Reviews

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

kimpossible's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

whiskybaker's review

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

megpsmit's review against another edition

4.0

This book was a very engaging read and the subject matter was one of my favorite periods to read about. I thought the characters are very believable and insetting to learn about. However I did think there was a lot going on on the book and I could have done without a few of the story aspects, it is hard to recommend the book when all I could come up with was it is a book about the 1920’s, prostitution, prohibition, race relations, the mafia and transgender people. It is just a lot to have in one book and none of the subjects were fully explored.

j0reads's review against another edition

This book is written so densely in 1920s speak that it’s hard to decipher. It’s not impossible, but I find the constant emphasis on the protagonist’s nobody-ness to be irritating and it doesn’t compel me to read any further. 

amarasanti's review against another edition

3.0

I read this book because it was partly about Portland, Oregon in the days when Black individuals were not legally allowed to live in the State of Oregon. I was not aware that this was a part of the State's history. That said, if you want to learn more about that history, I would research that directly and skip the reading of this book. I'm probably being generous giving this 3 stars but I did like the characters that she created. However, the book seemed disjointed to me. Alice, the main character, grows up with the Mafia and then we switch from the Mafia to her heading to Portland and moving into a hotel for black individuals. It switches back and forth between the past and current. She befriends the occupants of the hotel and tries to help them but there is really no depth to her role in the second part of the book. In my opinion, both story lines would have been great if they had been separate books. She really had two great ideas that could have been excellent if they were given the attention they deserved.

frogggirl2's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a fast-paced historical mystery, a mob story, a racial justice story, it has amazing LGTBQIA+ representation and it made me cry.  The characters are the strongest part of this story and I'll remember Blossom particularly fondly for a long time.

littlelarks's review

5.0

It's not a book. This was never a book.
This is a love letter.

Wow I love this with my whole heart folks.

princessfabulous's review against another edition

Could not get into the audio at all. This was the only format I could find without buying the book.

we_are_all_mad_here26's review against another edition

4.0

I did not know that Oregon was (in 2016, and quite likely still today) the 'whitest state in America.' Given the history detailed in The Paragon Hotel however, I guess I'm not surprised.

This was such a good book - despite the dual timelines it raced right along, and I found both the past and present stories interesting (as usual, though, the present beat out the past, but in this case by just a little). Alice/Nobody is a great, brave, fun character, Blossom even more so, and Max made me want to take a cross-country train journey asap. Fun to read while also occasionally soul-crushing. That is a trick you don't see very often.

Loved it and will certainly recommend to others who are torn as to what to read next.

trinsmith's review against another edition

The writing style was incredibly hard to follow and not interesting to read, very wordy.