The Beheading Game

A Novel

By: Rebecca Lehmann

Narrated by: Florence Howard

Disgraced. Beheaded. And out for revenge . . .

We all know what happened to Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn. But what if she woke up the day after her execution and took it upon herself to seek justice?

“Fabulous! A marvelously inventive and mythic reworking of the story of Anne Boleyn. I loved it.”—Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love

“Nobody was surprised at Anne’s conviction. The world loves to put a woman in her place.”

The Beheading Game begins in the hours after Anne Boleyn’s beheading, when she wakes to find herself unceremoniously laid to rest in a makeshift coffin, her head wrapped in linen at her knees. Discarded by King Henry VIII for being unable to give him a male heir and reviled by Cromwell for being too smart for her own good, she was ultimately executed based on trumped-up charges of adultery, incest, and high treason.

Anne escapes the Tower of London, sews her head back on, then sets out on a quest to kill Henry VIII before he can marry her own lady-in-waiting Jane Seymour. The stakes are high—if Jane gives birth to a rival heir, Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth, will lose her claim to the throne. Traveling the streets of London in the guise of a commoner, with the help of a prostitute who becomes a trusted friend (and perhaps something more), Anne soon realizes how little she knew about life in the real world.

A fantastical journey through the wilds of England and Tudor history, filled with danger and magic and steeped in Arthurian legend, The Beheading Game is a prescient reminder that “mouthy” women have always been punished. Now, thanks to debut novelist Rebecca Lehmann, nearly five hundred years after Anne Boleyn’s death, one of history’s most maligned women finally has the chance to tell her story.

A satisfying fantasy.

I wish this could have been Anne's reality. A bit slow in the middle but a good beginning and satisfying ending.

Loved It

A wonderfully weird story that is also a tale about class and privilege and feminism.

Interesting concept

I really, really wanted to love this book. It was an interesting concept; but it's execution was not what I expected. I could get on board with the magical realism aspects if it were heavily explored more earlier in the story. I feel like this story could have benefited from an epilogue where Anne would check in on Elizabeth (as queen) in her falcon form throughout her life.
That's just my nitpick.

Such a great story.

The writing is good alone but the character development was what I really loved. There are so many times where you want Anne to success but also hate her and her attitude. She developed so much through the story. so well done.

Good idea for a story, but…

I listened to this in one sitting. I was excited for this book to come out because the Tudors are a fascination of mine. That said, I wish the story had gone deeper into the world it creates rather than focusing on actual historical facts. There are some amazing ideas and situations in this story that could have been fleshed out now.