Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

55 reviews

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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ishanibose's review

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adventurous emotional sad slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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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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kyra_johnson_'s review

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

4.25

It took me a little bit to get into the book, but once we really got to see Jest and Cath’s relationship develop, I was invested. It was hard to read (emotionally) because the ending is in a way already known, but that didn’t stop me from reading it!
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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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liorae's review against another edition

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

5.0

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kibberbl's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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michelleub's review

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adventurous emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

I don’t even remember why I bought this book, but I think it was because of @maditales. First up I want to say that I normally don’t read fantasy or like fantasy that is set in another world, vampires, witches and werewolfs don’t count for me. This book was just disappointing. Cathrine the main character was just plain annoying and I understand that Meyer tried to do this, she’s just a normal girl thing but it kind of got repetitive. Her only personality trait is that she loves to bake, her maid is her best friend and that she likes Jest.
Her doing something she is not supposed to was like the whole premise of the book. Her being with in love with Jest instead of the King and wanting to open a bakery even though she essentially does not know anything about having to work for a living and not a hobby, which honestly seems delusional. So I don’t think she even would have made it even if he would have died. OH, and his death and the entire ending was so abrupt. Suddenly she slayed the jabberwock, Jest was dead and she a bitch. But wait she actually already was one but then a bigger one.
Now onto Jest, his character was flat. I wanted to like him but I got nearly nothing, CRUMBLES. Was I, just like Cath, supposed to like a man without knowing anything about him? No.
But I have to say, her writing style seemed pretty. Like it totally reminded me of the original Disney Alice in wonderland. But I think it was lost on me. 
All in all, Meyer had a great writing style which sadly was not able to cover the lack of spark the book needed, even though it was way too long.
Rated it 2.0 but changed to 1.75
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kenna13's review

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

4.75

I loved the characters and how Meyer wrote Cath’s character arch! It was magical
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arieslofi's review

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dark lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

well! i want to say that the premise is something that i really enjoyed, and it's only its execution that i wasn't an absolute fan of, including some of the writing, though not all. the writing itself felt very "try-hard" with its weird britishifcations that reminded me of 2013 when everyone was obsessed with the uk and everything british (as i mentioned in a previous update), with repetition that happened far too often, not the kind that serves as some sort of writing device (this does happen and i do enjoy it), but the kind that makes you wonder if there was any kind of editing involved in the publication of the book. besides that, the writing isn't too bad and didn't get on my nerves too much, and i actively enjoyed some parts of it.
i really liked the character of mary ann especially, though i'll say cath was neither here nor there and jest completely failed to be compelling to me,
which made his death
kind of pointless to me. speaking of pointless: the romance.
this book could have been really good, personally, if we hadn't had any type of romance involved, only a girl losing her dreams and having to deal with being stuck in a loveless marriage with the king until she snaps. i would even have enjoyed it if there had been romance involved, though differently. if, for example,
instead of jest taking her away and the last 30% happening the way they did, she had, just like before, stuck with the king, a fool (which could have served as a callback in dialogue!) only for jest to come back and her, tired and betrayed, called for his head. he was, after all, a wanted criminal,
it would have worked perfectly, and it was how i was expecting the book to end.
the ending itself felt unsatisfactory to me,
there was no real build-up to this sudden change in her behavior (though we are given a reason) and we only get a glimpse of it some chapters before. i feel like showing her ability to be genuinely evil and ruthless throughout the book would have worked better—even if we kind of get those moments in very small doses, like her stealing from the pumpkin patch and her intensity at playing croquet, although this latter felt more like a "this happens in the original story!" bit.

generally, not a bad book, per se, but it left me wanting a lot more, so i can't say i'm exactly happy with it. the premise is much better than the execution itself, though it only goes south around 70% of the book for me. 
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