Reader Score
86%
86% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 4 reviews on
Traveling from a repressive finishing school to a vibrant brothel, taking readers firsthand into the brutality of factory life and the opulent lives of Montreal's wealthy, When We Lost Our Heads dazzlingly explores gender, sex, desire, class, and the terrifying power of the human heart when it can't let someone go.
Kate Tuttle is a writer and editor.
Heads up: Heather O'Neill is reading tonight at Brookline Booksmith -- her new book, WHEN WE LOST OUR HEADS, is simply brilliant. Loved talking to her for my column: https://t.co/ccv5FILyoM
Belletrist is a book club founded by actor Emma Roberts and producer Karah Preiss.
FEBRUARY 💕 ‘When We Lost Our Heads’ by Heather O’Neill — pick up your copy and read along before we drop our Belletrist + @bookclubdotcom discussion with the author next Tuesday! https://t.co/IxYAQaH2v9 https://t.co/HfL8DBjMGx
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We couldn't put these books down this year and neither could @kobo! Download your copy of their top fiction picks of 2022 including #TheTheoryOfCrows by @DaveAlexRoberts, #SeaOfTranquility by @EmilyMandel, and #WhenWeLostOurHeads by @lethal_heroine 📚 https://t.co/e6Atp9V4Xb
"A twisted, perverse story that's difficult to put down...you'll be desperate to know what [the characters] do next." --Buzzfeed
"Delightful...The plot satisfies with twists and turns to the end, but it's the audaciousness of spirit emboldening most of [O'Neill's] female characters that makes this novel shine." --New York Journal of Books
"These perversely fascinating characters are filled with guile and bile and many things vile, and even though it's virtually a certainty that they are star-crossed, it's impossible to tear one's gaze away." --BookPage
"O'Neill's sharp descriptions and her prose's archaic slant successfully immerse readers in the period...this distinctive, character-driven story is delightfully perverse." --Publishers Weekly
"O'Neill uses evocative descriptions and near-constant tension to carry this dark almost-fairy-tale to anunexpected conclusion." --Booklist
"With irreverence and charm, O'Neill takes us into the vivid worlds of Sadie and Marie, unlikely friends who find themselves in the thrall of shared dark passions, threatening to destroy all they have come to know. When We Lost Our Heads is a lovely, uncanny take on the historical novel, told with O'Neill's trademark wit and empathy for human foibles." --Esi Edugyan, author of Washington Black
"A dazzling, delicious dream...penned with equal parts arsenic-laced icing and blood. There are marvels and dark delights on every page as O'Neill masterfully unfurls the lifelong love affair of Sadie and Marie, whose tale is illuminated by the triumphs of female desire over the crushing designs of men. The spell this novel casts is irresistible." --Mona Awad, author of All's Well
"I am struggling to say how much I loved this book...It is a beautiful, alarming, outraged, outrageous, dancing, laughing, shrieking, bellowing, howling, gobbling piece of wonder. What a joy!" --Edward Carey, author of The Swallowed Man