Heartless is a well-executed tragic romance that does exactly what it promises: makes you fall in love with the future Queen of Hearts before watching her world crumble. Meyer's Wonderland is imaginative and the romance between Cath and Jest has genuine emotional weight.
The catch? This is a preordained tragedy. You know from page one how it ends, and the entire book is an exercise in beautiful, inevitable heartbreak. For teens who love that bittersweet ache (think fans of Wicked or The Song of Achilles), this hits perfectly. For kids who need hopeful endings or who get too invested in characters, this might be rough.
It's not going to change anyone's life, and some reviewers found the characters flat, but it's a solid, emotionally engaging YA fantasy that teens actually want to read. The themes about parental pressure, agency, and how circumstances shape us are worth discussing. Just go in knowing you're signing up for tears.