Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Long before she was the Queen of Hearts, Catherine Pinkerton was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favourite 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.

Heartless is a beautiful, magical and delicious fairy-tale origin story. Marissa Meyer has done it again and managed to tell a fascinating story and makes us, the reader, fall in love with the Red Queen. I absolutely loved the Lunar Chronicles and when I heard about Marissa Meyer writing an origin story of the Red Queen I knew I had to read it.

Catherine Pinkerton is such a loveable and relatable character and its hard to imagine her as the Red Queen because they are completely different, but Marissa was able to develop Catherine in such a way that by the end and she becomes the Red Queen, you are heartbroken and feel so sorry for her. The Catherine at the beginning of the book was so sweet and happy, and all she wanted was her happy ending. I loved how much she loved to bake and how she wanted to open up her own bakery. I was even hoping she would, even though I obviously knew how she was going to end up. Catherine is a smart and determined woman, and that’s what makes the reader full in love with her, when reading Heartless.

Catherine isn’t the only great character in Heartless, you have many other characters pop up from the original Wonderland. You have the likes of the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit and of course the Mad Hatter. But another character that stole the show in every scene he was in was Jest the Joker. The part where we are introduced to Jest is one of the best scenes I have read in a long while, after reading it a first time I re read it again just to take it all in. You fall in love with Jest right away, he is intelligent, funny, mysterious. If I am honest I think once Jest came into the story he was the one person I cared about the most.

Marissa Meyer’s writing is as usual spot on and perfect. She manages to capture the essence and feel of Wonderland but also put her own stamp on it as well. I loved the way in which she managed to work in the original characters into the story, they felt like they fitted in rather than just ‘put’ in because the story was set in Wonderland. I would really like her to write more books based in Wonderland because I think there could be many more stories to be told. The Wonderland that Marissa Meyer has created is very magical and whimsical but in places its also really dark and twisted, and I think this would be a perfect world to tell more stories from.

For me Heartless is a solid 4/5 stars, I couldn’t find anything wrong with the book and I did really enjoy reading it, I just don’t think its a 5/5 star book. The story told is written beautifully and it can be enjoyed by all, whether they are new readers or returning readers to Wonderland.