Heartless by Marissa Meyer
 |
| Heartless by Marissa Meyer |
Heartless
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 464 pages
Release date: November 8, 2016
Content notes: YA grades 7-12
I liked this book, and I am not surprised because I read Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles twice. Obviously, I enjoy this author's work.
This is a stand alone novel with a setting that is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice books. Many of those familiar characters are also in this book. Therefore, if you like Alice In Wonderland and/or Alice Through the Looking Glass, you will probably enjoy revisiting aspects from those stories in this book. It is sort of like a "prequel" to the Alice books because the the main character is the frightening Queen of Hearts from those stories. She is named Catherine or "Cath" in this book, and is a very young woman living with her parents. She dreams of a opening a bakery with her best friend. Without even trying, she has caught the eye of the kind but silly King, and does not feel she can disappoint her parents by turning him down. However, Cath does not want to marry the King because she wants to give her heart to true love. For her, true love comes in the form of the court jester: "Jest."
My thoughts:
The setting is in the kingdom of Hearts which means that hearts are everywhere. Woven throughout this book are themes of how a heart can be stolen, given freely, reluctantly given, listened to, followed, and broken. Jest says to Cath when she is worried that he has stolen her heart, “The easiest way to steal something, is for it to be given willingly.”
Another theme is how ignoring problems only make them worse. For example, Cath keeps ignoring the problem of the King’s attention and the more she ignores him the more he wants her. Everyone ignores the problem of the frightening Jabborwocky (I am assuming that everyone remembers the Jabborwocky!) creature and of course that gets worse. Cath’s parents ignore her true wishes and this makes Cath feel helpless and cornered. In all cases, ignoring the problems leads to disaster.
I loved how Meyer used elements from the Lewis Carroll tales. This is a delightful and fun part of the book. For example I found the croquet game with flamingo mallets and porcupine balls (who may or may not cooperate with the players) quite entertaining. I also enjoyed meeting the “Hatta” character who is not quite mad yet. Other examples include a “mock turtle,” and a “key lime” (which obviously fits into a lock). There are many pieces and references to the Alice stories that made me smile.
While reading this book you might decide that the character named Peter Peter is the villain. However, Meyer seems to say that the real villain in this book is fate. Fate conspires against all the hearts in this story.
I enjoyed this book very much, and I truly hated witnessing the broken heart in this story.
 |
| The Jabberwocky illustrated by John Tenniel |
So, there is a fate vs free will in this book?
ReplyDeleteFor sure! However, since the reader knows what the outcome will be because of the Alice books, which is her fate, we watch this character decline. She did have some choices, for example, she freely gave up and became "heartless."
ReplyDelete