Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

30 reviews

berta_vagner's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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madalina0_0's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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nxpe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Wow...

I knew going into this book that Jest dies, and for that reason I didn't let myself get attached to the characters to save myself the pain. Nonetheless, it was still very hard to get through that ending. 

I feel so bad for Catherine. All she wanted was to own a bakery with her best friend, and be with Jest. And she truly deserved that happy ending. She didn't deserve her emotionally abusive mother or the guilt-trip to marry the King. And it was so sad when her parents finally asked her what would make her happy, and it was simply too late. 

I did get a little angry when I found out Catherine was the one who turned around and went back to hearts. All though Mary Ann didn't deserve to die, I really wanted Catherine to go through the looking glass and have her happy ending. 

This book made me so sad! I don't ever want to read another book where the love interest dies- my poor hopeless-romantic heart can't take it.
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moonlitreading_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

“Was she so afraid to disappoint her parents and the King, that she was willing to put their happiness before her own?”

This is my first Marissa Meyer book and I must say her writing is lovely. Her words kept me hooked from start to finish. I haven’t read Alice in Wonderland so all I know of it is from the 1951 Disney movie. It’s interesting how she played with existing characters and gave them their own history in her story.

Before picking up this book knew that things were not going to go well for Cath because of who the Queen of Hearts is in Alice in Wonderland. That said, it still broke my heart how things came to be. It makes me sad how much of a contrast there is between the Cath from the beginning to the Cath at the end.

The romance between Jest and Cath was so good, I love forbidden lovers. The way Jest really cares about her and puts her well-being first makes me want to bawl my eyes out. Jest can do no wrong in my eyes, he’s perfect.

It’s gonna take a while for me to forget about this book because it made me really sad. Please go read it<3333
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areen's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

the pain...
although I felt the scene where Jest died was a little anticlimactic, edit: I can't stop thinking about this book, and now I think it being anticlimactic was the better choice (apart from realizing that Jest was definitely injured enough to not move in that scene and despite that he jumped in immediately to save Cath TT TT) bc if that scene was as sad as I was imagining, then I wouldn't be able to pay attention to the climax of the book, aka her becoming the queen of hearts we are familiar with. this is a story about the queen of hearts and not Cath and Jest's lovestory, afterall.
 

so the entire execution as a backstory of the queen of hearts was brilliant! I felt I was in wonderland and actually learning the past of the queen of hearts. I loved being in the world despite feeling so suffocated by the people always saying the same things to Catherine, but that's also a sign of how well executed it was, down to each character. now if this was a different story set in wonderland
with a happy ending between the mcs,
I would've found a new comfort favorite. that just made this book all the more heartbreaking (heh) to me.
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good_names_dont_exist's review

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adventurous emotional relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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holiday7's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Most of this book made me either really shocked or really sad. Fuck Margaret, Peter, the King, and Catherine's parents. Also, justice for the Duke, Jest, and Mary Ann. I loved them.
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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I really enjoyed the Cinder Series and I enjoy how Marissa does her re-tellings. I struggled with the Gilded Series and the Renegades Series. But I enjoyed this standalone. 
 
This book is based on the Queen of Hearts. Before she got the Queen of Hearts title, she was Catherine Pinkerton, and she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. She was one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favourite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. She is a talented baker and all she wants to do is open a bakery with her best friend. But according to her mother, having a goal like that is unthinkable for a 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 an intense and 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, it looks like fate has other plans. 

This is one of the times where all I wanted to do throughout this whole book is hug Cath and smack the shit out of her parents, like multiple times. All she wanted to do was to have her own life and open her own bakery. Yet her parents wanted her to marry off the power and status in the country. I just love how badass she got and how he learned to stand up for herself during this book. I love that she wanted to fight for everyone but also learned that she can’t save anyone. The storyline was strong and that you lose the fact that she’s not the villain until towards the end, but at the beginning she’s just this doe-eyed girl who had dreams and wishes. Jest was adorable and wanted more of him and his ending made me bawl my eyes out.  

I would have loved for this book to be a dual POV, I would have loved to have seen how the Jest felt. I would have loved some more romance as well; it was a very quick and painful relationship, and I would have loved to be a bit slower and more romance.  

This book made me root for the villain for the first time and I would love more books where the villain is the face of it all.  
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beklovesbooks's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Similar to Cruella or Maleficent, it’s the unexpected backstory of a character. True to the book and Alice in Wonderland movie, there are many overlapping characters. Powerful love story. Twists, turns, whimsy, fun, tension, creepy. Well done, though I might prefer to rewrite some sections and outcomes myself.
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mysteryharvey's review

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I love this book and it was so beautifully heartbreaking. The twists and turns were lovely and I almost cried twice. The characters make you defend their wrongdoings with how lovable they are.
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