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A review by beanjoles
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill
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.
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:
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship and Sexual violence
Moderate: Animal death, Rape, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide