Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Paper Palace

I have mixed feelings about this book. Within the first 5 minutes of reading this there is an unnecessary description of child sexual abuse, just thrown in a paragraph like it’s nothing.

This then becomes a theme throughout the book, which also includes abusive neglectful parents, animal abuse, incest, child rape, knife crime and, now seeming tame in comparison, marital infidelity.

While I understand we should not run from these subjects I’m not sure in this case we should have run towards them. A lot of the descriptions felt gratuitous and not needed. The writing was good, hence the three stars, but this just backs up my opinion that she didn’t need to throw all this at the storyline in such a graphic way. I skipped over the sexual abuse scenes as they were truly stomach churning.

I also felt that while I know not all stories ‘go somewhere’ the ending left me feeling very flat. But then, I wonder where it could have gone anyway.

The character building was wonderful, the atmosphere and ambience of the back woods was delicious. She captured guilt and loss and heartbreak perfectly and I enjoyed the unusual timeline, but I feel she didn’t need all the other stuff.

Definitely think it’s a divisive book. Would I recommend? Probably no, there are much better in this genre. Please make sure you read trigger warnings.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Content Warnings

joey1914's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.75

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lall80's review against another edition

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Sex abuse and animal cruelty

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thefancybookworm's review against another edition

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The sexual abuse scene against a child was unnecessary and graphic. Disgusting.

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fifteenthjessica's review against another edition

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DNF at about 25%.

I found the characters, structure, and prose unpleasant. If you're on the fence, read the first chapter and then decide (based on the 5 stars reviews on Goodreads, there were people who liked the things I disliked). Just be warned that there are scenes of child sexual abuse and some animal deaths. The former provides some character context, but the latter is flat out gratuitous.

The majority of the cast is horrible people who I couldn't find enough redeeming qualities for to keep reading. This is a contemporary romance, yet I find myself wondering why the main character, Elle, is attracted to either of her love interests (her childhood friend Jonas and her husband Peter) and why they are attracted to her. Elle's PoV is one of the most passive-aggressive and bitterly miserable ones I've ever read. Jonas is my personal least favorite. He admits to telling Elle he was over her after introducing her to his now-wife just to hurt her feelings and (WARNING: mention of sexual assault)

Spoiler

then proceeds to finger her while she asks him not to because she's worried their spouses will see them.

Not to imply Peter is a prize, he's very inconsiderate and at one point laughs when their teenage son calls her the b word, but the other two set a really low bar for likability.

The book flits between the 24 or so hours after Elle sleeps with Jonas and the childhoods of Elle and her mother. Most of the flashbacks are unpleasant events from both childhoods, and while they certainly explain why these two in particular are so unpleasant (although, honestly, Elle seemed quite unpleasant as a child), half the time they seem irrelevant to the present day events (WARNING: mention of animal death and nudity)

Spoiler

Did we need the scene where Elle and her sister watch their mom's boyfriend flush a baby alligator down a toilet? How about the family friend and his new wife strolling around naked in front of children right after sex?

The prose, probably my least favorite part, is a mix of winding, metaphor-laden descriptions and moments that are included to give a sense of realism but that I found uncomfortable. Like yes, an ant would crawl on someone's nipple if that person laid naked somewhere that had ants, but why do the readers need to know that?

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asphy3's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I'm not sure how to rate this book tbh. I wasn't bad, it was very well written and the scenery descriptions were great. How I understood it, it is a book about childhood trauma and how that affects you going forward. I guess I didn't relate to many of the FMC choices and thus didn't really connect with her, nor any of the characters for that matter. The book dragged a bit and really only began getting interesting (for me) in book 2. But, I kept reading hoping to get somewhere and ended up getting nowhere. I don't think I understood the ending.

Spoiler

Thankfully, I never went throught something like that, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand the way she can feel for Conrad after what he has done. How can you cry for a person who robbed you the way he did, and not for need, but for pleasure. It's disgusting and sick and unforgivable and he would do it again given the right circumstances. Him dying that way was honestly the highlight of the book for me. As for the rest, I did not understand that ending.

Content Warnings

lisa12's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-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

3.5

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