The Lonely Hearts Hotel
Ratings7
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings7
Average rating3.9
The Lonely Hearts Hote is a love story with the power of legend. Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1914. Before long, their talents emerge: Pierrot is a piano prodigy; Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary and seductive circus show the world has ever seen. Separated as teenagers, sent off to work as servants during the Great Depression, both descend into the city's underworld, dabbling in sex, drugs and theft in order to survive. But when Rose and Pierrot finally reunite beneath the snowflakes -after years of searching and desperate poverty -the possibilities of their childhood dreams are renewed, and they'll go to extreme lengths to make them come true. Soon, Rose, Pierrot and their troupe of clowns and chorus girls have hit New York, commanding the stage as well as the alleys, and neither the theater nor the underworld will ever look the same."----
Reviews with the most likes.
Beautifully written, interesting content–not for everyone. I think for me, the thing I liked best was the imagery and language and the descriptions of what it might have been like to live during the early 1900's, with the most interesting being the descriptions of the Great Depression.
I liked this book... but I didn't.
Nope. I should have known from the first chapter that I wasn't going to dig this book but then 5 or 6 chapters in, major trigger warning for me. Like, shut the book and chuck it across the room.
I get that for some people, the shock value of child sex abuse is what you need to create drama but for me... nope. I have no need for this.
I mainly wanted to check this one out as it is a Montreal author writing a story set in Montreal, at the beginning of the 20iest century. All other comparisons (mainly to [b:The Night Circus 9361589 The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387124618l/9361589.SY75.jpg 14245059] already warned me I probably wouldn't like it much, but as my taste threshold for audiobooks is lower and the story quite fast-moving, I didn't mind as much. That said, fairytale-like stories of fate-entwined lovers are definitely not my thing. Especially when the writing is too much in love with their entwined destinies (symmetrically walks and simultaneous sighs). It redeemed itself a bit again with it's melancholy and independence-seeking ending, but while I did enjoy parts of it, in total I am happy I am done with it. 2.5
