Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

153 reviews

michelle_mc96's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, and Fatphobia

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Alcohol

elevent11's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Abandonment

jakirby's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Murder, and Sexual harassment

deanna_c's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Child death, Death, Infidelity, and Miscarriage

sazzzberry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Grief, Stalking, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Infertility and Miscarriage

alisha247's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

this is one very difficult book to review for a few reasons. 

the first thing i really noticed about this novel was its writing. the author wrote some really beautiful sentences, especially those focusing on nature imagery, however there were also plenty of sentences that were either prose overkill or simply did not make sense. this, coupled with the incessant back and forth timelines, sometimes spanning years, did not help me follow these characters’ journeys. 

secondly, the triggering content. there was unnecessary amounts of graphic sexual abuse and emotional neglect of children. i understand the message the novel was trying to portray with this - how trauma can tremendously shape lives, but the imagery was not needed. 

furthermore, none of the characters were very likeable. they were very much one-dimensional to me. this made it difficult to empathise with any of their choices. for some characters, their distastefulness worked well in the story e.g. elle’s parents, her stepparents etc. but for others, readers almost needed to be won over for the story to excel e.g. i certainly felt that peter was bland and his only character traits were being english and vulgar; jonas was presented as a total sweetheart as a child but as an adult, there was no charisma. 

and then the ending. i don’t usually mind ambiguous endings, but this left too many loose ends in its wake!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual content

abbiekwilliams's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Cancer, Incest, Infertility, and Terminal illness

sallymonroe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

lavienne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Infertility, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Blood, Dementia, and Abandonment

lusignank's review against another edition

dark

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual harassment