Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Paper Palace

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

34 reviews

georgie_mb's review

emotional reflective 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

2.75

I feel really mixed about this. Maybe this is more of a 2.75 than a 3…

Let’s start with the positives: the descriptions are truly beautiful, and that honestly was a whole star in my rrating system. I could see The Paper Palace and it’s surrounding, it was a very sensory experience.
For some reason (and I don’t really know why), I got more into this in the second half than the first, and I’m wondering whether it was because I settled into the banter of the family. Possibly because it reminded me slightly of my own…

I do have some issues with it though. Firstly I don’t think it helped that the Audible narrator sounded like the female US Siri which made some of it come across as very cold. But I think even looking past that, some parts really lacked emotion, and almost came across as harsh. I found this particularly hard to swallow when it come to the really disturbing parts, so much so I had to skip forward sometimes.

I also found the storyline lacked purpose. I think with the beginning it set it up to be a completely different book to what it turned out to be, and I was left slightly disappointed by that. There just didn’t seem to be any clear direction, regardless of the varying time lines.

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kyraelisabeth's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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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jade_0222's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I discovered this book at my local library, attracted by its summery cover and knowing very little about its plot (I intentionally avoid reading synopses for 90% of the books I read so that I can approach them with an unbiased attitude). I anticipated a light, possibly romantic, summertime read, but I was completely mistaken. The novel centers around a family's vacation home called the "Paper Palace," which serves as a retreat during summer and holidays. Numerous events, ranging from heartbreaking to heartwarming, are interwoven throughout the vacation getaway. While I found some of the nature writing to be beautiful and immersive, the writing that focused on the main character was occasionally jarring and perplexing. The story takes place over 24 hours with flashbacks to the main character's childhood and young adulthood, I found these to be distracting. The characters in the book are difficult to like, and I struggled to relate to the main character. <**SPOILERS**The story follows Elle as she visits her family's summer home with her spouse and children. While there, she reconnects with her childhood friend, Jonas, who she has been in love with since she was younger. They have a brief fling, which causes Elle to question the "What ifs" she has always had about Jonas. The plot revolves around her struggle to choose between staying in her happy marriage or pursuing a new life with Jonas, along with traumatic experiences she endured in her youth and how that affects her currently. Despite Elle's infidelity, the book could be considered a lighthearted romance if you can overlook that fact. It is implied that she chooses Jonas over her husband, but the ending is not entirely clear. However, the heavy trauma that has affected both Elle and Jonas's relationship makes the book an emotionally heavy read. Jonas is the most interesting character in the story, but even he seems somewhat one-dimensional. Overall, it's challenging to find a character to truly like in this book. **SPOILERS**>

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serenereadssally's review against another edition

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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

3.0

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.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

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kaffee_auf_ex's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Beautifully written, yet so incredibly problematic.

Every adult in this book only exists to abuse Elle. Even strangers only exist to punch her or break into her house and assault her. All the adults are abusive towards children. Trauma is there for pure shock value and to be edgy.

Reese Witherspoon teased that there would be a fascinating love triangle. She absolutely broke my trust. You call this a love triangle?

- mild spoilers ahead -

Spoiler

Does it deserve to be a love triangle if the husband and mother team up to abuse Elle? If we are told that she loves him but everytime she things to herself that she loves him it is in a situation in which he was being toxic because that's all he ever is? He is a red flag walking from the very moment he comes into her life. All he ever does is gaslight her and never take her seriously but instead bully her together with her mother who is incredibly abusive.

And maybe this could be okay if there was something that we get out of all that. If she ever realised he was being abused or really call out her mother for the incredible amount of abuse. But she never does.

And I won't even talk about Jonas not being a consent king because compared to all of the rape and abuse going on, he is the nicest person in the book if you don't count Anna who is my favourite character.

The story is unnecessarily long and filled with some more abuse that we don't need. Yes, there's an abusive spouse of a parent. Oh wait, they get remarried and we get another abusive spouse because the first wasn't enough. Oh, here's a family friend or whatever behaving inappropriately towards children.

And here is some abuse that another family member face that is not directly relevant but still told to us in graphic detail like all of the rape is because, well, shock value.

It's so sad that a woman can't have character growth without sexual drama but wait - there's no character growth. Elle is one of the worst main characters I have ever read because she is passive from the beginning even when her own passiveness hurts more people than just herself and she never learns. She never calls out abuse for what it is.

Let me summarise what this book is: Straight cis rich white people abusing each other and especially children because they don't have enough struggles in their lives to keep athem entertained and plot convenience. Easily the least diverse book I have read in my live because it doesn't feature anything else than straight cis rich white people.

One mayor question remains: Why did the author waste her incredible writing talent for such an edgy and tone deaf story? To sell more books? To have more chances at having it picked up for TV adaption? Because damn, that woman can write. She really sucked me in. I hope for her to get some perspective and write something less problematic because yes, I would like to read more of her writing, just a whole different story.

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