Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Chicas de Papel y de Fuego by Natasha Ngan

27 reviews

dododenise's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

While it took a while, this book sucked me in. A beautiful and rich world, so well described that I was living in this magical world the last few days. The characters needed some getting used to, but once I did, I embraced and loved them. All of them were so carefully crafted and given beautiful depth. All the while a wonderful forbidden romance blossomed in the middle of it. 
The story was a difficult one, but drew me in even more because of it. I suffered with these characters and fought with them. I definitely want to continue the series and keep on fighting with them. I desperately want to know where this world and its characters will go. 
Unfortunately the book at the typical problem of a high fantasy book: a slow start with a lot of world building, making it incredibly hard to be drawn in. It probably took a solid 100 pages. I would’ve given this book the full five stars if it wasn’t for the rocky start. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Infertility and Fire/Fire injury

yohhhanna's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I read this book once already 2 years ago but somehow I only realized now on my reread that I never wrote a review. so this is just my second thoughts no first reaction..
this book is perfect for anyone looking for an Asian-inspired fantasy world with strong sapphic main characters fighting against their oppressors. also there's lots of friendship, food descriptions and a himbo helping the girls. I strongly urge you to have a look at the trigger warnings beforehand though.

spoiler warning just in case: wren is an absolute goddess, where do I get a gf like her? she makes me feel all giddy and her love isn't even directed at me. I love how her and lei are never whiny, always fighting, always fire. and I miss kenzo already :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

cassie12_21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The following spoilers are info on the trigger warning r@pe (not in detail) <there is no rape talked about in detail in the book, but it is still discussed alot, the king has paper girls whom he used for sex>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

changbinslemonade's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Torture, Lesbophobia, and War

caoimhe9876's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Alcohol

sarah984's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I liked this book a lot. It's an Asian-inspired dark fantasy, and managed to make the world feel big despite about ninety percent of the book taking place inside the palace grounds. The characters were great and showed a variety of ways that people react to trauma. Lei’s impulsiveness sometimes annoyed me, but she's seventeen so it makes sense.

Heading into the ending I was expecting this to be five stars, but the actual ending feels rushed (I feel like almost as much happens in the last 20 pages as in the entire rest of the book) and one plot point, while not really surprising, disappointed me.

Overall though the book was great and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

There is a scene involving a public execution.

bluejayreads's review against another edition

4.5

I was a little concerned about all those trigger warnings going in. They are there, but they were handled well, and overall this turned out to be a very enjoyable book.

The story is very much focused on Lei and her emotional journey. She didn't want to be a Paper Girl, but she has to under threat of losing her last remaining family. And the first half to two-thirds focuses on her emotional journey dealing with being kidnapped and basically sold into sex slavery, navigating court life, making friends and enemies among the other Paper Girls. It's well-written and feels real.

The plot morphs quite a bit. It starts off with Lei being taken to the palace to be a concubine for the king, trying to survive that and hoping to maybe find her mother along the way. Then she falls in love with a fellow Paper Girl (I'm not going to reveal who, because I think that counts as a spoiler). And the last third is her love interest dragging her into a full-on revolution plot, which is not at all what I counted on from that back cover. The back cover makes it sound like a small story about romance and dealing with sexual assault. And then it takes an abrupt left turn into violent uprising and assassination. Don't get me wrong, it was good - to the point where I had to take a break because the tension was killing me - but not what I expected.

My biggest criticism is that I'm not 100% on board with the world. The caste bit was creative, and I liked the idea of anthropomorphic animals, part-animal-part-humans, and actual humans all living together in a society. And I liked that it was trying to have an East Asian atmosphere, but it felt thrown together with other elements that didn't quite mesh. For example, one of Lei's fellow Paper Girls is named Wren, which sounded jarringly Western to me. (Perhaps Wren actually is an East Asian name. Perhaps I'm not the best person to judge a multicultural author's efforts in combining multiple cultures. But every time I read Wren's name, it jolted me out of the atmosphere of the book).

All things considered, this is a very good book. I don't think I'm going to read the sequels though, mainly because I don't really think it needed one. Everything wraps up nicely at the end, and though you know there's more trials to come for Lei, it has a hopeful note and it's a great place to end. Then after the last chapter there's two paragraphs - not even long enough to be called an epilogue - that undoes most of what Lei accomplished in the climax. It feels more like "my agent sold this as a trilogy" than "this story needs to continue." So I'm pretending those paragraphs weren't there and taking my happy ending - because let's be real, Lei and her love interest deserve one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Death, Blood, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Body horror and Gore

Executions, forced sex work, sex slavery/concubinage, starvation