more World Wars which left only a couple of the biggest countries alive? That's my guess, at least. It was probably Japan and Germany who started both of them, honestly. 
 Cinder doesn't seem to think very much or have her personal reaction to certain things, either. I mean, sure, she may react physically and everything, but she doesn't seem to have thoughts or react to it much in her mind. Maybe she's actually incapable of doing that? How should I know? Nobody ever tells us about how the cyborgs work there. 
 I never felt myself growing attached to any of the characters, either...I don't know why, but they never stuck on. Kai's pathetic attempts at humor did nothing to make me laugh, only sigh in exasperation at these fails, and his frequent sudden shifts from trying to be funny to acting dead serious makes me suspect he's bipolar. I like the little cameo of Cress, and that's cool and all...but I've heard she's apparently badass, and in her first appearance she's sobbing all over. Great. 
 And all the other characters are either antagonists or just minor. I liked Iko, though, I guess. She was fine. 
 Maybe I'm venting too much, but I actually liked this book more than you may think. The plot was amazing. Others may complain that the plot was pretty dull because it's a retelling, but it put such an awesome twist on the classic Cinderella story. The plot was A+++++, if that makes up for all of my negative comments. 
 I guess I'll check out Scarlet, but just for that ending and the hope that Scarlet might somehow be a better protagonist than Cinder and that the side characters may be better than the ones in Cinder. 
 (Sorry, Cinder fans, I just haven't written a review that was able to vent on all of the issues of the book in a pretty long time, and I guess this was the first time that I could write a negative review since I read Three Times Lucky all the way back in late July. My condolences. Hey, if you want me to vent about Scarlet less, recommend me bad books so I can take out all of my anger on them!)