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renpuspita's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Walau awal - awal ceritanya agak slow dan kita diperlihatkan sama Ceony yg kesel banget gegara ga bisa jadi Pengendali Besi dan harus jadi Pengendali Kertas, cerita mulai seru saat Emery diserang dan jantungnya diambil. Vibe awalnya emang kayak cerita daddy long legs, apalagi Emery jauh lebih tua dari Ceony. Walau Ceony kesel, toh dia pasrah juga mau jadi Pengendali Kertas dan diajarin sama Emery macem2. Menurut gue kelebihan cerita ini emang di proses Ceony belajar sihir Kertas yang ajaib banget! Gue yakin tiap orang yg abis baca buku ini jadi pengen belajar origami. Nah saat jantung Emery diambil dan Ceony pergi sendirian buat nyelamatin si jantung, alur ceritanya mulai cepat dan cuma hitungan hari karena jantung sementara Emery yg berasal dari kertas ga akan bertahan lama. Di bagian inilah akhirnya Ceony tahu masa lalu Emery yang kompleks termasuk hubungan Emery dengan Lira, dimana Lira ini ada Penyihir Pembelot yang mengambil jantung Emery.
Untuk segi romansanya sih tipis-tipis ya dan kelihatan banget Ceony yang jatuh cinta duluan sama Emery walau alasannya karena pas dia tahu Emery yg kasih beasiswa buat belajar dan juga gegara lihat masa lalu Emery itu agak kurang kuat buat gue. Tapi ya orang mau jatuh cinta itu kadang alasannya macem2, lol. Romansanya sendiri ga terlalu fokus kok dan ceritanya emang lebih ke upaya Ceony buat nyelamatin Emery. Ceony sendiri emang berbakat ya karena dia bisa menguasai sihir kertas dengan cukup bagus walau bagian yang susah seperti membuat anjing dari kertas itu baru Emery yang bisa. Menarik buat tahu gimana Ceony nanti akan berkembang jadi Pengendali Kertas yang sesungguhnya.
Terjemahannya sendiri rapi meski ada beberapa typo. Sayangnya, hurufnya kecil - kecil BANGET dan mayan bikin gue spaneng. Edisi asli buku ini tuh 222 halaman sementara diterjemahkan jadi 236 hal. Hemat kertas banget ga tuh? Ironis mengingat kertas juga jadi fokus utama cerita ini, hehehe. Kekurangannya memang di bagian awal yang agak slow karena setelah Ceony masuk ke jantung Emery itu ceritanya mulai oke dan gue kagum sama cara Holmberg menganalogikan kenangan dan impian manusia itu di jantung. Dalam bahasa Inggris, jantung itu heart, sementara heart di bahasa Indonesia juga berarti hati; tempat kenangan berasal. Menurut gue ini cukup puitis dan lebih bisa diikuti ketimbang pakai bagian otak misalnya 😆.
Untuk sebuah debut dan buku pembuka sebuah series, The Paper Magician ini cukup seru dan cukup bikin penasaran karena ceritanya emang masih berlanjut. Cocok juga buat yg nyari fantasy ringan dengan jumlah halaman yg ga terlalu banyak.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Medical trauma
Minor: Self harm, Suicide, and Sexual harassment
audreylee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Body horror
moody_gobling's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Woman in the fridge trope,
Thin background,
Incomplete and rushed character development.
I wish this had been the thrilling Victorian-magican’s academy that I had hoped for. I’m proud to not have DNF’d it, but it took more effort to not do so than I would have liked.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Suicide
av0universe's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, and Vomit
Minor: Bullying, Death, Vomit, Grief, and Sexual harassment
daniber's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder
katelynprice's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Suicide
saliwali's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Classism
writingcaia's review against another edition
4.0
I can't understand such bad reviews. This is a well thought fantasy story with intriguing and super creative magic, world building, and characters, whom although not extensively introduced still made me feel close to them, especially as the book goes. It is a short book and maybe could have been more descriptive to introduce more details and depth however I still really enjoyed it. Can't wait for the next one.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Bullying
lucinotlucy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Blood
Minor: Self harm, Suicide, and Sexual harassment
linguisticfanatic's review against another edition
All of that aside, I was interested to see the world that was in this book and where things were going. It was obvious to me that there was something going on with the adults in the world and I was willing to be invested in their actions while putting up with a 19 year old moping about her lot in life.
All of that would've been great to read through. Instead, we have our MC decide that she with her tiny folded birds and fish are going to traipsing off to find Lira and steal Emery's heart back. Even though I was rolling my eyes, I was at the 30%ish mark so I figured that it would just be an adventure in stupidity. I was thinking she'd get trounced and drag herself back home in disgrace, but instead I've been making my way through the 4 valves of his heart watching memories I don't care about. I'm currently in the 3rd valve at the 67% mark and dreading that there's still another valve to go through full of memories to watch and I just can't do it anymore.
I don't care to spend my time with a character I don't like watching memories one after the other. Ceony knows that she can't interact with the memories (outside of select moments) and yet she still goes up to each memory talking and trying to touch things. I can't deal with the stupidity anymore.
There was so much I could see good about where this story could've gone. There was just a very poor choice of storytelling mechanic used for too much of the book for me to stay interested.
Graphic: Body horror and Blood
Minor: Bullying