Unfortunatly I couldn't really get into this one. The writing didn't grip me and felt like a lot of the story went over my head.

I thought the idea of this was interesting but i didn't love the outcome or delivery of this too much. It was written okay but i just didn't connect to it or think that much. It had a lot of premise and i thought it had potential but it just missed it.

Grudova's debut novel was an eery somewhat dystopic foray into motion picture. laden with cinematic references, the story weaves the lives of the workers together as a group of underpaid and mismatched dwellers attempting to find meaning at their jobs. It inspects ideas of overconsumption, big corporate takeovers and the death of art culture in late stage capitalism. it was unsettling but failed to reach an expected crescendo. a very weird little book that will likely stick in my mind for a while longer.

I should not have started Children of Paradise at 21:30 on a Sunday evening! Although it’s more of a novella at around 200 pages, it sucked me right in and I just had to read it all in one sitting. In the book we meet Holly, who starts working at one of the cities oldest cinemas, the faded glory of Paradise. During her job we meet the cast of characters who work there and watch everything they have worked for slowly start to unravel.

Children of Paradise is a book all about its characters and we get to know them and see how they react to the crazy situation going on around them. The cast that inhabit Paradise; from ex-beauty queen manager Sally, film snob Cosmo or the eccentric customer Iris are so very different in their portrayals but still felt realistic, if a little strange. It’s not a happy read and it takes you on a real rollercoaster journey of emotions which is why I’d actually recommend reading this one in one go if you are able to. The writing is beautiful although at times it portrays disgusting and gross events which are harder to stomach.

Being a novella means that every word is important and its paced nicely. There is enough dedicated to the ‘good times’ at the beginning of the plot that when everything starts to go wrong you really feel upset and invested in the story. I personally don’t really know that much about classic cinema – there are film references throughout but not knowing them didn’t really impact my enjoyment of the book although I think you might get more out of it if you are a film-buff.

Although I would give this book 5 stars, I would find it difficult to recommend it to someone I know – it’s a niche book and a little weird and depraved in places. If you enjoy cinema and don’t mind a dark and upsetting tale about the human condition, give this a read – I personally could not put it down! Thank you to NetGalley & Atlantic Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun, quirky but also sad and melancholy read. It was really fast paced, I read it over the space of a day. Filled with a bizarre cast of characters, both likeable and unlikeable. I love how the cinema itself felt like it’s own entity in the story. Compelling writing for a strange little tale. Loved it and will definitely read more from this author in the future!!

Perhaps I'm slightly bias as someone who has worked in cinemas and is a massive film buff, but I LOVED this. The slightly detached narration (which would sometimes pull me out of a book) just worked here, along with the weird and wacky cast of supporting characters. I loved this, especially the mix of the mundane and surreal. A definite hidden gem.

The Paradise is an ancient cinema, now well past its prime, situated in an unnamed city in an unnamed country:

It was built on the ground floor of a block of flats around the time of the outbreak of the First World War, its entrance like the building’s gaping outh, a sparkling marquee teeth grin with the word PARADISE written in pale yellow neon.

The cinema is also built over a sewer and drainage overflows into the hall at strategic points in the book. It exudes a sense of filth and grime.

On a whim, the narrator, Holly, joins the underpaid staff of the Paradise and is slowly accepted into their coterie, made up of eccentric movie-loving misfits. The staff spend long hours at the Paradise. Days and nights passed in the cinema are followed by binge-watching of classic and art films at their respective dingy apartments. Despite the fact that the Paradise is dilapidated and their working conditions far from great, these eccentrics feel an intimate connection to the dirty old building, to the point that Helen occasionally has (drug-fuelled?) “time-slip” experiences haunted by visions the cinema’s past. When the owner of the Paradise dies, the cinema is taken over by a chain, leading to an outbreak of bloody violence.

This is novel best appreciated by cinema buffs. Its title is a tribute to Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du Paradis, and each of the chapters is named after a different classic movie, which creates interesting parallels and counterpoints with the facts described in the respective chapters. Grudova draws on her love for the cinema and her experiences working as an usherette at the Cameo in Edinburgh after moving there from her native Canada. I’ve read elsewhere that Iris, the cinema owner, is based on a real character.

There is also a magical feel to the novel – which gets darker and darker, moving into Gothic and horror territory. The final chapters, an angry indictment of capitalism and gentrification, reminded me of other socially conscious contemporary novels, such as Fiona Mozley’s Hot Stew.

There is, in other words, much to admire and dig into here, but I must admit that the novel was not for me. The pervasive sense of oppressive filth and decay (rather than “decadence” in the Romantic fin-de-siecle sense of the word) wore me down, and I found the novel’s obsession with bodily fluids, secretions and excretions gross and off-putting. Considering the nightmarish aspects and atmosphere of the Paradise, (let alone its working conditions) I found it hard to understand the staff’s connection with it and why they would take its takeover so much to heart.

Children of Paradise is receiving rave reviews and I can understand why, but unfortunately, I cannot bring myself to join the chorus of acclaim.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2022/07/children-of-paradise-by-camilla-grudova.html

This surrealist depiction of an unnamed city’s oldest cinema and its staff, told through the lens of protagonist Holly, didn’t quite work for me.

I enjoyed the themes: cinema, commercialism, art house vs mainstream, social isolation, etc. However, the characters were all so slippery and dysfunctional that it was hard to get inside their skin or care what happened to them. That as unfortunate since a lot did happen, mostly at the end in a series of unlikely scenarios straight from the schlock horror films 🍿 🎥 the Paradise might have shown as a season.

This book will definitely have some ardent devotees but wasn’t something I would personally recommend.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Atlantic Books, for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This one was unsettling. I still don’t know how I feel about it but I did read through it without stopping. So that says something?

Based on the synopsis, I thought it would be a lot scarier or at least in the horror genre. But it’s not scary at all. More of a recounting of just working at a cinema. The only "horror" is that everything is really dirty and gross.

I watch a TON of movies, but I also didn’t really understand the point of the chapter titles being different movies that seemingly had nothing to do with the content of the book? Maybe I'm just not a cinephile for movies made before the 70s.

I do recommend, but don't count on it being anything like what the synopsis promises. (The main character was never even named as "Holly"... I don't think?)

An oddly enjoyable book, full of misfits and odd goings on in an old cinema. A sense of foreboding and dislocation hangs over the whole story as it slowly meanders to some sort of resolution.
I think it will stay with me for some time
Thank you to netgalley and Atlantic books for an advance copy of this book

Absolutely loved Grudova's "Children of Paradise"; an ode to old cinema, to film history, as well as a tip of the hat to cinephils.

This is a strange and surreal story about a group of people working in an old cinema.
The protagonist starts working at Paradise Cinema and spends a few lonely weeks learning the ropes with little support from her cliquey coworkers. Eventually, she seems to prove her loyalty and is welcomed into the friend group. The story follows her as she becomes friends with her colleagues, learns the stories and secrets of Paradise.
The cinema staff are weird, the customers are odd and the events which take place are very surreal. It reminded my of The Odyssey by Lara Williams, set in a cinema instead of a cruise ship.
There are surreal, mysterious and horror elements which I found really enjoyable albeit sometimes a little confusing and slightly random. Overall this was a really fun read and I found myself completely absorbed by it.

This book follows a young girl who gets a job at one of the city’s oldest cinemas, the Paradise, where she must quickly become accustomed to fraying carpets, gross toilets, endless dirt and her mysterious colleagues who won’t speak to her.

When she is finally accepted by her colleagues, she begins to learn of the cinemas secrets and history, haunting its corridors after hours with her fellow ushers to watch movies, steal lost property and scavenge money and drugs left behind.

I absolutely loved Grudova’s short story collection and this book is another showcase of her talents for creating uncomfortable, unsettling atmospheres and building up a sense of dread throughout.

The book is full of references to classic movies and actors, with each chapter title being the name of a film and it’s director. I think Grudova did an amazing job at exploring the loss of old/traditional cinema and the way it’s eaten up by larger companies, capitalism, modern decor, the domination of marvel films and the loss of appreciation for older, eccentric european films, as well as the treatment of lower paid workers.

Although this book is set in our reality, there are moments of surrealism scattered throughout that make you question what’s real and what isn’t which I also really enjoyed.

Overall this is a strange little book that I really enjoyed but without spoiling anything, I felt like I didn’t really understand where it ended up going at the end and why things started happening, 3.5 ⭐️

A surreal, discomforting debut novel charts the fates of a ragtag group of cinema workers who are spat out by corporate takeover.
Rich in evocative detail - the complex horror mystery kept me guessing right up to the last page.

Children of Paradise is a novel about the strange world of an ageing cinema and the people who work there. The protagonist moves to a new city and applies for a job at the Paradise, an old cinema, where she has to deal with popcorn spills, horrible toilets, and getting used to the weird coworkers who won't talk to her. When she's finally invited to socialise with and get to know the other employees, she discovers the secrets of the run-down cinema, from what they do with lost property to rumours of a secret second screen. But it isn't just the haunting corridors that loom, but also the thread of corporate takeover.

This book draws you into a surreal world, full of eerie moments and the realities of customer service drudgery. Told in the first person, it has an atmosphere that is mostly realistic, but with lingering moments of unreality, and you never quite know if the Paradise holds more secrets than it seems. The sense of place in the cinema is very visceral, not only the faded glamour but the rituals, the employee drug taking and the rats and the gone-off snacks, and it paints quite a picture of the horrors both of run-down decadence and soulless corporate takeover that still doesn't actually make the place any less in disrepair.

Displaying both eerie location-based horror and customer service hell, Children of Paradise is an atmospheric novel suffused with film history that shows how the past and present might coexist or clash, all in the space of a single cinema. It's gripping and perfect for anyone who likes unnerving stories in which a place is one of the characters.

Housed within the walls of the Paradise Cinema is a group of young misfits who do what they can in order to survive mistreatment and minimum wage.

They take it upon themselves to sneak in the building after hours to watch movies, take drugs and pocket whatever items customers may have left behind.

The author cleverly gives the sense of entrapment within the walls of the Paradise although each character can come and go as they please.

I liked that each chapter was set out with a film title and enjoyed reading about the lengths that the intially shy character Holly would go to in order to fit in.

Children of Paradise tackles the underlying issues of isolation, conformity, consumerism and capitalism whilst being an engaging read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my arc!

Known for her unnerving short-story collection The Doll’s Alphabet, this is Camilla Grudova’s debut novella. Grudova draws from her experiences after she left Canada for Scotland. Settled in Edinburgh, she worked as an usherette at the Cameo, an indie cinema later gobbled up by a large, money-grubbing corporation. From the nod to Marcel Carné in the title, onwards, this is saturated in film and film history, overflowing with references to classic films and actors. It’s narrated by Holly who, like Grudova, loves clowns and Chaplin. Holly takes a job at the Paradise cinema, once shiny and glorious, it’s now dilapidated and struggling. At first Holly’s snubbed by the rest of the staff but soon becomes part of their cultish. misfit band, spending her days and nights in their company. They scour the aisles for discarded money and drugs, and set up their own, after-hours film shows. They endure the sordid antics of customers, cleaning up the various bodily fluids that routinely coat the seats, unclogging the overflowing toilets and cleaning the rat-infested popcorn machine. Together they form a kind of society in miniature, away from the wider world, like the children in Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles or the characters in Bertolucci’s The Dreamers; subject only to the whims of manager Sally who seems to have stepped out of a frame from Sunset Boulevard. They live on minimum wage, scrounging and hustling to stay afloat but when the owner of the Paradise suddenly dies and the Paradise is taken over by a soulless chain, it becomes clear their sordid, shabbily-decadent existence was an idyll, a time of lost, fragile pleasures.

Grudova’s piece is atmospheric and unsettling, with a slightly gothic tinge, perhaps why she’s been compared to authors like Angela Carter. Her story’s richly detailed, highly visual in quality, unfolding in a leisurely yet gripping manner, gradually moving into slightly surreal, nightmarish territory, making me wonder if she’s also been influenced by writers like Bruno Schulz. The cinema itself is a major character here: its faded but extravagant interior housing a haunted, sinister space, rather like the ballet school in Argento’s Suspiria or The Overlook Hotel in The Shining. A place that bears the traces and scars of terrible events and hints at more to come. A fascinating story and an impressive take on contemporary capitalism and conformity. Although there are points when this falters, it still completely captured my attention from start to finish.