Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Young Adult, High Fantasy
Source: PanMacmillan
Goodreads
A girl who has a talent for cooking magical confections that can alter a person's emotions catches the eye of the King of Hearts, who wants her for his bride. She will do anything to avoid this fate, particularly as she finds herself falling in love with the mysterious new court jester...Review by Nara
Marissa Meyer has truly shown that she is a master of retellings. She's able to spin the tales to make them new and unique, all the while still maintaining that core of the original tale. I think that's especially evident in Heartless, as you see the quirks of Wonderland scattered throughout, as well as Meyer's fantastic take on familiar elements like the Cheshire cat and flamingo/hedgehog croquet.
I think knowing that this is the story of how Catherine the baker becomes The Queen of Hearts kind of stopped me from enjoying the tale fully. All I was thinking as I was reading it was how something bad was going to happen. Apart from that though, I did quite enjoy the plot overall, especially the thriller aspect with the Jabberwock (and Meyer's very interesting take on that- which was quite unexpected).
The romance did have that instalove feel to it, but I think I didn't mind that much considering the style of the romance and the love interest being one of those extravagant types. However, I do think the romance would definitely have benefited from a bit more character development. Throughout the novel, I don't think I really got a good understanding of Jest as a character, and even Catherine could have done with slightly more complexity. I was thinking that perhaps the book would have worked well as a duology to give a bit more time for us to really connect to the characters.
I love Meyer's descriptions though- every time any sort of food was described I was sitting there craving desserts (the book will most definitely make you want some macarons). And all of Jest's performances were so magical and wonderfully vivid. While I'm normally not the best at visualising scenes, I found that I was easily able to do so with Meyer's beautiful prose.
I think overall, Heartless was a fabulous retelling that I would definitely recommend to any fan of Alice in Wonderland, and of course to any fan of Marissa Meyer.
Really liked it
RatingsOverall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 3/5
Writing: 4.5/5
World Building: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
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