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[1.] Q: How is Cinder a reference to the fairy tale CInderella? What lines up with the two stories throughout the book?
M/A: Cinder aka Princess Selene would be Cinderella. It's clear that the stepsisters and stepmother exist in both stories. The ball is the same, both where the Prince announces his marriage. Cinder(ella) if forced to complete chores before attending the ball. I think Dr. Erland is like a fairy godmother to Cinder.

[2.] Q: Both being a Cyborg and Lunar are looked down upon heavily in this community. Does this same scenario exist in real life? What if someone is of both groups?
M/A: To me, being a Cyborg seems like being Neurodivergent, or having some sort of physical disability. It's not something one has the ability to pick, and people are bullied for it. Being Lunar can be compared with being a race or ethnicity that is discriminated against. This could also mean from a country where many flee from just for their safety. Being one or more of these things results in being picked on and laughed at.

[3.] Q: Kai seemed to have a liking for CInder, he also made many moves and asked Cinder to the ball or to have lunch with him quite a few times. Cinder felt the same way, but still would not reveal why she denied his requests. Does being Cyborg justify her saying no?
M/A: I believe Kai, though surprised and upset about the lie, would have respected Cinder the same. Not everyone in the Commonwealth would have despised Cyborgs as much as Pearl, Adri, and Sacha. Peony had been one of those who supported Cinder, but despite that, there was so much stigma around having Cyborg parts that it's understandable that Cinder would keep her secret from the prince if it meant maintaining a "friendship" with him.

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Book quote:
"The doctor's face brightened, eyes shining like lanterns between the wrinkles."

Cinder had finally agreed to being a "volunteer" for Doctor Erland, and he seems pleased at the result. The simile shows how his eyes display his emotion, "shining like lanterns" being positive.

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Book quote:
"He'd expected her to come the entire time. He'd even reserved a special spot for her as his personal guest. She could only imagine how he was regretting that decision now.
Beside him, Pearl's [stepsister] face had begun to burn beneath the glowing chandeliers. Cinder looked at her stepsister, at Adri, [stepmother] took in their speechless mortification, and reminded herself to breathe."

Cinderella. https://www.shortkidstories.com/story/cinderella-2/ It may be slightly obvious with a glass slipper as one of the book's cover options and two step-sisters with a step-mother, but it's still a connection. Garan, the adoptive father, had died, leaving Cinder to live with the two sisters and the mother. This time, one of the sisters did like Cinder, but the other two family members treated Cinder harshly and used her to earn them money and do the "chores." Here, in this quote, Cinder shows up to the ball, infuriating her step-mother and step-sister. The prince would still rather dance with her, though.

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Book quote:
" 'Fugitives of the law'
'There aren't any Lunars on Earth'
'Oh yes. To Queen Levana's endless dismay, not all Lunars are so easily brainwashed into mindless contentment, and many have risked their lives to escape Luna and relocate here. It's difficult to leave the moon, and I'm sure many more die attempting it than succeed, especially as more restrictions are put on Lunar ports, but I'm sure it still happens.'
'You make it sound like they're escaping from a prison'
'Yes. That seems exactly right' "

Refugees. https://www.unhcr.org/desperatejourneys/ Lunars face similar situations to refugees, if not the same. They're forced/try to flee, and some succeed but many die while attempting to find freedom. There is security for them to go through and many people opposed to them living on the new land. The lunars have to hide their identity and pretend to be an earthing, like how some Refugees may have to conceal the fact that they're not citizens.

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Book quote:
" 'Lunars are the original carrier hosts for letumosis. Their migration to the rural areas of Earth, mostly during the reign of Queen Channary, brought the disease into contact with humans for the first time. Historically, it's a common situation. The rats the brought the bubonic plague to Europe, the conquistadors who brought smallpox to the Native Americans.' "

Smallpox from foreigners. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-smallpox-devastated-the-aztecs-and-helped-spain-conquer-an-american-civilization-500-years-ago
Just like previously in history, foreigners carried sickness with them that the people already settled there were not built to fight. The connection is even made by Dr. Erland in the book.

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" She was lying on a burning pyre, hot coals beneath her back. Flames. Smoke. Blisters burbling across her skin. Her leg and hand were gone, leaving stumps where the surgeons had attached her prostheses. Dead wires dangles from them. She tried to crawl but she was as useless as an upended turtle. She reached out with her one hand, trying to drag her body from the fire, but the bed of coals stretched off into the horizon.." "..if she fought hard enough they would knock her out again. She wasn't sure if that would be better or worse, but the memory of the pit of burning embers halted her struggling."

The flashback is meaningful to Cinder as Princess Selene, though she may not know it was her yet. The flashback contains her missing flesh, which, to her signifies how scientists and surgeons got to alter her body with metal. More to it though, is that Princess Selene was in a nursery fire when she was three. That's where the flames, smoke, and burning come in. It's also mentioned that the child's flesh was found in the ruins and ashes. Cinder uses this to convince herself that the child is dead, but that missing flesh is the reason Cinder has needed metal parts.

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:: Groups may be hated unjustly, even when there is no real reason.
[Cyborgs.]

:: And just because prime examples + the standard of a population is stereotyped one way, does not mean everyone should be judged that way.
[Dr. Erland + Cinder]

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Letumosis Outbreak.

Another outbreak of the plague, Letumosis, occurs in the Commonwealth. It's first seen by Cinder in Change Sacha, then in her step-sister Peony, her only family who cares for her. Eventually the PLague claims the life of Emperor Rikan. His son, Prince Kai's coronation must be planned.

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The Lunar Queen's Arrival.

The Lunar Queen comes to earth with her plan to marry into the royal family and form an "alliance." She hopes to get rid of prince Kai once marrying him and gaining control of the Earth. It appears easy for Queen Levana to do so as she can manipulate energy and make people see, feel, and do as she wants them to. This lunar gift though, won't work on mirrors, comeras, androids, or shells. (Shells are Lunars without the gift of manipulation.)

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Cinder's Identity is tested.

During all of this. Cinder had been meeting with Dr. Erland, who has been testing her to find a cure to Letumosis. It was through a cyborg draft that he got ahold of Cinder, who, upon further testing, was shown to be immune to the disease. But this was only a result of Cinder unknowingly being a lunar refugee. Later, Dr. Erland confirms CInder's ancestry and reveals that Cinder is the long lost Princess Selene that Queen Levana had hoped dead. Cinder's full identity is now known only by her and Doctor Erland. In fact, before his discovery, no one had known. People, even people who know of Cinder, are still searching for Princess Selene.

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'
"They say you're the best mechanic in New Beijing. I was expecting an old man"
"Do they?" She murmured
He wasn't the first to voice surprise, most of her customers couldn't fathom how a teenage girl could be the best mechanic in the city, and she never broadcast the reason for her talent. The fewer people who knew she was cyborg, the better. She was sure she'd go mad if all the shopkeepers looked at her with the same disdain as Change Sacha did. '
This interaction, and Cinder's desire to keep her cyborg parts a secret, reveal that there is stigma around having mechanical parts and not being fully human. Cinder continues feeling disdain towards what she is throughout the book.
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'
"Miss Linh, from your blood samples I have deduced that you are, in fact, Lunar."
The word washed over Cinder as if he were speaking a different language. The machine in her brain kept ticking, ticking, like it was working through an impossible equation. '
The creatures that Cinder loathed so much were lunars. They'd lie and kill and had brought disease to earth, yet somehow, on top of being a cyborg, Cinder was a Lunar, too. Now, in her eyes, she is a monster.
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'
"I had your DNA sequenced. It informed me not only that you are lunar, not only that you are not a shell, but also something of your heritage. Your bloodline.".. "Yes, your mother is dead..." "And you have an aunt."
"An aunt?"
Dr. Erland squeezed the hat in both hands.
"Yes. It's Queen Levana."
Cinder blinked at him.
"My dear girl. You are princess Selene." '
There were rumors about how the evil Queen Levana had failed to kill her niece. This niece was Princess Selene, rumored to be alive and on earth. Some had been looking for Princess Selene so that she could overpower Levana and reclaim the Lunar throne. The prince who had been searching for Selene has figured out Cinder is Lunar and now refuses to speak to her.
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The book contained quite a few words I didn't know of.

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Consignment - p.32
"Maybe you can trade for a dress or get one on consignment."
Cinder doesn't usually have the money for anything nice. Now that she's getting some, Iko is suggesting a dress for the ball but Cinder doesn't want to spend so much when she has other things to buy. It must be an alternative to buying, perhaps like temporary trade.
DIctionary Definition:
Turning over goods for an agent to sell, with the provision that payment is made only on completed sales and that unsold goods may be returned to the consignor. For example, This secondhand shop accepts items of clothing on consignment.

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Thaumaturge - p.109
"They boarded the elevator, Sybil floating into it like a feather upon a breeze. The guard entered last, staying by the door and facing the three of them as if the thaumaturge were in mortal danger."
The Lunars had come to earth, they're creatures who can manipulate energy. Sybil was one of them, as well as being the Lunar Queen's second hand. The guard was Sybil's, so the word "thaumaturge" must be referring to her.
Dictionary Definition:
a worker of wonders and performer of miracles; a magician.

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"The Screw through Cinder's ankle had rusted, the engraved marks worn to a mangled circle. Her knuckles ached from forcing the screwdriver into the joint as she struggled to loosen the screw one gritting twist after another. By the time it was extracted for enough for her to wrench free with her prosthetic steel hand, the hairline threads had been stripped clean."

This is a good opening for a book because it makes the reader curious. People don't normally have screws in their ankle. Keep reading and you'll see that Cinder also has a prosthetic hand. A reader may continue with a desire to find out why.

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Almost everyone has heard the fairytale about cinderella. It's a child's book meaning it has a happily ever after and a princess. But the stories might not always be friendly. Older kids who've moved out of that phase prefer less "perfect princess" stories. Marissa Meyers took a book idea about cyborgs living amongst humans - which fascinates me - and combined it with something can loosely follow the plot of Cinderella. There is a stepmother and a prince. But Meyer adds so much more to her story "Because there is something unusual about Cinder, something others would kill for." that intrigues me.