Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

TL;DR not as sci-fi as Cinder but just as good

TBR #1081, added Nov 6 2014

finished 4/15/16

If you've been around me for any period of time, you probably know I can't shut up about The Lunar Chronicles once I get going. That series has been my life the past couple years, and I was curious about what take Betsy Cornwell would take based on the same "Cinderella as a mechanic / engineer" approach.

And I was super impressed! Even with having the similar basic concept, it's such a wonderful story and stands completely apart from Cinder even with so much potential to overlap. I loved how the retelling was done and what liberties it took from the original. (Although, to be honest, most of my memory of the original is from the Disney movie.)

I had a hard time getting used to the narration, though. It's first person past in a way that makes it feel like Nicolette is narrating everything after it happens, almost like a fairy tale. (Which was probably the point, now that I'm writing this.) I felt like the narration style distanced Nicolette's voice from what she was talking about, like it dulled the emotions of it a little bit. I think it worked well overall, though. 

Nicolette was a great main character and I am so appreciative of her. She listened to both her heart and her head and worked hard to get what she wanted despite everything that got in her way. Fin and Caro were great supporting characters as well, and I loved them just as much, but I saw through Fin a little too easily. Maybe I just knew what I was looking for? 

Also, thank god Nicolette's stepsisters had different names than mine. I did crew for my school's production for the Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella and it drove me slightly crazy that one of them had my name. "Stepsister's Lament" was a good song, though. 

I'm glad that Mechanica told a version of the story where the Cinderella achieved her dreams through her own hard work and not some magic-waving. (Cinder is also another good one, if you're curious *cough cough*). Also, I really love Mechanica's ending even more than I did Cinder's, which is pretty amazing to admit. I'm so glad that Nicolette was able to determine her future and didn't let anyone try to dictate or influence it for her, and that the people that she cared for allowed her to do so. 

I'm a little sad that Mechanica is a standalone. I would've liked to see more of Nicolette on her own, but I know that it wouldn't be much of a retelling anymore. I liked the epilogue and I can appreciate how it didn't wrap up all the ends so nicely, that some were still left open. I'm also lowkey hoping for a new story set within the same universe, because the worldbuilding was beautiful and I want to see more of it.

I didn't realize until after I finished reading that Betsy Cornwell also wrote Tides, which I still find myself thinking about sometimes. I definitely recommend Tides as well! 

TL:DR it's almost like a more fairy-tale version of Cinder and it was done just as well.