Reviews

Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill

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saaaaarah's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

sapphicbookworm's review against another edition

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4.0

absolutely devoured this novel, but I had a nagging feeling the entire time that I already read this story, despite the fact that I can't find any evidence to prove it lmao

slsj_'s review against another edition

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4.0

This book was shocking to say the least. I did not expect it to be so crude and heartbreaking, but it was. In the best way. This is a story about how your childhood effects your adulthood. There are aspects of true love, magical realism, metaphors and fluff! But most of this books is hard. It takes you through the worst of times for these two orphans who you are rooting for from the beginning. It was a great read that made me hurt and heal.

caaassie's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

literarycrushes's review against another edition

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4.0

Wow. The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill was one of the most immersive books I’ve read in a while. The novel starts out in 1910 when two babies, Rose and Pierrot, are abandoned on the outskirts of Montreal. They grow up together in a strict Catholic orphanage that is the stuff of nightmares, from brutal beatings to a young nun who continually rapes the eleven-year-old Pierrot. Despite their circumstances, the children maintain a beautiful openness to the world and dream of one day traveling the world together as a musical circus act.
After being separated as teenagers during The Great Depression, they are forced into an underworld of sex, drugs, and fighting for survival at all costs. Despite hardships and other relationships, the two never forget each other and spend copious amounts of time pining for one another. We watch as they walk parallel lines, narrowly escaping each other’s notice for over five years (occasionally this separation is orchestrated by jealous or evil lovers).
While the content of the book is very adult, O’Neill maintained a childlike, imaginative tone, even as Rose and Pierrot enter their twenties. Part of the reason for this, I think, was her peppering (if not *overly seasoning*) of metaphors throughout the book. They would often be stuck at the end of a paragraph or chapter almost randomly but added to the overall tone of the novel. It is high-concept, and if anything, my only complaints are that it occasionally felt too busy with completing plot points, and the innumerable times that Rose and Pierrot JUST miss each other was starting to feel slightly ridiculous after a while.
Still, O’Neill manages to build a fantastical world without isolating readers. Her characters were some of the most memorable ones I’ve encountered in recent literature. It felt somehow like an amalgamation of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Boardwalk Empire, and All the Light We Cannot See. Highly recommend!

syringaflower's review against another edition

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2.0

What a story. And I have quite a lot of opinions about it.
What I expected was a romance story that takes place in the circus- but what I got was a gritty, dark and unexpectedly hypersexualized story. (And repetitive. How often can you put sex in a book without it selling as a soft porn I wonder?)

The first part of the book, their childhood and early teenager years are dark, brutal, but still realistic and easy to read through, but the problems for me began when that part ended.

Spoiler

Around the time Rose became sexual and Pierrot started to use heroïn, the story started to drag and the scenes became more and more absurd, as if to portray some sort shock value over storytelling.
From dumping miscarriages / dead newborns in the toilet / trash / river to becoming a hooker. From selfish actions to purposefully ruining their own and other people's lives. From thousands upon thousands of sexual acts, and the fact that both main characters are very much Mary Sue and Gary Stue respectively, this book was a dumpsterfire from the begin to the end. Pierrot's suicide by overdose was the least shocking part of the story.
Objectively, Pierrot and Rose are both terrible people, unredeemable from the moment they were adults. And the so-called "soft and cute" ending is completely ruined by the fact that Rose is a gangster that turned into the person she hated most and that Poppy, thanks to Pierrot, has to fend for herself and is never heard from again.

This book is not one where you could, or should, identify with the main characters. If you want to enjoy this book, you have to let go of any kind of connection and read it for the trainwreck it is.

I strongly suggest that before reading this book, you should be warned it is filled with the worst things humanity and life have to offer, times a hundred.