Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel (by Ruth Hogan)

(Amazon UK link)

I read a novel by Ruth Hogan nearly four years ago, and liked it so much that I put another of her books on my wishlist. I was given ‘Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel’ for Christmas 2019… and it has sat on my to-be-read shelf for all this time. I finally picked it up to read a few days ago - and what a delight it was!

Tilda is the main character. She’s forty-six, as we learn early in the book, and narrates the story in the first person, starting when she’s beginning to sort out her late mother’s house and possessions. Tilda always had a difficult relationship with her mother, made worse when she was sent away to boarding school at a young age, with no explanation. And then she discovers her mother’s diaries, hidden in a box. 

There are two time-frames to this book. Interspersed with Tilda’s chapters - sometimes in twos or threes - are sections entitled ‘Tilly’, told in the third person, set when Tilda was seven and known as ‘Tilly’.  It’s a good device as it means there’s no confusion about which time is being referred to. And while the adult Tilda is more knowledgeable and streetwise than young Tilly, they’re very much the same person. 

Tilda’s a bit obsessive about strange things (like the way she cuts up toast and eats things in order), and she also sees a lot of ghosts - as if real people. It comes naturally to her as it has done all her life - and even at seven, as Tilly, she was aware that some people found this disturbing. Tilda feels unlovable; not that she’s lacked affection, or friends. But her father moved away just before she was seven - we don’t learn the details of it until much later in the book - and on her seventh birthday her mother told her that he had died. 

The idea of the story is one I’ve come across in other novels: a middle-aged adult reads diaries or letters written by a parent, and discovers family secrets. But I haven’t seen it handled quite like this, with poignancy and humour, and some very realistic main characters along with some delightful caricatures and oddities. 

Seeing things through seven-year-old Tilly’s eyes allows the reader to see beyond the childish viewpoint, and mistakes, and it also gives some amusing moments; Tilly sings wrong words confidently to Christmas carols, mis-hears place names, and sometimes gets people’s names wrong too. It’s perhaps exaggerated - she’s a bright child, and it seems unlikely to me that an intelligent child of seven would make quite so many errors. But it doesn’t much matter. 

I thought it very thought-provoking in places, as secrets are kept, lies told, questions asked. And the consequences of actions long-term - even forty years later - are clearly shown. I had guessed one of the storylines that was revealed towards the end, but several other revelations were a surprise to me, although - looking back - I could see that they made sense. I liked Tilda - and seven-year-old Tilly - very much, and the people around who cared for her, too. 

By the time I was half-way through I could barely put this down. I wanted to know what was in the diaries, and whether a new relationship was going to flourish. I was a bit disappointed that the ending of the book was bittersweet - perhaps it was inevitable, and more realistic than the one I’d hoped for, but it’s really my only slight gripe with the book. I would recommend it highly - and will be putting another of this author’s books on my wishlist. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews