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Heartless Review: Marissa Meyer’s Dark Origin Story of the Queen of Hearts

 

Heartless is a book that has definitely stuck with me. It took me a little while longer than usual to finish because the middle did slow down quite a bit but the ending was perfect. Marissa Meyer captured the essence of the Looking Glass/Alice in Wonderland perfectly, with lyrical and clever prose and characters that come to life. OFF WITH HIS HEAD is my new life motto.

Synopsis: Long before she was the terror of Wonderland—the infamous Queen of Hearts—she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen. Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

In Heartless, her first stand-alone teen novel, the New York Times-bestselling author of the Lunar Chronicles dazzles us with a prequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Review: Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake

Girl Dinner Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

File this one under "I support women's rights and wrongs"! Girl Dinner explores themes of feminism, power, and womanhood. I enjoyed Olivie Blake's writing and would definitely give another book by her a try. That being said, I did feel like this book got to be overwhelmingly preachy with excessive inner monologue instead of using the plot as a device to get these themes across. The story picks up at the 60% mark, but it still felt disjointed with all of the excessive soapbox feminism (and I say this as a highly political person who doesn't mind it taking up obvious space in her reads). I enjoyed the cannibalism aspect and the increasingly thrilling plot that develops over the last 40% of the book. This book will definitely leave you analyzing why the author made certain decisions with her story telling (like the end...?) - it felt like the story itself didn't fully align with all of the social commentary again feeding into that "disjointed" feeling I'm left with even after finishing. I'd recommend this book to readers who enjoy crazy girl cult books but I'd probably recommend books like Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang over this one.

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