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A review by literarycrushes
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill
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!
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!