The Queen of Hearts is one of the most infamous characters from Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" -- a temperamental queen who regularly demands beheadings. 
 And having given an epic sci-fi spin to traditional fairy tales, Marissa Meyer turns her attention to another public-domain story in "Heartless" -- the story of how a bright young baker became the infamous Queen. It's a rather more orderly Wonderland than you'll find in Carroll's stories (though with many familiar faces), but Meyer makes up for it with richly evocative writing and a well-developed main character at its heart. 
 Catherine Pinkerton is less interested in showing herself off at court than she is in making the perfect lemon tarts, so she can be the greatest baker in the Kingdom of Hearts. But her mother will not be denied -- and on the very night she's presented at court, the King decides to announce that he's going to marry Catherine, which is only interrupted by an attack from the Jabberwock. But Catherine -- who is intrigued by the elusive, bizarre Joker, Jest -- can't imagine anything worse than being trapped in marriage to the King. 
 So while the King courts her, Catherine finds herself falling in love with Jest instead -- which is a slight problem, since all of society is pressuring her to accept the King and sacrifice all her dreams. And even worse, the Jabberwock's attacks are coming more and more often. With her options growing slimmer by the day, Catherine finds that she may be trapped into an engagement against her will -- and when she tries to seize the life she wants, she finds that her terrible fate may be immovable. 
 I tend to find it a bit difficult to read most "Alice in Wonderland"-based fantasy stories, because they invariably have to discard the one thing that sets Wonderland apart from all other fantasy worlds -- the nonsense. Meyer has to jettison the surreality of Wonderland, but she keeps in a considerable amount of weirdness (fruit trees tend to grow in Catherine's bedroom) and humorous nonsense ("Fire her? For being a terrible cook? What cruelty." "But . . . she's a cook." "Yes. And cook she does.... Just not well"). 
 Her writing is swift and smooth, with little ornate moments ("with white-silver hair that cascaded down her back and skin the colour of milk thinned with water"); the moments when Jest is onstage are particularly enchanting, as he's all bright eyes, quicksilver emotions and raven feathers. Familiar faces from Wonderland are also here (the King of Hearts, the Mad "Hatta," the Marchioness, the Caterpillar, the Mock Turtle, and of course the Cheshire Cat), sculpted into distinct personalities that work well within Meyer's story, as well as the subplots she whips up (a secondary romance between a prudish maiden and a man with a warthog head). 
 And despite the whimsical setting of the story, its final act takes a distinctly dark turn, entwining the reappearance of the Jabberwock with the terrible prophecies of the Sisters. It's a credit to Meyer's skill that she can make a story in Wonderland so gripping and dark, without a shred of out-of-place whimsy. 
 It's also a credit that she creates an early version of the Queen of Hearts that is recognizable -- she's a commanding girl with a temper, she has a sweet tooth, she tends towards chubbiness, she develops a violent hatred of white roses -- but thoroughly likable, especially as she wrestles with her own desires versus those forced on her by her parents and the King. But we all know where her story will end, and it becomes clear that only something soul-crushingly tragic could lead to that. 
 Marissa Meyer gives a haunting new twist to the world of Wonderland in "Heartless," an exquisite and devastating little fantasy that lets you see how the Queen of Hearts came to be. A powerful and clever tale, on either side of the Looking Glass.