Readability Review No. 2: When We Lost Our Heads
Writers' challenge begins June 23 + A review of Heather O'Neill's When We Lost Our Heads
This is The Book Case, the newsletter of Dinah Laprairie, Book Coach & Reader’s Advocate.
If you’re just joining me here, you are welcome. I write about the practice of writing and the practice of delight, and write book reviews that measure how successfully a book engages its readers, from cover design to the final page. It’s delivered on a whim — or when I can squeeze it in. You’re always welcome to respond — and share!
I’m pretty proud of myself for delivering ANOTHER newsletter this month. I see how frequently others post, and I simply can’t. How do people do it? But this week, I’m on fire, doing all the things! And today I want to continue with my new department of The Book Case, Readability, reviewing how engaging books can be, from first glance to the final page. If that’s what you’re here for, click here to jump down. First, I need to tell you about another project of mine, and it’s a little time-sensitive….
Are you a writer in search of readers?
Join my 4-day, 4-session challenge June 23-26, 2024
Last week, I made it official: I opened enrollment for my 4-day writers challenge called Your Imagined Reader, running June 23-26. It’s all about that magical connection between writer and reader.
But I want to share a little bit about why I created it – and why I think it can be such a game-changer for you.
A lot of my book coaching is about editorial feedback and strategy, but I come to book coaching first as a reader. It’s what I do best. Heck, I’ve made a career of it working in editorial roles for years. And when I hold a book in my hand that excites me, I can’t wait to tell other people about it.
That’s what I want for you.
• Readers who can’t help but pass along your book to friends.
• Readers who underline your words and recommend your book to book club.
• Readers who really hear your message and take it out into the world.
So, if you’ve been wanting to examine your ideal reader, register today and join the Imagined Reader challenge beginning just over a week from now. It’s only $49 USD.
We start on June 23, but why wait till then to join the challenge?
Each session, I’ll lead you through exercises so that you can meet your future reader. You’ll have a new way to focus on your manuscript, and be able to pitch your book to agents and publishers knowing who wants to read a book like yours.
Here I am, telling you more about it. (Apologies for the terrible thumbnail! Egads!)
ONE MORE THING: I can’t forget to mention this:
As a bonus, I’m giving registrants a deep discount on a follow-up book coaching session with me after the challenge end.
We begin one week from today!
Ready to jump in? Register now.
Got questions? I’ve got answers! Just reach out in a DM and ask away! I’d be happy to help! Or, click this button:
READABILITY: Readers, Engaged
Book reviews that measure engagement with the book.
Readability Review:
When We Lost Our Heads, by Heather O’Neill
I was immersed in this wicked, wonderful world.
Type of book: e-book
Bought or borrowed: Bought
Provenance: I can’t help but buy books on sale, especially when they are books on my TBR list. And especially when the author is known to me as a master of language. When this title came up on Kobo, I snapped it up.
The book’s promise:
The author - I loved The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and I wanted to read more by Heather O’Neill. I wanted to see if the humour and wicked insight I saw in Saturday Night could be replicated — or retold — in this book. I wanted another reimagined world.
The cover - I love how this book avoids the trends in its use of colour (pink! blue!), the old-timey typeface, and the illustration. We can’t guess at any tropes from the design, which is entirely appropriate; who can categorize Heather O’Neill, after all? Her writing is entirely different from anything else you have read.
The book jacket copy - Montreal in the late 1800s? That was enough to pique my curiosity, but the book promised sugar barons and inseparable girls in a fraught friendship. All the ingredients sounded tempting:
From the cover: “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.”
The chapter titles - It was a few months before I opened this book, finally tucked into bed one night. I scrolled through my list of books titles, wondering which book my mood would dictate. It was the chapter titles that convinced me to crack the virtual spine and begin to read. Check out these titles: A School for Girls Who Refuse to Smile, Eulogy for a Pair of Pistols, The Heart Is an Ugly Thumper.
Readability qualities:
The first paragraph! I won’t give it all away, but there are rosebushes, pistols, and two young girls in peril.
Classic characters in caricature. It’s Dickens x Tim Burton with a dark-humoured, feminist twist. Classic characters are stretched and poked. The Canny Madame, the Self-Sufficient Orphan, the Spoiled Rich Girl. They can only be real in this world, which operates outside of tradition.
We read the margins of the history books. It’s about the role of our bodies — the labour of women’s bodies, bodies and identity, bodies and bawdiness, how we must conceal and protect our bodies, how capitalism relies on bodies, and what happens when we tire of our bodies being used by others. It’s about how we win back our bodies. It’s also about morality, immorality, and amorality.
The city is alive. Animate or inanimate, the city of Montreal is so alive that all beings and things bend and respond to events:
She seemed to grow two inches in height. Her clothes began to fit her better. It was as though her long black coat was proud to be worn by her. Her scarf flipped itself in the wind in an arrogant way.
Colors changed whenever she came into the room. Reds became redder and began to glow. The bells on the doors always rang louder. These were all known ways nature had of informing you that a murderer was in the room. Stray dogs would often fall in love with her. There was always at least one dog trying to follow her down the street.
Verdict: O’Neill’s storytelling is a marvel. I felt I was sitting in a big-top tent, the ringmaster leading me through a show featuring all the iconic characters and misfits I wanted to see doing unexpected, brilliant, terrible, and terribly impressive feats. This was a story I knew but didn’t. It had me cheering and hissing in turn, and applauding in admiration at the skill of its author. I loved the spectacle, and the wonky, wonderfully alive world of When We Lost Our Heads. Reader engagement: 5 out of 5
This is for you if:
You embrace a new slant on a historical setting
You love zany yet sobering takes on traditional characters
You enjoy questions of morality/amorality/immorality
You are willing to walk in the imagination of a master storyteller
If you want to read it:
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada Date: 2022 ISBN: 978 1443 4515 98
Buy it at Bookshop.org Buy it on Amazon
Buy it at Indigo Chapters Look for it in a library near you
More Readability reviews coming soon:
Watch for my reader engagement reviews of Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man, Karen Slaughter’s False Witness and Radical Acts of Love by Janie Brown. Which do you want to read first? Leave a comment below!
Do you want to submit your own Readability Review? Email me at hello@dinahlaprairie.com
Coming soon in The Book Case
More details on the Mini Memoir Retreat on August 14, 2024 in Sudbury, Ontario. I’m joining up with fellow book coach
once again for a day-long workshop. You can register now for $99 at https://bit.ly/Mini-Memoir-RetreatAnother Rekindle Creativity writing retreat? We’re putting pieces together now. Watch for an announcement. We are looking at Fall 2024. (I’m excited just thinking about it!)
Honestly, I’m so grateful you’re all here, reading. Thanks for showing up.
