Book Buzz: The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann
“Why was Anne Boleyn executed? This was a question I asked myself when writing The Beheading Game, in which Anne Boleyn wakes up after her own execution, escapes from her grave in the Tower of London, sews her head back on, and goes on a revenge quest to kill Henry VIII before he can marry his next wife, Jane Seymour. Legally, the answer is she was executed because she was convicted of the crimes of treason, adultery and incest, but most historians today agree those charges were probably false. So, how did Anne go from being a queen consort, steps from the seat of English power, to climbing the steps to the scaffold in a matter of months? Sometimes the simplest explanation is the most likely, and, although I came to many answers to this question during my research, all of them circled around one central theme: misogyny.”
― Rebecca Lehmann, Interview, Crime Reads
What booksellers are saying about The Beheading Game
- What would happen if Anne Boleyn was able to reattach her head after her execution and seek revenge on Henry VIII? This historical reimagining is part fantasy, part fiction, and pure feminine rage. A beautiful story about one of history’s most famous women and how she gets to rewrite her story. Will be recommending to this lots of customers as a great book club pick.
― Claire, River & Hill Books in Rome, Georgia | BUY
- Absolutely loved this fantastical retelling of the death, and apparent continued life of Anne Boleyn. We meet Anne when she wakes up in a dark place…after her execution, and nobody could be more surprised than she is with this odd turn of events. She quickly flees the tower and sews her head back on and off we go on an adventure through Tutor England, full of Fairy Tales, magical friendships, and revenge.
― Jessica, E. Shaver, Booksellers, Savannah , Georgia | BUY
- More alternate histories avenging wronged women (and women’s wrongs!) please! Take this delightful tour into Tudor England along with Anne Boleyn, the recently beheaded then mysteriously resurrected Queen, as she takes on a revenge campaign against Henry VIII to secure her daughter Elizabeth’s ascdendancy to the throne. Brilliantly researched and thrillingly paced, this is Boelyn novel we didn’t know we needed.
― Amanda, Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg , Florida | BUY
- An ingenious historical retelling of the execution of Anne Boleyn that seamlessly blends horror with the fantastical. Armed with a needle, thread, and a head freshly sewn back on, the reader is treated to a feminist Medieval reckoning of epic proportions. Smart insights, lovely prose, a fairytale-like plot, and sweet, sweet revenge make this novel something you do not want to miss.
― Joshua Lambie, The Underground Bookshop, Carrollton, Georgia | BUY
About Rebecca Lehmann
Rebecca Lehmann is an award-winning poet and essayist. She has an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Maytag Fellow. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Between the Crackups; Ringer, winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize (selected by Ross Gay); and The Sweating Sickness. Her writing has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, NPR’s The Slowdown, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. She lives in Indiana with her family, where she is an associate professor of English and Gender and Women’s Studies at Saint Mary’s College..
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“I really enjoyed writing from Beth’s perspective. When I first read Little Women, I didn’t much like Beth. Honestly, she freaked me out. I couldn’t understand how she could accept her own untimely end with such ease. I wanted to shake her and say, “Aren’t you going to fight? Don’t you want to live?” Of course, she did. Writing Beth Is Dead helped me understand that Beth March never wanted to die, but she wasn’t given a choice, and she faced the unimaginable with bravery and strength..”
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Last Chance LIVE’s premise was inspired by real-world death penalty reform efforts to raise the minimum age for capital punishment. Last Chance LIVE’s protagonist, Eternity Price, was inspired by a little girl I met during my undergraduate years at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, I volunteered in Head Start classrooms in a West Philadelphia public school, and met a fouryear-old girl whose vivacious spirit deeply impacted me. I spent years contemplating how she was growing up in an impoverished neighborhood right next to an Ivy League university, but she would likely be unable to access most of its privileges and resources—and the trajectory of her life would likely be very different than the lives of most Penn students. To my knowledge, that little girl has not experienced or done anything like what Eternity has, but she and Eternity both grew up in the shadow of power and privilege. My hope for this young girl, and all children, is that they have what Eternity never did—confidence in who they are and what they are worth, and a community that reinforces this truth. I hope seeing America’s reflection in Last Chance LIVE! helps us ascribe more value to these children, and less value to “great television.” 
