Heartless
Ratings183
Average rating3.9
actually the my rating is 3.75 stars because something about the ending felt incomplete but did i love the whole thing? yes, did jest OWN ME? yes yes YES
That's how you write a villain origin story. The author gets wonderland, she gets the characters. All of them feel true to their original counterparts. Fans of Alice in wonderland appreciate the appearances or transformations of familiar characters (the hatter, hare, executioner, mock turtle, and more). You root for the romance but there comes a point where it's like watching a train wreck, you know it's not going to work out and there's no going back.
second half is way better than the first
i wish meyer wrote the king differently... i was skipping his dialogue and scenes bc he was so fucking cringe lmfao.
Wow! I have been thinking about this book all day after finishing it. It took me a little while longer than usual to finish because the middle did slow down quite a bit. But the ending was perfect. Marissa Meyer captured the essence of the Looking Glass/Alice in Wonderland perfectly, with lyrical and clever prose and characters that come to life. OFF WITH HIS HEAD is my new life motto.
Rough 4 stars***
Mostly because of the unfortunate ending. I often can't really bring myself to rate books with bad endings 5 stars...
I liked Catherine's and Jest's dynamic alot! I loveeeeee the cat. Am I the only one who wishes he existed irl?
Also loved hatta.
Anyways, speaking of characters here's the WORST characters:
(That REALLY annoyed me)
Peter Peter guy
The coward “king”
Mary Ann (if I spelled that correctly) backstabber
“We are all mad here, don't you know?”
This book blew me away. It was the perfect Queen of Hearts retelling/sequel, that ended up making me cry, which very rarely happens when reading. I loved Cath, Jest, Hatta, and Raven with all of my heart and loved how their story unfolded right in front of me while still paying homage to the original Alice in Wonderland. Just know that because of this book, I will always support women's rights and women's wrongs...iykyk
Este libro estaba hasta arriba en mi lista de pendientes, y finalmente pude leerlo, y me encantó! aunque a simple vista el libro parece enorme (ya que tiene casi 600 páginas), para el final estaba deseando que me hubiera durado un poco más o que hubiera una segunda parte.
Heartless es un libro increíble y mágico; un retelling maravilloso narrado de una forma que no te deja soltarlo en ningún momento ya que disfrutas de cada página y también te rompe el corazón..
Sin dudas, Marissa Meyer es la reina de los retellings!
3/5 stars
I was expecting for this book to be shorter. Although I will say that this is by far one of my favorite retellings of the Queen of Heart's origin story. We get a more in-depth picture as to why the Queen of Hearts came to be.
Summary:
Cath is being courted by the King, which he had to reluctantly accept due to the pressure of her parents. Meanwhile, she is dealing with the growing tension she has had since meeting Jest, as well as dealing with the number of Jabberwock attacks. She tries to try and escape marrying the King by entering a baking contest in order to win enough money to open her own bakery. This results in a disaster and the contest is cancelled. She finds out that she's in love with Jest at the same time she finds out that he is a high-ranking military official for the White Queen. His mission is to steal Cath's heart (the passionate heart of the Queen of Hearts) in order to end the war. Cath crosses the land of Chess in order to be queen without marrying the king. In order to enter, they have to pay a price, which is to see prophecies that reveal their futures. When Jest dies, Raven becomes a murderer, Cath becomes a pitiless Queen of Hearts, and Hatta goes mad. They try to escape it, but ultimately fail. They kill the Jabberwocky, who turns out to be Lady Peter. Jest is decapitated by Peter as an act of revenge. Cath makes a pact with the Three Sisters: they will bring Peter to Cath in exchange for the heart of a queen. She marries the King to obtain the heart and pay the price. They take her heart, and she immediately orders for Peter to be decapitated. This is carried out by Raven, bringing all the prophecies to completion.
Review:
One of my favorite aspects of this book is how the characters were depicted. Some of the best examples were from Cath and Jest. Jest was charming, intriguing, and bold. His character alongside Hatta provided a lot of serious and jarring scenes, as well as hilarious ones. At times, it's hard to do both, especially when you see them initially introduced as comic relief. Cath, on the other hand, was sweet and full of dreams. As the lies start to build up, we see the shift begin to happen, especially as she is fooling the King. By the end, it isn't as surprising to see how she became the unforgiving Queen of Hearts. I didn't necessarily hate any of the characters, as they all had their own intentions behind their actions.
Some of the things I didn't like about this book were the instant love between Jest and Cath. as well as how convoluted and twisted it got towards the middle. I felt that there really wasn't that much development in terms of how Jest and Cath fell in love (this may be more of a me thing since I was focused on understanding the worldbuilding). Also, the introduction of the Land of Chess and the Three Sisters threw me off and left me with a lot to process alongside what I already understood about the worldbuilding.
I would recommend this book but only if I was aware that the person liked villain origin stories or fairytale retellings. It's not a bad book, but it's also not the best book Marissa Meyer has ever written.
This book is my first fantasy book I've read in such a long time and I feel like this is the perfect fantasy book for people who want to get into fantasy because there isn't much world building and there aren't a lot characters to keep track of.
Now to the plot.. this book literally broke me. Despite being nobility I found Catherine very relatable and the person I saw as Catherine was Barbie Ferreira and I feel like she would BODY the movie adaptation if that ever happened. I love villain origin stories and this book is no different, I just wish the author gave Catherine a little more personality. I loved this book but I just wanted a little more. This was a 4.5 rounded up to a 5.
When I started, I did not think that Cath would be the Queen of Hearts. But the plot twisted and turned and Cath lost Jest and became the Queen.
Well-written and well-thought. Twisty, just like Carroll.
Not my favourite book by Marissa Meyer, but I liked it enough :). It was quite sad.
Absolutely adore fairy tale retellings and this one is such a trippy, amazing, insanely fun read. Have you ever wondered just why the Queen of Hearts is the way she is? What terrible something could have made her so heartless and cold...uttering her favorite (Off With Their Heads!) phrase with almost every breath?
Oh my friends, this...this is the book for you. Marissa Meyer is simply amazing! She highlights the craziness of Wonderland, with a touch of romance and intrigue, wraps it with laughter and drops in a bit of madness. Oh the wonders of this author's imagination...more please