Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill

21 reviews

siobhanward's review

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I feel like I falter sometimes on O'Neill. I really did not like <i> The Lonely Hearts Hotel </i>, but I'm glad I wound up reading this one. O'Neill has a gift for writing women, and I appreciate that her women are not helpless. They may seem hopeless (and out of touch in this case) at times, but never entirely helpless. 

I loved the juxtaposition between Marie and Mary, I thought a lot of that plot was clever. 

I also do like that the characters kind of got what was coming to them, which doesn't often happen in these books. In a post-Trump world, it's nice that some times bad people meet bad endings or aren't forgiven for the shitty things they've done.

. I had a lot of fun with this one - I wish more of the setting had been explored, especially the anglo area of Montreal that the characters lived, but there was already a lot happening, so I get why it wasn't. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Rape

Moderate: Death

Minor: Death of parent

lindseyhall44's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

When we lost our heads is a story of love, obsession, desire, and class, as Marie Antoine and Sadie Arnet’s passionate relationship changes the fate of 19th century Montreal.
For fans of feminine rage novels with strong characters, I would highly highly recommend When We Lost Our Heads

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abortion, Abandonment, Rape, Suicide, Grief, Violence, and Self harm

Moderate: Bullying

thoughtful_reader's review

dark funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Rape, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

deezy's review

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Murder, Classism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent and Forced institutionalization

kaitisbooknook's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Marie Antoine, the sole child and heir of sugar factory owner Louis Antoine, and Sadie Arnett, the daughter of a wannabe, morally righteous politician, form an unlikely but distinctly intense and passionate friendship in 19th century Montreal. When a childhood game of make believe results in the accidental yet tragic death of one of the Antoine family’s maids, the girls are forced to separate - an event that not only had far reaching consequences for the ladies and their families, but for the entire world.  

I can easily say this is my favorite release of 2022, my personal favorite read of the year so far, and now one of my all-time favorite books. O’Neill masterfully explores the various ways in which women, but in 19th century Montreal and present day, are oppressed, whether that be by societal shame or the law of the land. She explores struggles of gender and gender identity, sexuality, class, and international relationships in a way that ties together both eras, showing us we may not have progressed as much as we think we have. 

Through incredibly lyrical yet concise writing, she draws you in from the first chapter and doesn’t let you go even after you’ve finished the last page. Her omniscient narration that even knows the minds of pigs and inanimate objects is at once sympathetic and brutally honest, so you will deeply care for each character even while acknowledging their great imperfections.

Given the recent news regarding the threat to our own bodily autonomy in the United States, I urge you to pick this up. I cannot recommend it enough. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

beanjoles's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I was SO into this book in part one, and found the rest of the book to be a bit of a let-down. :( 

To me this book has a similar tone and style to season one of The Great, and I kept picturing Marie as Elle Fanning's Catherine and Sadie as Phoebe Fox's Marial (sort of). There's a great deal of dedacent behaviour; everything is lush and beautiful (except for when it's unbearably drab and unjust). Sadie and Marie are always laughing at themselves and at the world to some degree. Everything is a bit absurd to them except each other. 

Spoilers for parts two-three:

Based on character names I assumed that the plot would pivot to involve a social revolution, and indeed it did. But, for me that kind of ruined things. I was captivated by the depth and peculiarity of Sadie and Marie's obsession with each other because it closely mirrors what a lot of queer women feel for their "best friends" growing up (minus the murder element for most of us). This book excelled when it was describing these two personalities playing off of one another. I wish the author would have chosen a singular direction and stuck with it, rather than trying to make this book about social revolution and about their friendship. To me it just didn't gel. 

Part two shows them both developing separately. Sadie's character progression worked, but but it didn't make sense to me why Marie went down the road she did despite what happened with Phillip. 

Also, to have them get back together AND NO INTIMACY?! They clearly have an erotic love of sorts for each other and while we get to see this with George (and everyone else Sadie is with), that element of Marie and Sadie's relationship is almost never broached. I kept waiting for them to be a power couple in all aspects but alas, it was not to be.

So as you can see, I guess part of my rating comes from the book not focusing on what I wanted it to lol. However, I also struggled with the writing. Overall, it was slightly sardonic and weird and enjoyable. But there was SO MUCH repetitive sentence structure. Entire paragraphs of "She thought this. She wondered that. She walked here. She picked up an object. Then she put it down."  I'm not sure if this was intended to produce a certain rhythmic effect; to me it came across as stilted and unnatural. 

Overall: Promising, don't regret reading it, but I am left wishing the author had gone in a different direction and played into her strengths, which imo was the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Sexual violence

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide

smallestcat's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion, Rape, Murder, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Abandonment, Suicide, Classism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, and Colonisation

prairieraven's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Lesbophobia, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, Bullying, Classism, Violence, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

nessas_lair's review

dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

💥Content Warning: Suicide, death of a parent, killing animals, drug use, abortion, rape, prostitution, gender identity, and sexual content💥
•
Thank you Harper Collins Canada for the eARC! I ended up buying the book because I loved it so much. Like, it's SO GOOD. Y'all need to read it. I have no words, it's just an amazing piece of writing. This book covers so many topics about the female plight and it's such a profound and emotional read. The writing style and character building is fantastic. Everything is just so great. There's also a couple plot twists near the end that blew my mind. Just go read this 😍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal death, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual content, and Drug use

unphilosophize's review

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Update 20240218:
This book did not disappoint the second time around. I forgot a lot of things that had happened, especially the twist ending. 

What an absolutely wonderful novel about the power of friendship, revolution, and women’s sexuality. 

Og review: 
I cannot believe that this was the first Heather O’Neill that I’ve read. 

Exquisitely written 

A beautiful exploration of love, sexuality, gender, and class. 

I honestly can’t think of a more perfect book right now. 

George deserves better 

Thank you to Harper Collins for giving me access to an arc through my work #indigoemployee

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Misogyny, Gun violence, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Classism, Death of parent, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Abandonment, Abortion, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Drug use

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Vomit