Book Review: Heartless

Heartless
Marissa Meyer
4/5

Overview

This book made me so sad and like I knew it would but that doesn't make me any less sad. It's beautifully written, taking you into Wonderland before Alice, but it's about the Queen of Hearts before she became who she was in Alice in Wonderland. So expect heartbreak, expect tragedy, still, it's entertaining and it's a good read.

It's whimsical and funny throughout most of the novel, which is what creates most of the tragedy. I read this book out of my love for The Lunar Chronicles, I don't believe I would have read it if I had just found it randomly. The way this is written, how disconnected and trippy it is, isn't really the style I go for. That being said, I respect the way it's done as consistent with the original literature.

The romance part of it was really one of my biggest problems. I get her desire to find her own love and all that, but I don't think Cath truly considered the king, and I don't think that what she had with Jest was all that deep. It's just the whole love-at-first-sight type thing that I try to steer clear of, I need something deeper to get attached to a love story. Again though, it's cohesive with the general tone of the rest of the novel and of the prerequisites for Wonderland.

Would I Recommend?

It's not really what I'd usually read and even though it's artfully done, I don't think I could recommend it for anyone with similar tastes to my own. I like a happy ending and I think it's obvious based on the premise that this isn't going to be a happy ending. If you like to suffer and you love Marissa Meyer, this is the book for you, otherwise I'm not sure I could say it's worth the sadness.