Shorts: Glitches by Marissa Meyer

Glitches by Marissa Meyer is available for FREE here.

If you’re debating whether or not the extremely hyped, Cinder, is for you, I suggest checking out Glitches!  Glitches is a short story that takes place approximately 5 years before Cinder.  It tells the tale of Cinder, and 11 year old orphan traveling to New Beijing to meet the family that has agreed to take her in.  Cinder’s parents have recently perished in a hover crash, and she herself is lucky to be alive.  After substantive surgeries, Cinder now exists as a cyborg, her most notable features being a new metal hand and leg.  Cinder must learn to adjust to her new ‘features’, like what does that orange light indicate, why can she no longer seem to cry, and what use might she be to the world?  Are the physical traits that alter her humanity glitches?  Knowing she is unwelcome, particularly by her new stepmother, Cinder works to find her place of belonging so far away from everything she has known.

You don’t need to read Glitches to enjoy Cinder, but it will give you a bit more information about Cinder’s backstory, and understanding of how she came to end up where we find her at the beginning of the novel.  Cinder definitely grows up a lot in five years!  My only complaint about Glitches is that while the art is awesomely beautiful (is that a cybornetic cherry tree?!), Cinder’s lost her left limbs, not her right.  But that’s just me being OCD.