Lonely Hearts is a American film directed and written by Todd Robinson. It is based on the true story of the notorious "Lonely Hearts Killers" of the s.
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They find laughter and music together. And then everything goes to hell. What follows is one hell of a love story. I would try and describe it to you, but honestly, in this case, part of the book blurb says it all: Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest View all 18 comments. Mar 27, Simon rated it it was amazing.
This book will not be for everyone. It's dark, it's gritty, it's disturbing and it's unflinching. It's like a modern twisted fairytale about what love is and means.
But I'll just say this. I started it at 1pm. I stayed up till 1am to finish it even though I didn't want it to end. View all 8 comments. There is graphic sexual abuse between a young female nun and a pre-teen boy. Pierrot and Rose are both unforgettable characters. Both abandoned from teenage mothers. Pierrot is a gifted piano player - and acrobat.
Rose loves to tell stories with her invisible dancing bear and make other children in the orphanage laugh. The kids love her Pierrot goes to live with a wealthy man at age During the Great Depression both Pierrot and Rose fall into the underworld of drugs, sex, and crime Pierrot spent three years sending unanswered letters to Rose — finally assumed Rose was annoyed with him. As Pierrot and Rose continued grow up As much as I loved Pierrot The first page of this book opens with the rape of a child. From there it leads to more abuse, sexual assault, rape and just pretty much all manner of horrors that any child or children could ever endure.
But despite all this our two main characters, Rose and Pierrot, feel a connection to each other. They know that their lives will be forever interlinked and young love blossoms. The story then leads on into adulthood with the effects that this horrific childhood had on the two main characters. I The first page of this book opens with the rape of a child. I am sorry to say that I did not enjoy this book at all. I just found it all to be too much.
Instead of filled with nuance and subtlety of pain and suffering, the writing felt crass and as if the book was written for shock value. Sometimes less is more. I became anaesthetised to the suffering of these characters and the situations they found themselves in because of how the book was written. It is incredibly important to write about the detrimental effects of all manner of abuse on children and how it moulds their adult lives and loves. However this was not the way to do it. This book had wonderful potential and there were moments of magical promise and what might have been But unfortunately for me these moments were far too fleeting and therefore could not redeem this book in my eyes.
View all 12 comments. Mar 07, Book Riot Community added it. It was all so vivid I wanted to reach my hand out and run away with Rose—or join the circus. This will certainly be one of the best novels of May 15, Helene Jeppesen rated it really liked it. This book is so dark and twisted, and it will leave you with a feeling of hopelessness and despair. But for some reason that's exactly why I loved it: Finally we get a story in which there is no happy ending in sight, and where you live in the darkness and cruelty of life and still manage to see glimpses of beauty.
They are both very gifted artistically and they are both naturally drawn to each This book is so dark and twisted, and it will leave you with a feeling of hopelessness and despair. They are both very gifted artistically and they are both naturally drawn to each other. However, this is not a cute love story as the story starts from a dark place and continues in this manner.
Over its pages we are met with rape, abuse, addiction, loneliness, despair, and the list continues. There seems to be no hope for these two characters who are born into a hopeless life and can only seem to find a glimpse of light in it through their love - and through a black cat: I'm not saying that I loved this book simply because it was dark all the way through.
But I did appreciate it for its honesty and brutality because it raises so many questions in your head and it gives you a different perspective on life. This story was unique and like no other book I've read, and for that it deserves 4 stars, despite how twisted that might make me seem: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Lonely Hearts Hotel opens with a twelve-year-old being raped by her cousin and getting pregnant.
I think I just felt like surely there had to be some reason this book was so horrendously offensive and hateful and revolting, so I kept listening to see why. That was a mistake. Both Rose and Pierrot not their actual names, but these fit their manic pixie souls better grow up in an orphanage. One of the nuns at the orphanage begins sexually abusing Pierrot starting when he is eleven years old, and the book makes sure to inform you that his penis was already large for his age.
There will be several occasions on which the book likes to remind you that Pierrot is magnificently endowed. I was just so fucking horrified by this book that I wanted to see WHY this shit was happening. My face for all 12 hours why o why did i do this to myself? Pierrot, as a result of the sexual abuse, becomes obsessed with sex; he calls himself a pervert. In addition to the actual sex in the book, there are constant dirty fantasies. Not yet a teen, he imagines all the women and girls in the orphanage giving him blow jobs.
Eventually, Pierrot realizes how much he hates what Sister Elise has been doing to him, and he wants to be with Rose, who he loves. Sister Elise catches on and beats Rose almost to death for a minor infraction. Meanwhile, Pierrot gets adopted. This book is a constant, hypersexualized portrayal of Rose and Pierrot. Over the course of the novel, Pierrot has a series of lovers and develops a heroin addiction which will eventually kill him.
The Lonely Hearts Hotel
Rose, meanwhile, in her upper teens, becomes the mistress of the family for which she had been a governess. The conclusion comes when Elise shows up and tells her Pierrot has a child by his former prostitute girlfriend. See, my swearing was justified. Clearly I hate myself for finishing this.
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Really the only positive thing I can say is that the prose is good, but who the fuck cares if you write this shit with it. I need to go take a fucking shower. View all 23 comments. Apr 18, Erin Clemence rated it really liked it.
Rose and Pierrot quickly bond over their love of performing- Pierrot is a piano prodigy with Sex, drugs and………clowns? Rose and Pierrot quickly bond over their love of performing- Pierrot is a piano prodigy with a love of music and Rose will perform for anyone, anywhere. The two are separated as they age, and this novel tells their individual journey to reunification. This novel features a lot of performance, some Mafia bad boys and the two things vital to Montreal society at that time- drugs especially heroin and prostitution.
The children and later, adults are victimized in many ways, and become slaves to many vices throughout the course of the novel. There is a lot of drug use, and the theme of feminism runs deep throughout the novel too, as Rose is seen as an outcast for wanting her own, independent life without a male influence. The writing in this novel was very poetic and descriptive- definitely beautifully written. It sets the scene well and contributes to the strong character development.
There is a lot of talk of putting on theatrical shows and gathering cast and crew members and there are often long parts of the novel where Rose is talking to clowns the reason is evident if you read the novel but it does drag on. I loved the feminist history of the novel the dangerous choices made by women during the Depression in Montreal, the treatment of women by other men in the novel, the restrictions placed on women etc.
I enjoyed the characters of McMahon, and Poppy, and the ending was a downright pleasant shock, while still maintaining the small amount of bitter sweetness one would expect from a novel such as this. View all 5 comments. I'm trying to get more into Canadian Literature. I don't really think enough of it exists honestly, and I want to buy and read and support Canadian authors so I can send the message to publishers that this is the kind of stuff I want published. I've had my eye on this since the day it was released and I finally picked it up and started it and boy do I have some stuff to say.
Firstly, please Heather O'Neill teach me how to write like you do. The writing in this is so lyrical, so poetic, so imaginative and full of description. I don't know if I've ever experienced anything like this and I absolutely need her to publish more things. She has this very hands off way of dealing with her subject matter and material that feels so genuine. She is unforgiving and has such a distinct style. She will kill off a character in one line, and it's going to be the most beautifully written line in a book. She had a lot of scenes where characters were doing different things in different locations but she would alternate it to make it seem like it was all happening together.
I could praise her writing for days, honestly. This is a tough plot to read and can see why people would shy away from it. There is essentially sexual assault of a minor in the first paragraph, and the first third of the book does have some very hard to read subject matter. But, O'Neill doesn't do details. There is description, but rarely details in her writing. Molestation will be written in a line or two and will pack the same punch had they been written in page long details.
The plot follows 2 orphans who meet in an orphanage around the time of the Great Depression in Montreal. It follows the underworld of the city, and watches these 2 orphans grow up in a prostitution and drug filled world. It's done so well. Rose and Pierrot are 2 of my favourite characters of all time. I care about their well being. I care about everything that happened to them. I felt so connected to their stories, I cared more about their story than my own life. I have felt this before, but rarely.
If anyone knows me they know that A Little Life is my favourite book of all time. That book is a part of who I am, and this book is on par with A Little Life. I don't really know how else to talk about the way I feel without saying that, because this book isn't just a part of my life, it's now a part of who I am. I recommend this, I think this is beautiful, and I think that it will stay with me for years and years to come.
Heather O'Neill writes literary fiction. Each of her books has had a style unique unto itself, a thematic presentation that is idiosyncratic and not one which is cozily familiar representing "that next book" which a fan might be eagerly awaiting. That said, all of her stories represent one BIG idea: Disenfranchised, poor, neglected, abused, demeaned women must trust in themselves and find their purpose as individuals, free to build lives not enslaved by the men who trap them.
The women she write Heather O'Neill writes literary fiction. The women she writes about are from the lowliest of circumstances, compromised by poverty, reduced to prostitution and surrounded by pimps and drug addicts. The Lonely Hearts Hotel shares all of these aspects - but glitters dangerously as it does so.
This is the Montreal tale of Rose and Pierrot, baby orphans both, left with Catholic nuns in the early s who regarded them as living sins. These children grow into their Dickensian plot, charming the city rich with their pretty performance of dance Rose and music on piano Pierrot while the nuns profit. Greater darkness attends them, when Sister Eloise fancies Pierrot to diddle with in nocturnal bathroom visitations and then grows so jealous of the love between the two children that she injures Rose.
Pierrot leaves, a wealthy mentor entranced by his genius. Rose finds a position as a governess, and becomes a mistress. As the months and years advance in their story, an oddity becomes apparent. The writing appears to tell a children's story, that of those lovely innocents Rose and Pierrot, with its prose in short pieces, little repetitive pronouns grabbing for attention, simple description telling simplest things. They were two-storied squat duplexes made of red bricks. They had different coloured doors.
Every now and then there would be a prettier house with a balcony or a tin moulding with maple leaves along the roof. They could afford pretty curtains and a doormat. The whores in the windows were like chocolates in an Advent calendar. She had a great big strawberry-blond bush and scabs on both knees. Rose wondered what odd sexual practice caused her to skin both her knees. Eventually the two meet again.
Their children's story is completed with true love, which we expect it would like any good fairy tale. And the childhood plans commence, lives converge and explode and sweetly continue. Some sort of happy life This novel is fantastical. It is dark and dangerous, and it is a trapeze act of frippery. It is Hearts and Flowers, cobwebs and torture chambers. It is an unlikely fairy tale, saved to frighten next generations. Parts are based on reality, we know - but which are which? You get to decide.
Sister Eloise stole the letter off the Mother Superior's desk and ripped it up into a hundred pieces and threw it in the trash. It lay at the bottom of the basket like butterflies that had died during a sudden frost. A little earthquake spread across its surface. However I was not moved emotionally by the novel.
Her first novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, which is also dark and sexually disturbing, moved me deeply and remains my favourite. May 27, Trudie rated it did not like it Shelves: However, this book was always going to be a risky proposition. I didn't take well to all the circusy antics of The Night Circus a book the The LHH is suppose to be similar too, its not, its whimsy with a side order of grim abuse and absurdism. Also, I should have stayed clear of books referencing hotels given my recent cursed experiences with "hotel" books.
Not that I made it as far as a hotel with this book. Several things irked me about this novel but the single most tiresome thing was the similes, it made me curious if the author was being payed by the simile, she crams them into every descriptive space available. All the bruises blooming like violets. All the bruises like storm clouds. The little beads of sweat like raindrops on her nose. All her bruises spreading out like the tip of a pen touching a wet cloth I guess its a stylistic device, which if you can get past you might enjoy the novel more than I did, but then there is the grimly explicit and uncomfortable sex scenes to deal with, jarringly, to my mind, juxtaposed with this sort of fairy tale, carnival vibe.
I just could not wrap my head around this novel at all. View all 10 comments. Dec 17, Kelsey rated it did not like it. A sumptuous cover for an irredeemably brutal book. I'm always leery when a marketing team compares the book they're promoting to books I love. It's kind of interesting to try to figure out what inspired the comparison. In some cases, it's spot on and I'm happy to add another book to the family " A Thousand Nights meet Girls at the Kingfisher Club - you guys have a lot to talk about.
In other cases, I sort of feel like they've missed the forest for the trees. Here the "for fans of! Both are about two neglected children with innate creative talents stuck in a terrible situation poverty versus a long-term magical duel, respectively. Both books have an inevitable romance, a love of live performances, and a confrontation between the male protagonist's past and current lovers over tarot cards that latter one felt uncomfortably similar.
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- Lonely Hearts.
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That's pretty much where the comparisons end. Lonely Hearts opens with a child rape and an assumed still-birth and resurrection via infant erection. That's in the first three pages. From there it stumbles on into more child rape, child abuse, animal abuse, sexual abuse, prostitution, graphic miscarriages, drug addiction - and by the time we'd gotten to a gratuitous dogfight, I'd had enough.
I know, it's weird that the dogfight was what did it for me. It felt like the literary equivalent of puppykicking. It's like in movies when the characters are sad and it's raining and it's condescendingly, embarrassingly on-the-nose - except in this case miniature poodles are getting their neck snapped while the female character who bet on the tiny female poodle is about to figuratively and emotionally have the same thing happen to her. I tried to be openminded. Maybe some people loved The Night Circus because they just really love reading about the performing arts, in which case the comparison works and you might like Lonely Hearts.
Or a whole variety of different things. But I suspect most Night Circus fans bought in because of the sumptuous imagery, delicious atmosphere, and slowburn, escapist romance. Lonely Hearts has performers falling in love, but it's soaked in sex, violence, and then more awful, depressing sex and violence. That's different than romance. No, I'm not being crass. That's the word used. Imagine Darcy whispering that to Elizabeth. Imagine Romeo whispering that to Juliet actually, he was a cocky teenager - I can see that. The kind of stuff you find in Lonely Hearts is usually cued by marketing language like "edgy" and "provocative.
Even if it weren't for the weird marketing fake-out, I still wouldn't have been on board. We definitely need more books about sexual abuse, miscarriage - even questions like, "how does a hard-as-nails, ambitious woman navigate her romantic relationships when she's attracted to power but knows she deserves levity and kindness? But the book never becomes thoughtful about these things. The terrible stuff in this book is just terrible stuff - set-dressing to complicate a romance or reference the Depression. And that's not cool. The writing was also tough.
I'm a fan of figurative language, but this veers into purple territory. There was a chicken coop where little round eggs appeared as if by magic every morning. Tiny fragile moons that were necessary for survival. The children reached into the nests ever so carefully to retrieve the eggs without breaking their shells. With the sleeves of their sweaters pulled over their hands, their arms were like the trunks of elephants swallowing up peanuts. Moons are necessary for survival if you're hungry? And now we're talking about elephants? I like figurative language when it illuminates an idea or when it enhances the magic of a text.
But, you can't strong-arm magic and whimsy into a book. If you're going to write about serious stuff, choose a couple issues and really talk about them. Give these events the respect and nuance they deserve. And don't muddy a text with unnecessary or meaningless flourishes.
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill
And stop comparing books to The Night Circus to sell more books - unless you really mean it. Thanks to First to Read for giving me an advance copy of the book. Sorry it wasn't my jam. Your design team is amazing. That cover is swoony. Like, which part of GOT? Start your free trial. Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Most Memorable Emmys Moments.
Best Films Of Best of my movie archive!! Share this Rating Title: Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. User Polls Black And White Edit Cast Cast overview, first billed only: Elmer Robinson James Gandolfini Charles Hilderbrandt Jared Leto Ray Fernandez Salma Hayek Martha Beck Scott Caan Rene Fodie Michael Gaston Eddie Robinson Andrew E. Tooley as Andrew Wheeler Alice Krige Janet Long Dagmara Dominczyk Delphine Downing John Doman Far from being mundane, the film takes us along as the leads interact and take steps to change their lives.
And in the end, we share in their happiness as they come out of their shells to begin a new chapter in their lives together. Enjoy a night in with these popular movies available to stream now with Prime Video. Start your free trial. Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Related News Eight Days a Week: Most Memorable Emmys Moments. Favourite Films of Share this Rating Title: Lonely Hearts 6. Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin.
Learn more More Like This. A Woman's Tale Heat and Dust The Lonely Lady Man of Flowers Last Plane Out Escape from the Bronx A rag-tag group of people must fight extermination squads amid their ruined city. Beyond the Limit Edit Cast Cast overview, first billed only: Patricia Curnow Norman Kaye Peter Thompson Jon Finlayson Patricia's mother Vic Gordon Patricia's father Ted Grove-Rogers Peter's Father Ronald Falk