The Heartbreak Hotel is a therapy retreat that specialises in tending to the heartbroken, ran by Alice Haddon (clinical psychologist) and Ruth Field (self-help author). The reader meets a group of diverse women all attending the same group therapy, and all united by a current heartbreak. The reader is encouraged to listen to the stories of these women, and then complete tasks that encourage analysis of your own difficulties with relationships. If I’m honest, this book was not at all what I expected. It’s 50% self-help guide, and 50% fiction. I do confess to sometimes indulging in some self-pitying literature, so when selecting this title I assumed it would read like a self-help book (which I typically always enjoy more in theory than anything else). I think that, quite honestly, anyone reading this book is probably not in the best place of their lives, and some of the tales recounted in this book are truly horrific. I warn any reader that this is not the most uplifting tale. That being said, there is comfort in shared experiences, so perhaps others would be able to find solace in this. There is good advice to be found here, especially in the reflective exercises, but I found it a little inaccessible due to being littered through tales of trauma.

I know that this is probably not what you want to read in a review, but I can sum up my thoughts on this book in one word: conflicted. On one hand, it sort of felt like group therapy, listening to a chorus of women telling me “you are not alone”. On the other, I spent so long reading different distressing childhood accounts that I sort of forgot what I was reading or what the goal was. It’s sort of like a comfort blanket (warm, inclusive), and sort of like listening to a stranger complain about their life (mildly interesting, a bit irritating). I wound up giving it a slightly harsh 2* on Goodreads.

Some how did not my expectations, a bit dry despite the case studies and heavily focused on how childhood trauma predisposes one to struggle with relationship breakdowns