Mythos

1/5 stars

This book was not for me. Even after years of reading this book for English class, I still can't get over how boring it was. I was originally excited, considering how all my friends were glad that book got chosen over Bud, Not Buddy (we ended up reading both), which I preferred.

From the beginning, I had multiple issues with the book. I didn't understand the parents' involvement, the hatchet being given as a gift, and just how uninteresting it was in general.

Number 1, I had high expectations for this, considering how much my friends praised it. From the beginning, I was generally uninterested in the story. I tried to give it a chance and to see if the book would get more interesting.

Number 2, what type of mother gives their child a hatchet. They didn't give any concepts. Did the mother come from a hunting family? Is it symbolic? All I understood was that she gave it to him as a sort of apology for having to deal with her divorcing his dad.

Number 3, the parents are overall absent, other than the mom in the beginning. I feel like both of them being included in some sort of way would have been better. I feel like the mom should have been more worried about having her son go alone on an aircraft with a stranger.

I would not recommend this book at all. I feel like there are other survival stories that are more interesting than this one.

3/5 stars

I was conflicted about how to rate this book. It is more difficult for me to discuss a book when it is about the author's own life. The writing style was interesting, but it did not completely immerse me in the story. There were sections where I was really interested, but then it would change slightly and throw me off. In some cases, it was valid. This was noticeable in the chapter where she talked about her older brother's leg getting burned. She mentioned that he had a different account of what had happened than what she and her other brother remembered. I could not understand it in other situations, like the one where her brother is about to head off to college. At the beginning of the chapter, she mentioned that he would not return until she turned fifteen, but I did not really understand why she had to bring up that information. I had assumed that she would talk about why this was a significant change rather than how her dad was attempting to talk him out of leaving. This is more of the type of information you would include at the end of the chapter. (I could be very wrong; I lost the page this happened on, so I'm just going off memory.)

I don't regret reading this book. I know that this is definitely not a book for everyone so I would hesitantly recommend this to people because I feel like it is very hit or miss for people.

3/5 stars


Initial Thoughts:
From the beginning, I knew I would have a biased opinion about this book as I love Alice in Wonderland as well as well-written villain origin stories. I thought I would give this a higher rating. I was a bit disappointed in how the plot was handled. The first time I read this, it completely went over my head as I was more focused on the setting and the original characters were integrated. As I reread it, I found fewer and fewer reasons to like the book.

Characters:
Overall, my favorite character was still the Mad Hatter. I really liked how his character was integrated and how creative he was as a character. It was also a nice change from Dinah's usual blatant hatred. Dinah has to be one of my least favorite characters, along with the Chesire Cat. Although I liked Dinah at first, I grew tired of her narration throughout the book. I understand how she feels like an outcast in court due to her father, but that didn't give her the right to be cruel to Vittiore without getting to know her.

As previously stated, she spent the majority of her time in a rage, which made her an unreliable narrator. This can be seen through how she views other characters. For example, we are set up to believe that the villain of this book is Chesire. Yet Dinah shows none of this through her interactions with him. We barely get to know him as a character, much less his motivations. This makes him useless as a villain. In any case, we see the king as more of a villain due to how she views his actions. This also happens with Vittiore. We never get to know her because of how much Dinah hates her. We can get hints as to why she is here and what her motivations are, but that is quickly overshadowed by Dinah's hatred.

To Sum it Up
As much as I originally enjoyed this book, further inspection of the writing style and Dinah's character have ruined it for me. Dinah's anger tends to affect how other characters are written. I still give it a 3-star rating. I would not recommend it to anyone else. I will not be rereading this book, but I will continue reading the next book in the series out of curiosity. From there, I'll decide if it's worth it to read the series. I'm hoping Dinah grows because I really want to enjoy the series and don't want to abandon it.

3/5 stars
I was expecting for this book to be shorter. Although I will say that this is by far one of my favorite retellings of the Queen of Heart's origin story. We get a more in-depth picture as to why the Queen of Hearts came to be.

Summary:
Cath is being courted by the King, which he had to reluctantly accept due to the pressure of her parents. Meanwhile, she is dealing with the growing tension she has had since meeting Jest, as well as dealing with the number of Jabberwock attacks. She tries to try and escape marrying the King by entering a baking contest in order to win enough money to open her own bakery. This results in a disaster and the contest is cancelled. She finds out that she's in love with Jest at the same time she finds out that he is a high-ranking military official for the White Queen. His mission is to steal Cath's heart (the passionate heart of the Queen of Hearts) in order to end the war. Cath crosses the land of Chess in order to be queen without marrying the king. In order to enter, they have to pay a price, which is to see prophecies that reveal their futures. When Jest dies, Raven becomes a murderer, Cath becomes a pitiless Queen of Hearts, and Hatta goes mad. They try to escape it, but ultimately fail. They kill the Jabberwocky, who turns out to be Lady Peter. Jest is decapitated by Peter as an act of revenge. Cath makes a pact with the Three Sisters: they will bring Peter to Cath in exchange for the heart of a queen. She marries the King to obtain the heart and pay the price. They take her heart, and she immediately orders for Peter to be decapitated. This is carried out by Raven, bringing all the prophecies to completion.

Review:
One of my favorite aspects of this book is how the characters were depicted. Some of the best examples were from Cath and Jest. Jest was charming, intriguing, and bold. His character alongside Hatta provided a lot of serious and jarring scenes, as well as hilarious ones. At times, it's hard to do both, especially when you see them initially introduced as comic relief. Cath, on the other hand, was sweet and full of dreams. As the lies start to build up, we see the shift begin to happen, especially as she is fooling the King. By the end, it isn't as surprising to see how she became the unforgiving Queen of Hearts. I didn't necessarily hate any of the characters, as they all had their own intentions behind their actions.

Some of the things I didn't like about this book were the instant love between Jest and Cath. as well as how convoluted and twisted it got towards the middle. I felt that there really wasn't that much development in terms of how Jest and Cath fell in love (this may be more of a me thing since I was focused on understanding the worldbuilding). Also, the introduction of the Land of Chess and the Three Sisters threw me off and left me with a lot to process alongside what I already understood about the worldbuilding.

I would recommend this book but only if I was aware that the person liked villain origin stories or fairytale retellings. It's not a bad book, but it's also not the best book Marissa Meyer has ever written.

3/5 stars

This was kind of a curveball for me. I was expecting it to have more of a graphic novel format. It was still a pleasant surprise, although I was thrown off by the constant change in style. It worked surprisingly well considering the story they were telling. The constant switch in focus among characters definitely made this possible as well. The humor isn't for everyone, as it can be considered dark for some. I think some jokes were more about poking fun at bigger conversations that could possibly lead someone to have an existential crisis.

Overall, I am not sure if I would ever recommend this book to other people. Although I personally enjoyed it at times, I didn't enjoy it as a whole. Therefore, I don't believe I would ever reread either.