I hate it when I have to begin a review by saying how much I respect the author—but… Unfortunately, today I have to say that I hugely respect Marissa Meyer and absolutely loved her Lunar Chronicles—but I found Heartless to be sadly disappointing. It’s true that Lunar Chronicles set the bar very high and that may have been a factor, but I found Heartless frankly baffling on a couple of levels.
Heartless brings us to weird and whimsical Wonderland, where Catherine just wants to open a bakery—even though her mother, minor nobility, is determined that she will marry the kind but foolish King of Hearts who has come courting. When Catherine meets the mysterious new court joker, Jest, she swiftly falls for him, even though there seems to be no way they can be together. Also, there’s a Jabberwock turning up here and there attacking—which I can’t quite figure out how to put smoothly into my plot description, because it doesn’t fit all that smoothly in the story either.
For three-quarters or more of this book, I was hopeful. Catherine is a reasonably good heroine. I don’t love her the way I loved Scarlet, Cress or Winter, but I didn’t love Cinder either and she was still an engaging heroine. Catherine had potential, and she did make mouth-watering-sounding pastries. I didn’t love Jest the way I loved Wolf, Thorne (!) or Jacin, but I also didn’t love Kai and he was still fine (and grew on me over the series, for what that’s worth).
And I liked the idea of a heroine who didn’t want to marry a king, she just wanted to run a bakery, and was trying to figure out practical concerns like paying the rent. That’s SO right up my retelling-alley.
But. For those three-quarters of the book (more or less), there was also a bit of a sense that the story was spinning its wheels. Catherine has clear goals, but she keeps hitting walls. And the Jabberwock plot thread, while an interesting mystery that was actually quite well done, felt oddly disconnected from everything else.
Mostly, I kept reading along wondering how Meyer was going to manage the ending. I had heard this described as the origin story of the Queen of Hearts, and I didn’t quite see how we were going to get from here to there in a way that would be satisfying. Well, surprise. It wasn’t.
And from here THERE BE SPOILERS so you have been warned!! But I really can’t discuss this book without discussing the ending. Continue reading “Book Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer”
Only occasionally do I read a book and start telling all my friends they should read it too–but this was one of those times. Though really, you should all listen to it: the audiobook of As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden. Because Cary Elwes reads the audio, and it’s an utter delight.
I happened across The Doll People by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin in my library’s audiobook section and thought it looked to be some light entertainment. It was–and it wasn’t. Rarely have I been so completely and clearly of two minds about a book!
I just finished another parallel universe book, and…am not quite sure how I feel about it! Life After Life by Kate Atkinson was strikingly different from my previous reads in this area–striking mostly because it seems like it should be exactly the same!
I like books about improving your life, but I wouldn’t say I read self-help books precisely—I read ones that have more analysis to them, exploring, say, how habits function, which will inevitably lead to advice on how to form better habits. That book, Gretchen Rubin’s Better than Before, included in its suggested reading section (mostly a gold mine, by the way) 52 Small Changes: One Year to a Healthier, Happier You by Brett Blumenthal. It sounded like it could have interesting advice—but maybe the title should have tipped me off that it was a little too far into the self-help genre for my taste.
Tales of the Marvelous 