A review by renkeeling
Heartless by Marissa Meyer

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I did NOT expect to love this book as much as I did. This was my first book I’ve read by Meyer, and now I really want to read more. Before I get into my usual breakdown, I just want to mention that I know very little about the Alice in wonderland storyline, let alone the queen of hearts, so I have nothing it say about how it compares to that story.

What I liked:
-I really liked the writing style. For the most part, it was beautiful and flowery.
-i know a lot of people complain about the tonal shift, but I think that it makes sense for the story so I actually really liked it. yes, it shifts between tones, but that’s because the story changes and as it changes so does the tone. idk I thought it made sense and tbh I liked it bc it offered different experiences and storylines to take place and I felt like it made it interesting.
-JESTER. I LOVE jester so much. By far my favorite character
-I loved how Catherine (MC) has the interest in baking. It added an interesting depth to her character and allowed for a bunch of conflict
-that BETRAYAL at the end? omfg I LOVED it and HATED it at the same time
-the dynamic between Catherine and her parents pissed me off SO MUCH but like in a good way
-Catherine’s descent into madness was done SO WELL. And, yes, when that final thing happened that caused her to go mad you bet your ass I sobbed like a little bitch.

What I didn’t like:
-don’t get me wrong, I LOVED this book and I LOVED jester, but I do think their relationship moved a tad too fast at first
-there was this reoccurring mention with the MC and her mom talking about the MC being too “heavy” and her mom would force her to stop eating or threaten to not let her eat for a night. i think that could be triggering for a lot of people who have suffered with an eating disorder.
-there’s this one scene during a masquerade ball where someone shows up who’s like wanted right now and no one recognizes them just bc they’re in a mask and I was like ??? You can still tell who someone is even if they have a mask on. And, on top of that, wouldn’t there be some sort of security at a ball?

TW’s for this book / / controlled eating, fatphobic comments, death, violence

Overall, I just loved this book so much and I’m still kinda shocked by how well it was done. I’m definitely interested in checking out more of Meyer’s works now!