Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers: A Book Review
Genre: Historical Fiction
Eamon Somer’s novel, Dolly Considine’s Hotel, was neither a nice read or a terrible read. It was just “meh”. Surrounding the main character of Julian (not his real name), the story switches between Somer’s titled work and Julian’s own work – resulting in confusing lines being crossed, multiple unfinished plot lines, and vastly different takes on characters.
In some aspects, Somer describes life quite nicely as life does tend to be a jumbled mess with loose strings and unfinished ideas following us everywhere. People are also seen differently by other points of views and the information each person knows about them. With the inclusion of Julian’s own work, different lines were also drawn to show the fantasy lives of strangers (and friends) which was interesting in and of itself.
The beginning of the story went quite slow. I feel like I stayed at 38% (Kindle tracking) for a good week of reading even though I was reading a couple hours everyday. Once I reached 67% (again Kindle tracking) the reading went much faster until next thing I knew I was finished. Looking back, I am not sure if this was because the beginning of the story was more tedious or if it was because I understood the writing style better.
As a whole, however, I was not overly impressed. I can concede that perhaps this is from the format of the book. I tend to stick purely to physical formats (paperbacks and hardcovers), but had to consent to the ebook as to participate in the ARC Tour I signed up for. My thought on this, however, is that the wording and main aspects of the story do not change between the formats. In essence, the ebook is the same as the physical.
I would like to say that I think this book would be excellent as a full cast audiobook. I think if each character were able to be given a different voice (and allow the character of Julian to narrate his own work), there would be a much better connection between everything. As it is, the book reminds me of sitting in a room full of people just yelling at each other. Using the audiobook format, I think, would help separate and better tell the story Somer was trying to achieve.
Of course, the question remains of if I would recommend this book. To answer, I am not quite sure. I highly doubt that I would recommend the work for reading pleasure, but I could see myself recommending the work to high school English classes looking to study Ireland history and culture. If an audiobook were ever released, especially that of a full cast, I would probably recommend the story with the pleasure of listening to it myself as well.
Who would most enjoy the work and who should stay clear (if necessary):
If you enjoyed House of Leaves, which I reviewed late last year, I feel that you would equally enjoy Dolly Considine’s Hotel. If you are not a fan of historical fiction, have no knowledge of Ireland, and want an easy, laid-back read, I would look somewhere else.
Other books like the one reviewed:
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
| Plot: | 5.5 / 10 |
| Characters: | 5 / 10 |
| Writing: | 5.5 / 10 |
| Editor: | 7 / 10 |
| Total | 23 / 40 |
Title: Dolly Considine’s Hotel
Author: Eamon Somers
Edition Read: eBook/Kindle (This book does come in the physical format)
Published: 2019 (ebook); July 2021 (physical)
Publisher: Unbound
ISBN: 9781789651300 (ebook); 9781789651294 (physical)
If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble
This post was edited on June 9th, 2022 to include the information of the physical format of the book upon request of the author. The Barnes&Noble link was also reestablished.
This post was originally published June 5th, 2022.
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