Heartless

This book is my first fantasy book I've read in such a long time and I feel like this is the perfect fantasy book for people who want to get into fantasy because there isn't much world building and there aren't a lot characters to keep track of.

Now to the plot.. this book literally broke me. Despite being nobility I found Catherine very relatable and the person I saw as Catherine was Barbie Ferreira and I feel like she would BODY the movie adaptation if that ever happened. I love villain origin stories and this book is no different, I just wish the author gave Catherine a little more personality. I loved this book but I just wanted a little more. This was a 4.5 rounded up to a 5.

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.

Z'n kop eraf.

De Hartenkoningin is zo'n schurk die haar eigen leven is gaan leiden in de populaire cultuur. Je kent haar als een opvliegend personage dat voor het minst in een colère schiet en daarbij zonder aarzelen de doodsvonnis uitspreekt.
In dit boek wordt een verhaal verteld dat zou kunnen verklaren hoe de koningin geworden is wie ze is en het is zo goed gedaan. Origineel, doch herkenbaar en uiterst hartverscheurend.

De balans tussen herkenbaarheid en originaliteit zat precies goed. De nieuw verzonnen elementen passen perfect binnen het origineel en doen het alle eer aan. Het is grillig en eigenaardig en een beetje gek, zoals een goed verhaal geïnspireerd door Alice in Wonderland betaamd.
Een ware hommage dus.

Moordenaar, martelaar, majesteit, mafketel.

De personages waren een mix van oude bekenden (Cheshire, het witte konijn, Hatta), personages geïnspireerd door Carrolls creaties (Marie Ann, De graaf van Everdingen) en originele personages (Jester, Peter Peter). Daarnaast zat er ook een fijne verwijzing naar Edgar Allen Poe met de Raaf.

De auteur weet goed met de emoties van haar lezers te spelen, waardoor ik door dit alles, ondanks het feit dat we allemaal weten wat voor een driftkikker de Hartenkoning is, bleef hopen op een andere, gelukkigere afloop. En daarin ligt toch een grote sterkte van het verhaal. Dat blijven hopen en supporteren, terwijl je eigenlijk de afloop al kent.

Wat is de overeenkomst tussen een raaf en een bureau?

Ik las het boek in de Nederlands vertaling en ik wil toch wel een grote duim omhoog aan de vertaler geven. De keuze van de vertalingen vond ik bijzonder goed gevonden, terwijl de vertaler ook wist wanneer bepaalde woorden niet te vertalen (zoals Cheshire en Jester). En hoewel ik helemaal niks heb aan te merken aan de vertaling, heb ik toch het gevoel dat ik het verhaal in zijn originele Engels nog een grotere impact om mij zou hebben gehad.

‘Maar hopen,' ging hij verder, 'is de enige manier om een onmogelijkheid toch nog mogelijk te maken.'

Nog een paar losse gedachten:
• Deed me wat denken aan het verhaal dat ik voor Julie en Kenneth's trouw schreef
• Aha momentje: Waarom de Hartenkoningin witte rozen haat.
• Mary Ann is hier de meid van Catherine, in het origineel is ze de meid van het konijn
• Het thee-feestje met Hatta, de March Hare en de Dormouse
• Croquet met flamingo's en egels
• De nep-schildpad
• De Lobster-quadrille
• Het horloge van het witte konijn
• De verweving tussen het Hartenrijk en het Schaakspel (Through the Looking-glass)
• De Hertog van Everdingen: Hertogin uit het origineel had een zoon die getransformeerd werd in een varken. Daarenboven had ze ook een kok die verslaafd was aan peper.
• De Hartenkoningin die van bakken houdt en Jack de Hartenboer uit het laatste hoofdstuk

I have so many feelings about this book. I love Marissa Meyer. I love Rebecca Soler (who narrated the audiobook). I love Alice in Wonderland. I love origin stories. I love everything about Heartless.

The world gave me Caraval vibes, probably due to the fact that Caraval gave me very Wonderlandesque vibes. Which I'm all about whimsical worlds like that.

The ending was absolutely amazing, and really tied it into the canon world of Alice in Wonderland.

Such an amazing read, one of my favorites I've read this year so far.

Este libro estaba hasta arriba en mi lista de pendientes, y finalmente pude leerlo, y me encantó! aunque a simple vista el libro parece enorme (ya que tiene casi 600 páginas), para el final estaba deseando que me hubiera durado un poco más o que hubiera una segunda parte.

Heartless es un libro increíble y mágico; un retelling maravilloso narrado de una forma que no te deja soltarlo en ningún momento ya que disfrutas de cada página y también te rompe el corazón..

Sin dudas, Marissa Meyer es la reina de los retellings!

Slight spoilers.

This was amazing! I was really confused and thought I was reading the next Lunar Chronicles book, but thats ok, because I LOVED this. This is a story of the Queen of Hearts, before she was the Queen. MM did a spectacular job here. Not only did I fall in love with Cath and Jest, but when the end came I was so relieved for her to have her heart taken away so her pain would stop.

Another great character was Raven, and yes, MM does a little character modeling there too. I am not a huge fan of the classics, but I think I was forced to read some of Edgar Allen Poe's writing in high school. I do hate to be forced to read things. Anyways, If you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland, this is DEFINITELY the book for you. It was a little sweet, it was a little bitter, and it was a little heartless at the end. (hint!!)