Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel

I was not anticipating the amount of enjoyment I encountered as I was reading this book. It was like reading poetry. The words flowed so easily and naturally that I was totally absorbed. At times it was confusing as to which characters were living and which were her "ghosts" but it didn't matter. The ending made it much more poetic. I needed this at this time of social distancing.

This is the third Ruth Hogan book I've read, each with its own special branch of peculiarity. Told from two points of view, young Tilly and her grown up version Tilda, it is a story of love, loss, and the peculiar situations families get themselves into. Complete with a cast of colorful, characters, including a ghost or two, Hogan explores the promises, mistakes and misunderstandings that can tear us apart, yet hold us together.
Thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for sending me my copy. It was a good quarantine read, and I had a lot of fun looking up some of Tilly's fractured understandings of what adults say, as well as the poetry of John Betjeman.

Having totally enjoyed Ruth's first two books i had fairly high expectations of this, and i wasn't disappointed.

Once more Ruth dives into sensitive topics and tells a great story with not only compassion but also a wonderful touch of humour in all the right places.

Written from the point of view of Tilly and Tilda.   Tilly, the little girl who finds out her dad just died after he went away to work and Tilda, the grown woman whose mum just died and left Tilda her diaries of what really happened to her dad all those years ago -- and a simple note saying "Forgive me".   Back and forth we go, a chapter at a time, between Tilly back then and Tilda now, and it works amazingly well as our story gets told and the truth gets revealed, piece by show more piece.

And what a wonderful place the Paradise Hotel must have been for a child to live, if only for a while.   A den of loveable, eccentric crackpots, delightful: “Everyone there had been cracked in the kiln in one way or another.”

Ruth is a wonderful writer who never fails to conjure up the most wonderful cast of characters to tell the stories about the damaged souls that life creates.   I do hope for many more books from Ruth. show less

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan is a highly recommended examination of the complicated relationship between a daughter and her mother.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tilda's mother, Grace, has died and she has returned to Brighton for the first time since her mother sent her away to boarding school. Tilda considered living at Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel in Brighton with her mom to be the best family she ever had so being sent away to boarding school opened up a fissure that never closed. Life with her mother was always a struggle after her father disappeared and her mother told her he died. As she sorts through her mother's things, she reflects on her relationship with her mother and examines what happened many years ago when show more Tilda went by the nickname Tilly.

The narrative in alternating chapters by Tilly (approximately age 7) and adult Tilda, with excerpts from Grace's journals included as Tilda reads them. The chapter headings tell you who is narrating them, but it is easy to distinguish between the point-of-view of a child and an adult. Additionally, Tilly's chapters are all told in third person while Tilda's are in first person. Tilda/Tilly has the gift of "sight" and she see things other people can't see, ghosts or spirits, so every character introduced may not be exactly what you initially think. When you read Tilda's chapters you immediately know that she is a damaged woman who needs her rituals to feel safe.

The writing is descriptive and insightful. As this is a character driven novel, the plot is more introspective as Tilda tries to figure out why her mother did what she did. Hogan does a good job handling the thoughts and feelings of a child in the Tilly chapters, which contrast greatly with the adult Tilda chapters. In Tilly's chapters you can see the root of the OCD rituals that Tilda must do to feel safe. Clearly readers will know that Grace had some mental health issues which influenced her relationship with Tilly. Tilly's father, Stevie, is clearly adored by his daughter, but he is not well-developed for us to know why Grace felt she had to tell Tilly he died.

My feelings are all over the place on this novel. It started out strong enough to capture my attention. I enjoyed the Tilly chapters as a young child struggled to understand why her world had changed so much and why her beloved father was gone. Tilda is harder to warm up to but then the cause of her issues comes out through Tilly's chapters and Grace's journals. Then it became a bit bogged down in the middle and I became a wee bit weary of all the use of the "sightings." Hogan does leave us on a positive note with closure for Tilda and hope for a future, which helped set my misgivings aside.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/05/queenie-malones-paradise-hotel.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3317998567 show less

Thanks to LibraryThing and publisher William Morrow for an advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

I loved this book, although it took me a little while of reading it to feel that way, so if you start this don't give up - you will be rewarded with a feel-good novel that's full of surprises and warmhearted characters, including Queenie Malone. It's a story about young Tilly alternating with the first person account of grown-up Tilda. The author cleverly reveals Tilly's mother's secrets as Tilda reads from the diaries her mother has bequeathed her. What makes this book so sweet is young Tilly's naivete about life, religion, and relationships, much of which is revealed to her (and the reader) after she grows up. Adult show more Tilda is a lot like Eleanor Oliphant, while young Tilly reminded me of the girls in The Trouble With Goats and Sheep. The tagline for this book says it all: "Every story can have a happy ending."

Now I can't wait to read Hogan's other novels. show less

The story is told in two voices. Tilly’s is bright and clear, fun and sad and completely defined. Tilda’s is wrapped in cotton wool, vague and dispirited, bleak and narrow. They are one and the same person. This is a book that I didn’t run back to. I hesitated each time I went to pick it up. I am not sure why - maybe trying to shred the gauze and cobwebs was just too much work. And yet I did like it all - just not sure of the emotions and reactions it evoked. And then I expelled a huge sigh.

Once again Ruth Hogan has plumbed the depths of familial relationships and presented the reader with interpretative choices. Can you blame a Mother or Father for loving too much even when it might be a destructive love? I have no good answers. show more And then I expelled another huge sigh. show less

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I fully anticipated disliking it, which probably wasn't fair. I'm very glad I read it, though, as it broadened my reading habits.

The story was told from Tilda's perspective as a child and as an adult. To be honest, I preferred Tilly the child to Tilda the adult. I loved Tilly's ability to take things and people at face value and how she interpreted events. It was a refreshing point of view. And the relationship between Tilly and her mom - it was so sad. All of it, even the good stuff. Why is it so hard for humans to communicate with each other? Rhetorical question, of course. And the damage we can do to each other, even without trying; this book describes very well how our closest relationships show more can be our most troubling.

However, the biggest issue I had with the book was the title. By which I mean I fully expected Queenie Malone and their hotel to be much more of a focus. Aside from a couple of general comments about Queenie herself, I didn't get a full view of the hotel until literally half-way through the book. And there are reasons for this, without getting into spoilers, but it changed how I viewed things and not in a great way. Also, the hotel sounded amazing and I truly wish we hadn't gotten more of it.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It is sad, so be aware of that. There's a tinge of magic to it, though, which I thought lightened up the sadness just a tad. I really want a prequel now, though, told from Queenie's perspective.

I received this from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. show less