Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Rating: 2.5/5

“These things do not happen in dreams, dear girl”, he said, vanishing up to his neck. “They happen only in nightmares.”

This was one of my most anticipated novels of 2016 but unfortunately it just didn’t float my boat.

Cath:

Cath is the daughter of the Marquess of Turtle Cove, she has everything but has been brought up by a controlling mother who doesn’t allow her to have her own opinions or interests. All Cath wants to do is open a bakery with her servant. I think this is an adorable little pipe dream and it’s what really drew me to the book. But it’s so clear just by reading a couple of pages that no matter how good a baker Cath is she would never be able to survive without her servants, her lavish home and her riches.

“You’re the daughter of a marquess. Look around. Look at the things you have, the life you’re accustomed to. You don’t know what it’s like to work every day so you can feed yourself and keep a roof over your head. You don’t know what it’s like to be poor. To be a servant.”

I was really looking forward to this one, after all I loved The Lunar Chronicles and there aren’t enough YA standalones out there. I thought I would love Meyer’s take on Wonderland and while she did a good job with the creatures and the people of Wonderland she still didn’t really describe the world and I thought the story was too heavily reliant on the romance.

While I didn’t necessary hate anything about this novel I don’t think there’s anything particularly memorable about it.

“One to be a murderer. One to be a Martyr. One to be a Monarch. One to go Mad.”

I’ll give it Meyer, she is a very clever lady, she clearly did her research and it’s obvious that she enjoys the world of Wonderland. However, Heartless just lacked punch, Cath’s turning bad relied too heavily on the romance and I thought maybe her parents and her friend might have had more to do with it.

I think the main problem I faced with this novel has already been echoed by many other reviewers so I won’t talk too long about it. The plot was good and the writing was as brilliant as ever but the story was slow. The first half of the story was slow and even as the action started to pick up the pace remained the same, glacial.

“Off with his head.”

I’ll definitely pick up the next thing Marissa Meyer writes but this one just wasn’t for me.