Review – Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Title: Heartless
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: November 8, 2016
Page Numbers: 453
Star Rating: 
Long before she was the terror of Wonderland—the infamous Queen of Hearts—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.
After having fallen in love with the Lunar Chronicles I did go into Heartless having high expectations and I am glad that Marissa Meyer rose and surpassed my expectations. I am a massive fan of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland so I get really excited about retellings and prequels for it.
I really enjoyed reading about Catherine and all that she went through before becoming the Queen of Hearts. I liked the fact that Catherine started with a kind and sweet temperament as well as having a love of baking and we got to understand how she became the cold Queen.
The difficult part I found while reading this was that as a lover of the original story (although I think that most people know the outline of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) I knew where the story was going and it meant that I spent some of my time reading just wondering when the event that changed Catherine would occur. This didn’t really effect my overall enjoyment of the book and it is something that always occurs when I read prequel stories.
I love how Marissa Meyer incorporated quotes from the original story as well as some aspects from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe that suited the story perfectly. It illustrated the care and appreciation that she has for the original story while adding her own spin. I also appreciate that she took the time at the end of the book to explain where some of the references came from and why they were selected to be incorporated.
Highly recommend this book.
Date Started: Jan 1, 2018
Date Finished: Jan 10, 2018
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