MEYER, Marissa. Heartless. 464p. ebook available. Feiwel & Friends. Nov. 2016. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9781250044655. POP

Gr 8 Up –The author’s best fantasy yet. In her inspired reimagining of Lewis Carroll’s inimitable adventures in Wonderland, Meyer has explored the world that existed before Alice fell down the rabbit hole. All Lady Catherine wants to do is open her own bakery with the help of her maid. She has no wish to wear beautiful dresses or go to balls, and she certainly has no desire whatsoever to marry the good-natured, bumbling, childlike king. But that seems to be her fate until she meets the king’s handsome and mysterious new joker, Jest. Although his mission is to steal Lady Catherine’s heart and take it to the White Queen, who would use it to overcome the enemies of her realm, he falls in love with her instead. Employing all the best aspects of Carroll’s book—the White Rabbit, croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos, suits of cards, and the Jabberwocky—Meyer has woven all the elements of darkness and light, fate and free will, and love and hatred into an unforgettable story of the evolution of the Red Queen from a young girl who dreamed of true love and freedom to a madwoman best remembered for the phrase Off with his head. VERDICT If you only read one fractured fairy tale this year, make it Heartless. A must-have title.–Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

This review was published in the School Library Journal September 2016 issue.