It’s been five years since young witches and lovers Caro Rabbit and Iccadora Alice Sickle were both sentenced to Wonderland, the dark forest where monsters called Saints lurk, for a crime they didn’t commit. In the process of escaping, they break one another’s hearts. Now Icca will stop at nothing to exact her revenge on Caro and the Red Queen she so vehemently worships, while Caro continues to ignore the secrets her beloved queen covets in the palace’s dark shadows. Unknown to them both, the queen covets a terrifying, twisted secret that could change everything. Can they survive the queen’s games without breaking one another even more?
For those who are unaware, I’m a big-time Alice in Wonderland fan (a glance at my bookshelves is probably indication enough of that). I’m always game for an Alice in Wonderland retelling, and after The Nightmare-Verse series by LL McKinney concluded, I was desperate for another. As with her Gearbreakers duology, Zoe Hana Mikuta doesn’t disappoint in her vivid world-building and passionate, wicked sapphic pairings. Let’s break it down:
Characters: Oh, sweet Caro and Icca. These younger lovers had so much potential in their youth, only for a devastating loss to rip them apart. The strength of these characters lies in their emotions. Off With Their Heads explores the powerful force behind grief, revenge, and obsession. Above all else, it’s an examination of the fine line between love and hate; two passionate emotions that involve obsession. For Caro and Icca, that fine line blurs more than once, adding to the story’s emotional complexity.
Plot and Pacing: My biggest issue with this story is the pacing. While the story is a blur of action and activity, the exposition becomes bulky and tiresome over time. The story explores the girls in their youth (together) before they meet up again as young adults—their time as lovers versus their time as sworn enemies. Though shifting to other POVs (like Cheshire’s and the queen’s) adds depth to the story, it also slows the pacing further.
World-Building: Zoe Hana Mikuta never fails at creating vast, interesting, yet often times confusing worlds. This isn’t an Alice in Wonderland retelling; it’s a reimagining, where “Wonderland” is a nightmare forest and “Jabberwockies” are the witches that can survive its wrath. There are so many layers to the magic system as well. Each witch has unique abilities (Caro controls crows, Icca can travel through shadow, and the queen’s abilities seem almost endless). The classic story’s setting is darker, turning a magical world into a haunting, deadly universe that amplifies the book’s horror element.
Romance: Saints. I’m weak for sapphic stories, but this… Off With Their Heads STARTS with an already powerful sapphic romance, not just between Caro and Icca, but the lover they lost too soon. Her death is the catalyst for so much pain, self-destruction, and suffering between the remaining girls. Their young love was indisputable, powerful, seemingly indestructible. That love morphs into hatred while the girls are in Wonderland, but even as enemies, it’s there—an undercurrent that carries throughout the entire story. I can’t rightfully describe that love with simple words; it’s maddening, unrelenting, and heartbreaking.
Mystery/Suspense: I’m grateful for the element of mystery in this book, specifically regarding the queen. Without it, the slow pacing would fail to keep the reader’s interest for long.
Tone/Prose: Mikuta’s prose reminds me so much of Tamsyn Muir’s, the language a perfectly dizzying acid trip. It’s nearly incomprehensible, at times, but that sometimes adds to the bizarre magic of the fantasy world that never made much sense to begin with. I will say that while the prose is similar, Mikuta’s is easier to decipher. The poetic nature of the prose is like an eerie lullaby, capable of lulling you into a false sense of security. In a word, the entire book is WEIRD, but beautifully so. Because of that, you’ll either love this book or hate it (only proving that love and hate are separated by the thinnest of lines).
Recommended for fans of Heartless and The Locked Tomb series.
The Vibes
- Queer (Bi & Lesbian) Rep
- Sapphic Romance
- Alice in Wonderland Reimagined
- Korean-Inspired
- Young Adult Fantasy/Horror
- Poetic Prose
- Lovers to Enemies
- Multi POV
Quotes
- “They would be doomed to rot if they were ever separated. They would wither and, without the other two as mirrors, they would forget themselves, and be ridiculous, clueless beings; they would misplace being wicked, and alive for it; their magic would dry up in their veins and be useless.”
- “I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”
- “Caro liked the kind of love she saw, through the curtains. Love that was not fire, impulsive and burning, but habit, and easy for it.”
- “They drifted into one another’s heads so often that most of their thoughts formed with edges already fitted to hold the outline of the other witch. That was their love, their knotted and jagged and strange kind of affection.”
- “Both [love and hate] requiring attention, passion to sustain. Both just past that fine, fine line of being alone in one’s own head, and moving over to allow another room.”
- “Deities, I love you, you bitch, and you love me, don’t you?”
