Thank you Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"Off With Their Heads" by Zoe Hana Mikuta is a surreal and ambitious journey that plunges readers into a world of enchantment, madness, and twisted romance. Drawing inspiration from "Alice in Wonderland," Mikuta crafts a narrative that defies easy categorization, blending elements of horror, fantasy, and romance into a mesmerizing tapestry of storytelling. The premise of this book was so interesting and unique. And, just like “Alice in Wonderland,” the story is reminiscent of a fever dream with so many different elements and aspects of worldbuilding combining into an engaging (though sometimes confusing) story.

The book follows the story of Caro and Icca, two young protagonists whose relationship forms the heart of the narrative. Set against a backdrop of grief, trauma, and love, their journey unfolds in a world that feels both familiar and utterly bizarre. As they navigate through a landscape filled with dark secrets and hidden dangers, readers are taken on a rollercoaster ride of emotions and revelations.

At its core, "Off With Their Heads" is a story about identity, friendship, and the search for meaning in a world that seems to defy logic and reason. Mikuta's world-building is both intricate and captivating, drawing you into a realm where nothing is as it seems and reality itself is up for grabs. I will say that the worldbuilding and some of the different plot points was a bit confusing at times. I sometimes had to put the book down to digest what exactly was going on, and I sometimes lost track of what exactly was happening. This is definitely not a book you can read in one sitting. So, while the book's surreal and dreamlike quality may not be to everyone's taste, if you enjoy the unconventional narrative, you may find yourself immersed in a tale that is as thought-provoking as it is unsettling. Mikuta's prose is evocative and vivid, painting a vivid picture of a world teetering on the brink of chaos.

I enjoyed the character writing as well with their development of Caro and Icca throughout, especially since we get both of their perspectives. The focus on the protagonists' relationship was a bit excessive with the love-hate thing, though I know many readers are absolutely loving this troupe right now.

Overall, "Off With Their Heads" is a bold and daring novel that pushes the boundaries of young adult fiction. While it may not have the most linear storytelling, its ambition and creativity make it a compelling choice for readers looking for something out of the ordinary.

It is difficult to know exactly where to start with this one. I think by coming out on the other side of it, I've absorbed a little bit of the madness that the rest of the characters have been afflicted - or perhaps blessed - with.

This is an extremely surreal book. It's dreamlike in both setting and prose. It does an excellent job of using various framing elements such as the narrator and the "Saints Remaining" at the beginning of each chapter to stitch together a truly strange and altering story.

It's horror, it's fantasy, it's not really a romance but there also isn't a better word for what it is. It's not a story that I feel like I can encapsulate in a review, but one that I think truly just needs to be read. The summary of the book does nothing to capture the actual reality-bending experience it is, making it sound straightforward where it is not. It's a twisty thing that is difficult to pin down, but I feel as though I have gained something intangible by reading it. This is going to be the kind of book that splits opinions, and I think for that alone, for it daring to be as absolutely strange and weird as it is, that it's going to be an extremely important book.

Zoe Hana Mikuta's novel is too smart for me. I need to read it two more times to really understand the intricacies. I feel like a puppet in her universe, much like everyone in the Red Queen's kingdom. Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for an early read in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book! I hate to say it, but I don't think this was my cup of tea. This book will appeal to you if you like the Locked Tomb series (Gideon, Harrow, Nona the Ninth). Jumping time lines plus perspectives along with an unreliable narrator made this hard for me to follow, but a little fun due to the characters.

The writing style of this book just didn't really work for me. The premise was so interesting, and I liked that it was a lot gorier than I had initially expected, but something about the worldbuilding, as well as the back-and-forth timelines, confused me. Each timeline switch would sort of break the immersion for me

This is one of the hardest reviews I've ever had to write because I didn't particularly like the book, but I also couldn't stop reading.

What did work for me:
- a horror version of wonderland
- bleeding magic
- one off quotes
- lovers(ish) to enemies
- the duality of teen girls

What did not work for me:
- the writing style & skipping around in time
- the lack of anthropomorphic animals
- the names - I detested the names Icca and Tecca and Caro? Why aren't we just calling Alice Alice??
- Not learning enough about the saints

This is my first book by Mikuta and perhaps if I had picked up her debut duology I would've had a better idea of what to expect. Admittedly, she was also at a disadvantage due to my love of Alice and Wonderland as a piece of art to be interpolated. Combining characters, making animal characters human - it just didn't work for me. I was sure for a while Cheshire Cat would be the narrator and was bummed when he was just a dude (though I did like how his magic was used).

Additionally, I was so confused by the timelines at the beginning of the book. We jumped around so much in time I literally had to keep notes to figure out what was happening.

But there's also some real strengths in here. The prose has many gorgeous quotes that I highlighted and the lovers to enemies relationship between Caro and Icca was phenomenal. I love angry teenage girls and this did not disappoint. I felt like Mikuta really captured the tumultuous feelings that can grow between teenage girls - whether or not there is romance involved.

Overall, perhaps this was not the book for me but I think readers who gel more with the writing styles will have the propensity to like it a lot.

This is really a 3.5 rounded up to 4. For me personally, it's a 3, but I think if I were closer to the target audience, it would be a 4. I can see having been way more into it as an actual young adult as opposed to an almost-30 adult (although I do still enjoy YA novels)!

There were a lot of strengths to this book; the worldbuilding is an interesting twist on Alice in Wonderland, with clear inspiration that's not taken too directly or literally. I appreciated the darkness in that it would appeal to readers who are tired of fairy tales, syrupy romances, and tales without any real stakes. The history and lore of the world was the most interesting part of the book by far, and I especially enjoyed the history of Hattie and the royal family. I also appreciated the system of magic and divinity; I found it intuitive, creative, and relatable.

My struggle with this book is that there was just too much focus on the love/hate relationship between the two main characters, and I just did not care, which was a problem since it was supposed to be the foundation of the book. Neither were particularly likeable, and there was very little to convince me that I should care about their relationship. A lot of the prose seemed to be showing rather than telling; the author tells us in extreme detail exactly what each character is thinking and feeling. While this sometimes works, and there were some particularly well-crafted pieces of writing, it ended up feeling a little shoved in your face and repetitive. I was not shown enough to convince me to root for Caro and Icca, individually or together, but I was told constantly that they were terrible, twisted, messed up people who were also obsessed with each other. That being said, this may be an issue of me not being the target audience. If I were a young, angsty, queer teen, I'd probably be much more into the young, angsty, queer teens in this book, and I perhaps wouldn't be bothered as much by being told what's happening internally rather than being shown.

Off With Their Heads is ambitious and interesting, in short. While I ended up having some frustrations, especially with the amount and type of focus put on the characters and their relationship, the worldbuilding and lore was intriguing and clearly carefully developed. It wasn't quite the book for me, but I can see how it would really hit well for some people.

Zoe Hana Mikuta writes a ballastic and bracingly creative narrative set in a world that the author has built with what seems to be creativity, energy, and care.

"It is so strange, to be awake."

I love when a book promises to be utterly, madly UNHINGED ... then delivers. Say what you will about the gory, surreal, fever-dream hellscape that Zoe Hana Mikuta has wrangled up. This is precisely what an Alice in Wonderland retelling should look like (when you add heaping spoonfuls of terrible girls in love + fcked-up Saints + Korean inspo + whatever bloody, beautiful witchcraft is oozing through these pages.)

I think my brain unravelled slightly, too.

I'm interested to hear how readers respond to this one, because it's a RIDE. Sometimes, I admit, it's a little much even for me; not because of the gore or weirdness, but because it turns itself into loops that felt either repetitive or too confusing to follow. For huge swathes of the story, I was either mildly bored or had no idea wtf was happening. But. But, but, but, I also couldn't stop thinking about it. Mikuta's Wonderland dug its nasty little talons beneath my skin, and I'll be mentally living there for a long, long time. My favourite parts were those existentially introspective moments that asked big questions, like what does it mean to MEAN something, to yourself, to others? To be anything at all? Is it possible to ever be separate, or all we all a little tangled together? A little hateful? A little mad?

Ambitious. Brutal. Weird.

Hell yeah.

Off With their Heads felt a bit like a fever dream to me. Considering the source material, maybe that's not a surprise. I was very confused with what was happening in the beginning, as the time frame shifted, but I eventually sorted it out.
The world building in this book was great. The nods to Alice in Wonderland were fun.
Off With Their Heads was about grief, trauma, friendship, and love. It was definitely unique and I think a lot of readers out there will love it.

This was delicious. The worldbuilding is magnificently dense and surreal given how comparably short the text is, and the integration of the source text is so fun. Incredibly, given how immersive and layered the world is, from the unique spirituality to the politics to the monsters, the character development work was just as good. Nested in the weird fantasy vibes is a genuinely heartbreaking story about recovering from trauma and loss as well as the struggle to know one's self. The chapters that described the fallout of Icca and Caro's relationship was somehow one of the most complexly rendered literary betrayals I've ever read? The author is just incredible at rendering emotion and character growth. My only wish is that she described in graphic detail every one of the weird saints, I kept waiting for the descriptions lol.