Name: Alex S's review of When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill
Item: When We Lost Our Heads
Rating: 5
Author: Alex S

Heather O'Neill

A spellbinding story about two girls whose friendship is so intense it not only threatens to destroy them, it changes the trajectory of history. Marie Antoine is the charismatic, spoiled daughter of a sugar baron. At 12 years old, with her blond curls and her unparalleled sense of whimsey, she's the leader of all the children in the Golden Mile, an affluent strip of 19th century Montreal. Until one day in 1873, when Sadie Arnett, dark-haired, sly, and brilliant, moves to the neighborhood. Marie and Sadie are immediately united by their passion and intensity, and they attract and repel each other in ways that light each of them on fire. Marie with her bubbly charm sees the light and sweetness of the world, whereas Sadie's obsession with darkness is all consuming. Soon their childlike games take on a thrill of danger and then become deadly. Forced to separate, they spend their teenage years engaged in acts of alternating innocence and depravity--until a singular event unites them once more, with dizzying effects. And after Marie inherits her father's sugar empire and Sadie disappears into the city's gritty underworld, a revolution of the working class begins to foment. Each of them will have unexpected roles to play in events that upend their city--the only question is whether they will find each other once more. 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 and power, sex and desire, class and status, and the terrifying power of the human heart when it can't let someone go.

When We Lost Our Heads

Juliette Fontaine 

Alex S

From the bestselling author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel, a spellbinding story about two young women whose friendship is so intense it not only threatens to destroy them, it changes the course of history Marie Antoine is the charismatic, spoiled daughter of a sugar baron. At age twelve, with her pile of blond curls and unparalleled sense of whimsy, she’s the leader of all the children in the Golden Mile, the affluent strip of nineteenth-century Montreal where powerful families live. Until one day in 1873, when Sadie Arnett, dark-haired, sly and brilliant, moves to the neighbourhood. Marie and Sadie are immediately inseparable. United by their passion and intensity, they attract and repel each other in ways that set them both on fire. Marie, with her bubbly charm, sees all the pleasure of the world, whereas Sadie’s obsession with darkness is all-consuming. Soon, their childlike games take on the thrill of danger and then become deadly. Forced to separate, the girls spend their teenage years engaging in acts of alternating innocence and depravity, until a singular event unites them once more, with devastating effects. After Marie inherits her father’s sugar empire and Sadie disappears into the city’s gritty underworld, the working class begins to foment a revolution. Each woman will play an unexpected role in the events that upend their city—the only question is whether they will find each other once more. From the beloved Giller Prize-shortlisted author who writes “like a sort of demented angel with an uncanny knack for metaphor” (Toronto Star), When We Lost Our Heads is a page-turning novel that explores gender and power, sex and desire, class and status, and the terrifying strength of the human heart when it can’t let someone go.

A Novel

britt

this book was absolutely delicious. books about friendships between girls are always the most raw. it managed to do something which i find not many are able to and that was let its women be feminine and obscene. and i adored it. 

i loved the imagery in this book. o’neill’s writing was extraordinarily delectable. she fully took the feelings of girlhood and put it into words. i can’t highlight it all in this review but i will include one of my favorites: 

“She thought, I will walk in and I will sit quietly for an hour. All I will have to do is perform being a well-mannered girl. It couldn't be that hard. She would do it just this once. There were girls at every dining-room table performing being good-mannered, so why couldn't she? There were girls in bedrooms performing desire and submission. There were girls in kitchens performing being hostesses. There were girls in parks performing being coy, delicate flowers or shrinking violets. Was there a girl anywhere in the city who wasn't performing?”

this book attempted to take on a lot and i'm still not sure how well it did it - but i know i was mildly intrigued the whole way through. i don't think i've ever encountered a novel in which twists and reveals felt both shocking and inconsequential, but in this case i believe that too is part of the story. 

in all honesty, i originally snapped up this book from a lovely local bookstore while traveling because of an employee rec and a mona awad blurb on the cover. and similar to an awad work - i am left taken on a journey and left in a daze with no regards to the questions i may be left with, and i think i'm learning this is my preferred state? i like untidy ends creeping out of a story that you can try and weave if you feel so inclined but really what is the point? 

i'm not going to pretend this work is as revolutionary as it may try to be at times, and to its credit i don't think o'neill is trying to portray the writing as a reinvention of the wheel, but i did enjoy the different social dynamics taking place in this story. even revolutionaries are not painted as pious selfless figures - and this level of awareness somehow makes them more grounded. in the end, all are similarly motivated, but despite that end up in far different places. 

one of the main drags for me was marie's pov sometimes. while there is an attempt to make her motivations and way of thinking clear and more understandable, it at times makes her far less interesting. in contrast, sadie - the other main character - seems to be interesting for the sake of being so, with her motivations and backgrounds far less rooted. as a result, sadie is intriguing regardless, and marie is intriguing in her relation to sadie. despite my love for desire to the point of destruction, even i found it hard to root for the pair at times, yet also the distinct impression that my approval is meaningless.  

in the end, this is without a doubt a white woman's novel. it is full of drama, obsession, heartbreak and just enough reality to hold the mirror up for a beat or two. i think sadie and marie are captivating in the sense that they have little regard of the world outside each other, and how that is both their triumph and their downfall. it prompts the question, is the truth relevant after a certain social class? 

tiff <3

this book attempted to take on a lot and i'm still not sure how well it did it - but i know i was mildly intrigued the whole way through. i don't think i've ever encountered a novel in which twists and reveals felt both shocking and inconsequential, but in this case i believe that too is part of the story. 

in all honesty, i originally snapped up this book from a lovely local bookstore while traveling because of an employee rec and a mona awad blurb on the cover. and similar to an awad work - i am left taken on a journey and left in a daze with no regards to the questions i may be left with, and i think i'm learning this is my preferred state? i like untidy ends creeping out of a story that you can try and weave if you feel so inclined but really what is the point? 

i'm not going to pretend this work is as revolutionary as it may try to be at times, and to its credit i don't think o'neill is trying to portray the writing as a reinvention of the wheel, but i did enjoy the different social dynamics taking place in this story. even revolutionaries are not painted as pious selfless figures - and this level of awareness somehow makes them more grounded. in the end, all are similarly motivated, but despite that end up in far different places. 

one of the main drags for me was marie's pov sometimes. while there is an attempt to make her motivations and way of thinking clear and more understandable, it at times makes her far less interesting. in contrast, sadie - the other main character - seems to be interesting for the sake of being so, with her motivations and backgrounds far less rooted. as a result, sadie is intriguing regardless, and marie is intriguing in her relation to sadie. despite my love for desire to the point of destruction, even i found it hard to root for the pair at times, yet also the distinct impression that my approval is meaningless.  

in the end, this is without a doubt a white woman's novel. it is full of drama, obsession, heartbreak and just enough reality to hold the mirror up for a beat or two. i think sadie and marie are captivating in the sense that they have little regard of the world outside each other, and how that is both their triumph and their downfall. it prompts the question, is the truth relevant after a certain social class? 

sage g

parker

taryn a.

4.5 stars and the best book I've read in 2022 so far! I at times tend to suffer from my own creative brain when I read, inevitably coming up with an ending I feel a novel should lead to by the time I'm at the three-quarter mark, lending to occasional disappointment when it veers in another direction. This could never have been the case for When We Lost Our Heads, partially because I couldn't have come up with something that parallels Heather O'Neill's work on the best of days, but also because I was so consumed by the story that I didn't have the time or capacity to let my brain stray from the sugar-inlayed path into the dark wood set out in front of me.

The effect of When We Lost Our Heads is very much like binging on gorgeous, intricately-iced confections - including the taste of bile that comes up after overindulgence. The characters were compulsive in their charm and simultaneous unlikability, the setting at once dreamlike and gauche, the prose enchanting and raw. The only reason I can't give it a full 5 stars is because it didn't touch my heart in the way other novels (including O'Neill's The Lonely Heart Hotel), and I found the abbreviated style of writing occasionally choppy and disruptive.

Juliette Fontaine &
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill

Reviews

Join the club

Juliette Fontaine &When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill

Reviews

Join the club

Juliette Fontaine &
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill