Heartless by Marissa Meyer Book Review

Today I will be reviewing Heartless by Marissa Meyer, a book that I finished a couple weeks back but just can't stop thinking about. Heartless was the first Marissa Meyer book I have ever read but it most definitely will not be the last.

Heartless is a villain's origins story, more specifically the Queen of Hearts origins story.
All Cath truly wants to do in life is open a bakery with her best friend and fall in love but her mother doesn't approve especially since the King of Hearts has taken a certain interest in her. Soon though Cath meets Jest, the new court Joker and starts to develop feelings for him. Knowing no one would approve Cath and Jest enter into a secret courtship. Cath is determined to choose her own future and fall in love on her own terms but fate has other plans in store for her.

Heartless exceeded all expectations I had for it, in nearly all ways possible. I knew it was going to be sad, and not have a happy ending but throughout the book I was continually rooting for the characters, hoping that they would have their happily ever afters and that there was going to be a massive plot twist. Part of the reason for this was because of the way it was written - Marissa Meyer wrote this book in such a whimsical way, there were riddles sprinkled throughout that the characters had to solve but also us as readers had to solve, as well as always giving us as readers and the characters false hope that it was all going to turn out okay. At no point did I expect this book to be as heartbreaking as it was.

There was nothing in Heartless that I strongly disliked, sure there were times that I got annoyed at the characters but that was because of their choices and how if they had made a different choice it could have turned out differently.

I haven't yet read Alice in Wonderland (though I did request it from the library as soon as I finished Heartless) but I do know the story and I found it really cool to see all the different character's origins and how they came to be how they are in Alice in Wonderland.

This book is what I want to see in YA fantasy and I would 100% recommend it. This book is great for all ages, for there are little if any swear words and no inappropriate content that would class a book as unsuitable for younger readers. I would happily give this book to a 10 or 11 year old looking for something new, perhaps a little bit older or mature, in a heartbeat, something I wouldn't feel comfortable doing with most of my YA fantasy books.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars but it could have been a 5 star book easily.

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