The Monthly Ledger: January 2017

Good day, mate. Though I can't really call it a good day can I? When can one call a good day good? When it's goodness surpasses the conventional amount of goodness or perhaps when its goodness isn't badness? Or when the sun shines? Or maybe when I can make a new hat? Oh, stuff and nonsense. There's no such thing as a good day as a good day can only be called a good day by one that is having a good day and not a bad day. We are all mad here, aren't we? Good thing we're not all hatters though. We can't all handle all the nonsense and stuff and much of a muchness and nonsense all over again.

Oh sweet sweet Hatta. How I wish you weren't mad!

1) Heartless, by Marissa Meyer

Jest.

What can I say? This book was heartbreaking and so very believable.

"Long before, Alive fell down the rabbit hole...and before the roses were painted red...the Queen of Hearts was just a girl, in love for the first time"

It follows the story of Lady Catherine Pinkerton of Turtle Rock Cove and her love for baking and love. She has had only one dream ever: to open a bakery (named Sweets and Tarts: The Most Wonderous Bakery in All of Hearts) with her handmaiden and friend, Mary Anne. A sly move by her mother and she's about to be proposed to by the King, a blabbering idiot twice as old as her (I so very despise him. He's the beefy kind I want to roast over a campfire while he giggles) . Enter Jest (groan). Lovely, mysterious, witty and humorous Jest. Jest, who has curly hair, amber eyes, a three pointed hat and a Raven as companion. Cath is now betrothed to the King, in love with Jest but wants a bakery. Meanwhile, a Jabberwock terrorizes her kingdom, Hearts. And with each step, she is only closer to the Murderer, Mad, Martyr and Monarch. 

First off, if I were Arya Stark, this is how my list will look like:

1. Cath's mother
2. The blabbering fool, the King of hearts
3. Cath's mother
4. Mary Ann
5. Cath's father
6. Cath's damn mother
7. KILL THE MOTHER DAMMIT, THE MOTHER!

I'd pick the Jabberwock over Cath's mother, the Marchioness, any day. She's sly, controlling, selfish and pathetic. Five pages into the book and I hated her and felt very remorseful for Cath - it is very sad to see that the one person who's supposed to love you is pushing you over a cliff. What Cath does to her at the end, was nothing compared to what she deserves. The people of Hearts are mumbling, stammering, ignorant fools too - they cover up Jabberwock attacks with fake smiles and plastic faces and pretend nothing ever happened, that no one was ever killed so that they can go back to their happy, whimsical ignorant lives. BURN THEM ALL, LANNISTER, BURN THEM! *on a side note, autocorrect corrected Lannister to bannister xD if that isn't the funniest thing on earth!*

I love Catherine. She's a very strong woman and though she has her whimsies and dreams, I admired the way she didn't lose her heart so quickly to Jest, unlike the protagonists in other romance novels (in these other books, the female lead is desperately "trying" not to fall for the guy, but then she's says "I can't help it! I can't control my heart! My traitorous heart!). I could see that she made a genuine effort to keep him away too. Very passionate, witty and fiery when the situation calls for it. Another favorite character of mine was the mad Hatta. I remember at one point when he gives Cath a full, genuine smile for the first time and she realizes that he's indeed very handsome. I felt that this was a very cruel technique Meyer used to foreshadow that he was going to go mad! ARGHHHH. Hatta's end was the most cruel and I was near tears and no, he doesn't die. And Jest, Jest, Jest *sigh*. He's utterly perfect. He's so notoriously, irascibly and perfectly flawed. He has a strong character and a thoughtful, humorous personality. And how much I love that Raven of his!

Meyer has impressively crafted Cath's character and by the end of the book, I understood why she'd become the cruel Queen of Hearts, and I forgave her for all that she has done. The contrast between the flour-covered, whimsical, dreamy girl in page one and the cruel, heartless, vengeful woman in page 500 was shocking, but completely understandable. With all the events that had happened in the book, I felt it, I felt cruel, vengeful, heartless, I felt nothing. I think Meyer has beautifully replicated the Victorian era of forbidden love, social class discrimination and ignorant and unsympathetic parents. I think this book is an amazing Meyer-style expansion of the 'crazy, kooky, quirky world' of Lewis Carrol, an impressive backstory of the notorious Queen of Hearts.

Quick Quotes Quill:

“Perhaps we know each other in the future and you’re only remembering backward.” (Jest to Catherine, when Cath says she's seen him before)

“Now mine eyes see the heart that once we did search for, and I fear this heart shall be mended, nevermore.” (Raven, on Cath's heart)

“Impossible is my specialty"

And my favourite:

Off with his head!