Scan barcode
A review by syringaflower
Hotel Lonely Hearts by Heather O'Neill
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.
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.
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.