Book Rewind · Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Heartless by Marissa Meyer was just released in paperback and the white cover is just absolutely gorgeous! This new edition also includes fan art of Cath, Jest, and Hatta. So there is no better time than now to read Heartless, and if you still aren’t sure check out my 5-star review below!

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Book Rewind is a meme where we review a backlist title to distinguish reviewed books that are not a new release. We noticed we tend to review almost all new or newly released books and wanted to have a feature to spotlight some older books that we either just read or are just reviewing because we never got around to it, or possibly didn’t blog back then! This meme will be posted on Thursdays as a ‘Throwback Thursday’ kind of deal.

We totally encourage others to participate in the Book Rewind Review meme! Backlist books need love too! Feel free to use our banner and be sure to link back to our page and tag us on social media so we can help promote your posts too!

 

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Category: Young Adult, Fantasy, Re-telling
Publication: November 8th, 2016; Feiwel & Friends
Purchase: Amazon

Long before she was the terror of Wonderland–the infamous Queen of Hearts–she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

Long before she was the terror of Wonderland, she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.

Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

In her first stand-alone teen novel, the New York Times-bestselling author dazzles us with a prequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

 

Review:

[book rating=5/5]

“But hoping,” he said, “is how the impossible can be possible after all.”

We all know who the Queen of Hearts is but we don’t know how she became the tyrant she is within Wonderland or her motivations. If you’ve read Meyer’s Fairest, you know how well she writes villain’s backstories and this is no exception.

Catherine is a sweet, sweet-creating girl who has big aspirations of opening her own bakery someday. That day is not today, unfortunately, because her parents aspire to improve their station by marrying their daughter off to the king. Of course, Cath does not want to marry the king, not only because he has little backbone or substance but because she is in love with someone else. Jest, the court joker whom you will fall in love with just as she does.

Heartless is not an Alice in Wonderland retelling but rather inspired by the characters and world prior to Alice arriving. They all have their own backstory to tell and Meyer gives it to them, much to all of our delight. This book gets very dark at times, which I appreciate. The story of a girl going from sweet and inspired to a monarch who deals with disappointment by death is not going to be fluffy. Characters such as Cheshire provide just enough comic relief to get you through the end.

Oh, and you’ll never think of turtles the same way again.

The narrator in the audiobook will be familiar to those who listened to the Lunar Chronicles. While it’s clear she has a range of characterizations she can provide, I found her portrayal that mirrors the animated movies to be distracting and uninspired. I nearly gave up listening due to the high-pitched, incredibly loud portrayal of the White Rabbit. I recommend reading the book versus listening (plus it’s beautiful!).