Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan
| Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Mary Waterfall
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| Summary: A funny, emotionally intelligent look at human relationships in all their messy, complex glory. Ruth Hogan writes with honesty and pulls no punches, but always with care and riveting depth of feeling for her characters. With a touch of mystery, the paranormal, and unexpected shots of humour, and who could ask for more? | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 336 | Date: February 2019 |
| Publisher: Two Roads | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1473669062 | |
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Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother's life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the Paradise hotel, a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, from this place of wonder. With the help of Queenie Malone, caring, and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother.
The story flips between two time lines, told through Tilda's eyes as an adult and Tilly as a child. Cleverly, this allows the reader to uncover secrets, lies, and misunderstandings often before Tilda discovers them herself. The suspense of the story, ramped up, by waiting to see how Tilda will react, unfolds in tantalising snippets of her childhood.
What begins as a story of mother and daughter relationships expands into a sensitive and gentle exploration of mental ill health. How by sometimes doing things for the right reasons can be the wrong thing to do. When love so intense, so all encompassing, can destroy the person, you are trying to protect.
Packed with exquisitely drawn characters, the story unfolds through their relationships with Tilda. Leading us through the complex web, that turned Tilly, the happy child who plays with ghosts, into Tilda the adult who keeps everyone at arm's length.
Hogan, in contrast to the succinct, empathetic, and unembellished way she writes about emotions, has a poetic ability to describe place. Brighton, the pier, the Paradise hotel, described with immersive colour and noise. A perfect backdrop, used at times to expand the readers understanding of mood and to dig deeper roots for the characters.
This is a life affirming, celebratory story, full of humour, happiness, and joy alongside the loss, grief, and hurt. A strong core of hope lays beneath all the murky secrets, one that celebrates the power of finding your place and belonging. This is the first novel I have read by Ruth Hogan but I will be seeking out her other books. With that in mind, further suggested reading, would be Hogan's earlier works, The Keeper of Lost Things and The Particular Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan at Amazon.com.
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