Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Der Papierpalast

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)

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)

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?

Content Warnings

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.

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