This is an Amazon Vine Free Book Review. 
 I'm reviewing The Lonely Hearts Hotel: the Bailey's Prize longlisted novel 
 by Heather O'Neill. Here are my thoughts: 
 ^^ Young Rose and Pierrot first meet at an orphanage where they're cruelly treated. Despite this, they grow very close, and realise they've something special between them; a bond so intuitive they can practically live together in a world of their own. Between them, their imaginations are a world away from the cruel one they live in. 
 ^^ Seeing their closeness, the wicked nuns at the orphanage force Rose and Pierrot apart. When they meet again, older and wiser, their lives have been riddled with so much tragedy, you just know it's never going to end well. Or does it? Only you can be the judge of that. 
 ^^ This is a strange, magical story set in the roaring twenties, which I found disturbingly haunting. I will not forget in a hurry, I can tell you! 
 ^^ It's not all doom and gloom though, there are moments where this whimsical story will have you smiling. However, be warned, it also holds a darkness which will surprise and maybe shock you. Much of what you read on the surface cuts much deeper, proving that beneath the shadows of tragedy, love can still flourish. 
 ^^ It's a magical story of love and heartbreak, which holds a great deal of pain and misfortune within. It's not the happiest of reads, but it is beautifully written and very clever. At times, I did find the subject matter a bit off-putting, but this is clearly the author's intention. The more I thought about it, the more I admired the author's bravery, and of course, writing skills. 
 ^^ Although it's not a roller-coaster of a novel in an action packed sense, I found it addictive. I needed to know how it ended. I haven't read anything so grim, yet so intriguing, in ages. 
 Overall: The Lonely Hearts hotel read very much like a Grimm fairy-tale, where subjects tackled are often gruesome and out of many people's comfort zone, yet cleverly disguised as a child's fairy-tale, where a happy ending is no longer obligatory. 
 Not for children.