Heartless, first published in 2016, is a contemporary fantasy Young Adult novel by Marissa Meyer. Meyer is best known for her dystopian sci-fi YA series The Lunar Chronicles, inspired by fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White. Set in a fantasy world, Heartless imagines the backstory of Lewis Carroll’s iconic character the Queen of Hearts from the 1876 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Heartless is also popular among the BookTok community. This guide utilizes the Feiwel and Friends hardcover edition, published in November 2016.

Content Warning: This guide contains mentions of mental illness and suicide, and the source text frequently uses the term “mad” to refer to mental illness.

Plot Summary

In the kingdom of Hearts, Catherine Pinkerton struggles against her social obligations as the daughter of the noble Marquess and Marchioness of Rock Turtle Cove. Cath is passionate about baking and dreams of opening a bakery with her best friend, Mary Ann, a venture she knows her parents will never support.

The action of the novel begins when Cath and her parents attend a ball at the King of Hearts’s palace. Cath is horrified when she learns of the insipid King’s intentions to marry her. At the ball, Cath runs into Peter Peter, the local pumpkin patch owner, and his wife, Lady Peter. Peter Peter is hostile toward everyone, and Lady Peter appears constantly ill. The King’s new court joker, Jest, performs for the court.

Cath meets Jest in the King’s Rose Garden; he is accompanied by Raven, a raven who speaks in rhyming couplets. A deep attraction grows between Jest and Cath, although it is undermined by the King’s desire to marry her. Cath leaves the ball early, narrowly escaping a violent attack by the Jabberwock, who carries off two courtiers.

The King pursues a courtship with Cath, which Cath reluctantly enters due to pressure from her parents. Meanwhile, the tension between Jest and Cath grows. One night, Jest appears at Cath’s window and invites her to a “mad” tea party. Presiding over the tea party is Jest’s close friend Hatta, who makes hats with magical properties. The Jabberwock attacks the tea party, carrying off one of the party guests.

Cath learns that there is to be a baking contest at this year’s Turtle Days Festival. The monetary grand prize would allow Cath to open her bakery. Cath enters with a pumpkin spice cake made from a pumpkin stolen from Peter’s patch, where Cath notices signs of the Jabberwock’s presence.

At the festival, Hatta shares with Cath some of his personal history: “Madness” runs in his family, and he is desperately trying to avoid it for himself. Cath dances with the King but realizes that she’s fallen in love with Jest. She secretly meets with him and learns that he is a Rook, a high-ranking military official from the land of Chess beyond the Looking Glass. Jest is in Hearts on a secret mission for the White Queen, who is engaged in an endless war with the Red Queen. He doesn’t disclose his mission to Cath, but regardless she knows they can never be together.

Disaster strikes at the baking contest when the Turtle, one of the judges, takes a bite of Cath’s cake and transforms into a half-calf half-turtle creature called a Mock Turtle. The judging of the contest is suspended, leaving Cath without the prize money.

The following night, the King takes Cath to the theater, where the Jabberwock attacks again. Cath pulls the legendary Vorpal Sword from Jest’s magical jester’s hat, and the beast flees at the sight of it. Cath is injured, and Jest whisks her away in a cloud of smoke to the mythical treacle well, the home of the Three Sisters who can dispense healing treacle for a price. Jest reveals his mission to Cath: He must steal Cath’s heart. Only the heart of a passionate, fierce Queen of Hearts can stop the endless war in Chess, and Jest suspects that this heart is Cath’s after she marries the King.

When Jest returns Cath home, he is arrested on the charge of kidnapping her, but he transforms into a raven and escapes. Cath does not see Jest again until a few nights later, at the King’s masquerade, where Jest proposes a daring plan: If Cath crosses the land of Chess, by the rule of promotion, she will become a queen; this means Cath can save Chess without having to marry the King. Cath agrees, and she, Jest, Raven, and Hatta set off for the treacle well, which houses the portal to Chess.

As the price for entry, the Three Sisters force the group to witness prophecies of their futures. The Sisters present gruesome images of Jest decapitated, Raven a murderer, Cath the pitiless Queen of Hearts, and Hatta gone mad. The Sisters warn the group not to go through any doors; if they are careful to avoid them, they may yet escape their fates. However, at the Crossroads, a hallway lined with doors that serves as an interdimensional system of travel, Cath hears Mary Ann screaming from behind a door and sees her imprisoned by Peter in the pumpkin patch. Cath goes through the door.

When she reaches Mary Ann, Cath learns the terrible truth: Peter Peter’s wife, Lady Peter, is the Jabberwock. Peter has kept his wife’s condition a secret, trying desperately to cure her. Peter attacks Cath out of fear for his wife’s safety, and Jest, Raven, and Hatta all come through the door to Cath’s aid. Lady Peter attacks in Jabberwock form, and Cath decapitates her with the Vorpal Sword. Peter murders Jest in retribution, bringing at least one of the Sisters’ prophecies to pass.

After Jest’s death, Cath is lost in her lust for revenge against Peter; meanwhile, Hatta has become mad. Cath strikes a deal with the Three Sisters: they will bring Peter to Cath in exchange for the heart of a queen. Cath marries the King so that she can pay the Sisters’ price. When the Sisters extract Cath’s heart from her breast, it is cracked in two from grief and filled with dust and ash. Cath orders Peter’s beheading, which is carried out immediately by Raven.