Advanced Reader copy - Enjoyed this book, really opened my eyes and made me seek out other similar books to read.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found it really hard to get into. I had high hopes for this, which is a shame.

Couldn't really get into this one but it was generally a quick read. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys the genre and is looking for a short read.

Every once in a while you read a book that surprises you at every corner. I wanted to read The Lonely Hearts Hotel from the moment I read the blurb with its promises of fairytales, a circus, love, loss and the Depression, all mixed together. I wondered how Heather O'Neill would bring it all together into one coherent novel, if that was even possible, but I can tell you now that she succeeded! Thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Aaah Magical Realism. Nothing is more fantastical and true than Magical Realism in my mind. Real life is full of of little, magical moments that seem to come straight from a novel. And the beauty of Magical Realism is that the genre's novels celebrate those small moments, it allows the outrageous to be normal and the normal to be magical. Think of a movie like Pan's Labyrinth, which doesn't hide the horror of this world, but also doesn't let its darkness overshadow the beauty and innocence of childhood and the world. In The Lonely Hearts Hotel O'Neill lets that beauty shine, while also writing about the Depression, depression itself, heartache, abuse, drugs and violence. Although all these things are addressed, The Lonely Hearts Hotel never feels entirely sad or hopeless. Rather O'Neill manages to celebrate the perseverance and beauty of humanity exactly by showing us its lows as well as its highs. Above all, however, the novel is an ode to the imagination and to love.

At the heart of The Lonely Hearts Hotel are Rose and Pierrot. two orphans who meet at an orphanage and brighten their fellow orphans' days with their tricks. Both seemed touched by a fantastical innocence that allows them to wholeheartedly believe in their dreams and hopes, no matter how cold and harsh the world outside themselves really is. Throughout their story there is a sense of fate and doom, as the two are constantly torn apart and almost brought back together as they try to survive in Depression-era Montreal. The novel moves effortlessly between their two narratives, showing us how both mature in the lifepaths set out for them. Whereas Pierrot moves violently from dazzling heights to harrowing lows, Rose lives with a steady, determined belief in her dream of a circus, of freedom, of love. At times O'Neill is very explicit, whether it's about her characters' sexual exploits or their descents into drug use. For some readers this might be a little off-putting, but I loved how honestly O'Neill describes her characters. She doesn't sugarcoat their actions, doesn't hide their madness or the depths to which they sink. But by showing us the lows, the highs are all the more spectacular.

Heather O'Neill's writing is brilliant. I hadn't read her previous books or heard of her, but the magic promised by The Lonely Hearts Hotel captivated me immediately. From the first page, O'Neill delivered on the promise made by the blurb. Not only were the characters she created incredibly interesting, but the way she described them was both loving and honest, which means the reader couldn't help but love them in return. One of the main things I adored about The Lonely Hearts Hotel was how O'Neill set her scenes. Whether it's the orphanage, a hotel, Montreal in winter, New York, a circus act, a casino. O'Neill describes it all in beautiful detail, to the point where I could close my eye at any point during the novel and picture exactly what was going on. The Lonely Hearts Hotel feels like a film noir, one of those classic movies that takes you away for a while, let's you escape and indulge yourself in beautiful language and outrageous characters. I can't wait to dig into Heather O'Neill's other books to get another dose of her writing!

The Lonely Hearts Hotel is an outrageously, dangerously beautiful book! Stunningly written by Heather O'Neill, this novel will take you to the most unexpected places and the most dizzying heights. At times the novel's themes are very dark and that may not be for everyone, yet I would encourage all readers to give The Lonely Hearts Hotel a try. You won't regret it!

I really enjoyed this book. I had no expectations other than knowing it had something to do with clowns and two children from an orphanage.
It could be summed up as 'a complicated love story', but I don't think that would be doing it justice. Set in Montreal during the depression, the story starts with an orphanage ran by Catholic nuns. No surprises then that there's brutality and sexual abuse. We then follow the lives of two children from that point.
There's love, hate, survival, abuse, deception, hope and lots in between. I imagine most would call this a sad/depressing/not very uplifting story, but I didn't feel that way. I found it fascinating and loved the journey the author took us on.
I read somewhere that this is similar to The Night Circus, but other than both having clowns, the feel is quite different. There's no magic in this book, but there is escapism and dreaming.
The author went through a nasty habit in the middle of the book with ending every chapter with a simile and metaphor that could feel a bit heavy handed.
I will be looking to read more by this author.

(This review is based on an advanced copy from Net Galley)

Sorry I missed the date for this.

I really enjoyed the book - thank you.

Plot: The blurb describes it well! The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with the power of legend. An unparalleled tale of charismatic pianos, invisible dance partners, radicalized chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians, brooding clowns, and an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. In a landscape like this, it takes great creative gifts to thwart one’s origins. It might also take true love.
It’s a story of two children who grow up in a cold-hearted Montreal orphanage with unusual talents to sing, dance and entertain. They fall in love but don’t quite understand it, but then are parted. The book follows their lives, as servants, falling from rock bottom to another, and back up again as they meet again, then falling apart.

My thoughts: This is the kind of book that I put down and sigh because I kind of wish I’d written it. There were parts that were a little bit too much for me, as many other reviewers have said, there is some quite explicit content, but the overall experience of the book was fantastic. It felt magical in an ordinary sort of way, if that makes any sort of sense. It was magic, but underneath it was always tainted – like the world so often is.
I loved the writing style of the book too – it’s again difficult to describe without reading it. Everything feels like an offhand comment that has no importance at all, but is also the most important thing in the world – every word has been chosen carefully. People say it has echoes of The Night Circus, and I agree to that in a way, but it’s also very different to it too.
I think this is one of those books that you’re either going to love or hate. I loved it and would recommend it to pretty much anyone, but I can’t guarantee that you’ll feel the same – it’s one you just need to read to know and to understand it.

Didn't get on with this at all, I fear - there was a curious disconnect between the prose style and the events O'Neill was describing, and though this was no doubt intentional, it meant I had an extremely difficult time engaging with character and plot. I began reading it as part of a Baileys Prize longlist reading project, and it is the only 2017 longlisted book I didn't finish. It is, however, a great divider of opinion - others loved it, especially devotees of Angela Carter.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel

You could never guess the story from the title. This book is so very complicated as is life itself. This book will take you on a journey. This journey will be traumatic, joyful and even dangerous. But you will make it to the other side, fully appreciative of the experience.

Rose and Perriot, two innocent children raised in an orphanage run by nuns. They are the life of the orphanage, popular with the other little children. They have big dreams for children so small: they wish to be performers. Will they accomplish this? In each other, they find love- but will this last in a bitter world? When Pierrot leaves the orphanage, will he be able to find his Rose?

If you want to read a book about two rebellious, hilarious, bubbly children who build this beautiful friendship, this is the book for you. Definitely. Their relationship made the book worth reading, the whole way through. Be aware though, this book explores dark themes- often in a crass, vulgar, unflinching manner.

This novel is set in Montreal and then New York through the period of the Great Depression. It is a book that does not shy from sex, and so it is unsuitable for young readers (18+ I would say.) It does have strong themes of love, sexual abuse, prostitution, drugs and crime.

Proceed with caution for this book inspires hope, often foolish hope. Oh, how many times I thought Rose and Pierrot would finally be reunited!

I guarantee you'll like this book, even if only a little bit. You'll fall in love with Pierrot and Rose after meeting them as children and then observing how they remain the same as adults, in a world so set in its ways of ruining their childhood experience. I liked Rose, her philosophy, her honest wilfullness, she was so rightfully challenging. She didn't want to become a woman who is nothing but a man's possession. She wanted to be seen as an equal, and happily independent. Her courage was an inspiration but of course, strong, courageous women are not a rarity- particularly not in such trying times.

I received this book through NetGalley.

A difficult one to review - whilst I liked the 'magical realism' slant, it was really a grim read at times. The writing was mostly excellent, but varied from beautifully descriptive to somewhat odd and stilted, and I had to check to see if it was in fact an English translation (it wasn't). Overall though I enjoyed it.

Review of an advance copy from the publisher.

I keep trying to get into this book, because I like the comparisons that it comes with, but at the moment, I just don't think I'm in the right headspace for it. I'll come back to it at a later point and try again.

I received a copy of The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill from Netgalley in returns for an honest review. I'm not gonna lie...I didn't love it. Nonetheless...let's get into the review. *Trigger warning for sexual abuse, drug use and loss of child.*

The year is 1914, we're in an orphanage and we're following the harrowing story of Rose and Pierrot, a plot of forbidden love woven in between Heather O'Neill's exquisite writing. In fact, it's this writing style that kept me invested, or I would have DNF'd within the first twenty pages, curiosity alone kept me reading. I understand WHY Heather O'Neill gave them such a tragic childhoods, but it took up way too much of the book and she took it to an unnecessary extreme. The book features a lot of30201327 graphic sexual abuse at the hands of the workers in the orphanages, which is in great detail and builds a really vivid picture in your mind. There's also graphic depiction of drug use, specifically heroin and miscarriage. For me, it was just really unnecessary. The fact that they were orphans in itself is tragic enough.
That being said, the hope of a happy ending, and it's this hope that is embodied by the love between Rose and Pierrot, as well as O'Neill's writing kept me reading until the end. So, you could say, that O'Neill's writing did exactly what t was supposed to do. In the throws of the Great Depression and World War One, the tragic childhood of these two characters mirrors the context of the setting of Montreal at the time, times were bleak. It's no surprise that throughout the novel, they find solace in people who should be looking after them, who actually abuse them. They slip through the nets of society.

I liked the emphasis on avant-garde circus-esque performance which again, out star-crossed lovers find salvation in but this wasn't introduced until at least 60% of the way through the book so it felt a little rushed toward the end, rather than being the main focus of the novel, which I thought it would be according to the blurb.

I did make it to the end, however, and the end was satisfying and I was glad that I managed to finish the story. I was able to appreciate Heather O'Neill's writing and I'm keen to check out more of her work, though I will wait for reviews from other bloggers I trust first!

An intense, whimsical and thought-provoking read. Just be wary of those trigger warnings!

Rating: ★★

A really unusual novel that was brutal and shocking at times - yet written in such a beautiful way. I loved the two main characters and was rooting for them throughout - and thought the bittersweet ending was perfect.

Heather O’Neill’s new Baileys award nominated novel completely blew my socks off. Between the blurb’s comparisons to The Night Circus and the Goodreads reviews slamming it for its controversial topics and crude nature, I had no idea what to expect. But as soon as I started the novel, it’s all there. Yes, it’s controversial, it opens with an incestuous scene and goes on to introduce orphans who are abused, punished and raped, and yet from the beginning there was something decadent, evocative and magical about this novel.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel, Heather O'Neill

Set in Montreal during the Depression era, O’Neill sets the perfect scene for her bleak, brutal tale of two troubled orphans, isolated on a small island where the austere winters are palpable. The author explores the seedy underbelly of both Montreal and New York, and the glitz and glamour of the 1920s entertainment industry, making for something that’s both dark and escapist but, overall, incredibly atmospheric.

Despite the harsh themes and grim setting, the characters are the true light of this novel. I often talk about character development, but the author really has nailed it here – in Rose and Pierrot, she’s created not one but two incredibly unique, whimsical characters who are loveable, authentic and sympathetic. We follow the pair from their formative years in an orphanage through to adulthood and beyond. Throughout, many forces seem to be working to keep these star-crossed lovers apart.

It took me a while to get through this one, but that was solely because I wanted to savour it. Books like this don’t come along often. It’s unusual and controversial – there’s orphans, abuse, heroin, clowns, prostitutes and lots of sex. But if you can get past the initial shock at the frank manner in which many degrading events are portrayed, you may just find that this book is just as full of positive themes – there’s freedom, feminism, love and much more all wrapped up in beautifully poetic prose and a magical story.

This book just really wasn't for me. There was nothing inherently wrong with the book or the writing, it just wasn't to my taste.
The description may be a little misleading as I expected a lot more magic realism than was delivered.

A writer I will never tire of: there is something so honest, fearless and unique about the way she views life, even in its most desolate manifestations. This is a strange, unsettling, provocative tale, with moments of magical flights of fancy and the language of legends or folk tales, but applied to very grim and unvarnished reality of the 1920s/30s. Not quite sure what to think of it, as there are such huge changes of tone throughout the book, from the quaint and child-like to the darkest and cruellest. Initially the style seemed plain, then it became increasingly ornate, even baroque at times. I was enchanted by it in parts, repelled in others - which is what the author intended, I believe. No fairy-tale happy ever after, either.
Just as hard-hitting as Lullabies for Little Criminals, despite its wistful waltzing around with imaginary bears.

It's an error to choose this novel for the magic described in the cover summary.

Let's start by saying that The Lonely Hearts Hotel is not a novel for everyone: there are numerous graphic scenes of poverty, violences and abuses. The story opens with a little girl who is raped and it brings us among orphans and in the downtown where the two main characters end up living.

Pierrot and Rose meet in orphanage, then their life diverge for some years till the great reunion and the realization of their show, The Snowflake Icicle Extravaganza. Again, maybe speaking about two protagonist is kind of lie: Rose and Pierrot are very different for the way they behave, and the story is more focused on Rose, the only of them who always is working for a personal realization.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel in my opinion is mostly a book about the women condition at the beginning of 1900 in Montreal: the women were neglected and always exploited, either they were poor prostitutes or rich wives and lovers. And Rose is aware of this since her childhood - the idea of the imaginary bear - but she chooses not to accept it and to work towards something different. In this sense Pierrot is the perfect man for her, because he loves her so much to allow her to be free.

The lonely hearts hotel is the ending point of the story, that develops in various hotel which names reflects the life of the characters and their emotions.

It's a novel about strong themes that are dealt in a lyric and with sometimes unconventional images (Rose and Pierrot are always clowns), but reading it in search of the magic of other novels (like The Night Circus) is doubly wrong because of disillusioned expectation and the inability to see this novel strong points.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

This has to be one of the most charming books I’ve read in the last year! It is a love story, but it is one with a difference. It starts in the early 1900’s when so many unwanted babies are abondoned at the doors of orphanges. Marie and Joseph are two such babies.

The orphange is a harsh place, full of cold, hunger, hard work and beatings. Yet Marie and Joseph, now known as Rose and Perriot, grow in their innocence and bring joy to the orphanage with music and dance. There is something about both of them, an unexpected grace in a world full of ugliness that captures the hearts of everyone who sees them.

Their blossoming love is torn in half when Perriot is sent away to become a gentlemans companion and Rose is sent away to be a governess.

We follow their lives through the roaring twenties, Rose ends up as a gangsters moll, hiring chorus girls and circus acts whilst Perriot floats into drug addiction supported by his prostitute girlfriend. When they meet again their love has not withered and neither has their dream of creating their own unique circus.

But as I mentioned earlier this isn’t your average love story. And although it is wondrously charming it isn’t just light, fluffy, feel good fodder although it would be easy to underestimate it as such. So let me just tell you this book made the long list for the Bailey’s prize!

Instead this is a real oyster of a book, taking all the grit of the world and layering wit and wisdom down over and over again until it’s created a pearl to rival La Peregrina.

I quickly realised that this book is sharply feminist, the quote just here stopped me in my tracks and as you can see inspired me to make a meme of it, something I’m not frequently inspired quite enough to do (this book actually inspired me to make 3!)

But it isn’t just feminist, it also faces down poverty, inequality and child abuse too. Not bad for a book about a couple of orphans who fall in love and want to start their own circus! There is also a section of the book which has a parade of clown acts, each one a penumbral view of human truth that we so often close our eyes to.

O’Neill is a queen of imagery, I’ll never be able to looked at red carnations the same way after this sentence …

There are many others just as strong too, and I have to admit that her descriptive powers, combined of course with the storyline, put me in mind of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. So if you liked that, I reckon you’ll like this too.

I have to give this feast of a book 5 Bites, don’t miss this one!

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews

I’m beginning this review with a trigger warning for sexual violence. There are occurrences throughout the novel but it opens with an incident that’s shocking and, I feel, it’s impossible to write a review of the book without discussing it.

A young girl’s body is the most dangerous place in the world, as it is the spot where violence is most likely to be enacted.

The book begins with the births of our two protagonists – Pierrot and Rose. Pierrot is born to a girl who is ‘only twelve years old’. Her cousin, a soldier, comes to see her in his uniform and tells her he’ll give her a medical examination to see if she’s fit to be a soldier too.

He’d said that he had to stick his penis inside her in order to test her internal temperature. When he was done, satisfied with her perfect health, he had handed her a little red ribbon that had come off a cake box. Then he pinned it to her jacket as a badge of honour for her grand consummated service to her country.

The girl is sent to the Hôpital de Misericorde to give birth in shame like other young girls.

These girls had thrown their whole lives away just to have five lovely minutes on a back staircase. Now, with strangers living in their bellies, they had been sent into hiding by their parents, while the young fathers went about their business, riding bicycles and whistling in the bathtub.

Pierrot’s father is named – Thomas – but his mother is only ever know by the name the nuns at the hospital give her – Ignorance.

Rose’s mother is eighteen.

[She] hadn’t particularly liked Rose’s father. The boy waited for her on the corner of the street every day. He would always beg her to come into the alley with him and let him have a peek at her breasts. She decided to give in one afternoon. Somehow she thought that if she made love to him, he would go away and leave her alone. Which, actually, proved to be the case.

O’Neill clearly begins the novel this way to shock the reader. I’ve quoted at length from the first few pages because I think it’s important to get a sense of the tone of the book. O’Neill is firmly on the side of women and girls and scornful of the way in which society treats them – not just men but also other women who’ve bought into patriarchal ideas of how women should behave. She explores the idea of sexual shame and the impact it can have on people’s behaviour; Pierrot is repeatedly abused at the orphanage by one of the nuns. Also…

At the orphanage, those caught masturbating had their hands whipped with a ruler fifty times. And then they would stand on a chair in the common room wearing red gloves so that everyone would know what they had done. There was a different little boy standing up on the chair every few weeks. And then one day there was the lovely Rose. Nobody could believe it. But perhaps most shocking was the look on her face. She stood with her chin up in the air, a look close to pride on her face.
Pierrot sometimes told people that that was the moment he fell in love with Rose.

At the heart of The Lonely Hearts Hotel is the love story of Pierrot and Rose. Pierrot’s an excellent pianist and acrobat; Rose dances and acts, her most successful performance taking place with an imaginary bear. After they’re seen by the cousin of the prime minister in a play put on by the orphanage, they begin to get regular work performing in the houses of the rich. Just at the point where it looks as though things might begin to work out for them, life intervenes. There are gangsters, prostitution and heroin waiting to derail the pair of them. For some time, they will lose themselves and each other.

O’Neill skewers society, its obsession with sex and money and how both can be derailed by love. There are lots of fantastic lines, I’ve highlighted so many:

While the only females in society who had any real bargaining power were the dopey little virgins with rags, safety-pinned to their underwear, filling up with blood the colour of fallen dead rose petals. The minute they gave themselves up, they really had no agency whatsoever.

“I’ve had it up to here with crazy women. All you have to do is be fucking pleasant and spread your legs, and you are taken care of. You don’t know how easy you have it.”

Everything written by any woman was written by all women, because they all benefitted from it.

If this sounds too depressing (and O’Neill does emphasise the miserable by setting the majority of the action during The Great Depression), there is light in Pierrot’s playing, Rose’s performances and a surprisingly optimistic, although not saccharine, ending.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel probably isn’t for everyone – if the reactions of the Baileys Prize shadow panel are anything to go by it’s definitely marmite – but I absolutely loved it.