Heartless Review

Heartless

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Synopsis:

        Catherine lives in Wonderland and is considering opening her own bakery with her maid, Mary Ann. After all, the king thinks what she cooks is delicious. What's not to lose? Well, the problem with this idea is that her parents would rather Cath married the king -- and Cath is almost certain the king will ask for her hand. 

    At a ball when the king is just about to propose to Cath, the new court jester makes quite a grand entrance. After encountering Jest (the new jester) on his own, Cath is swept off her feet. Before long, they are secretly courting each other. Cath knows that if she was open about this relationship, she would risk offending both the king and her parents. And a creature called the Jabberwocky starts attacking citizens and endangering the kingdom, Cath must figure out whether to play it safe and marry the king or follow her heart and endanger her life.

My thoughts:

    I'm not a big Alice in Wonderland fan but the origin story of the Queen of Hearts sounded interesting, so I picked up Heartless. It amazed me how Marissa Meyer was able to expand on Wonderland, and I really ended up empathizing with Catherine, even once she became the Queen of Hearts. 

    I really enjoyed Cath as a character and liked how even though she hated the king she still pretended she would enjoy marrying him rather than let him down -- although maybe it was just because he was the king. 

    I think that sometimes we just accept villains and think "Oh, they were always evil," or something along those lines. Maybe we don't always consciously think it, but still. I think it's cool when someone writes a backstory for one of those villains, because most of the time, they have an actual reason why they became, or are, evil. 

    Because of the romance aspect of this book, I would recommend it to teens and adults, however I think that if younger readers wanted to read it, they could.

    Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

    Have you read this book or Marissa Meyer's other series, The Lunar Chronicles?