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stephtregear's review
1.0
Edit: I have changed my rating from two stars to one because of the author didn't like that I was critical of her work, so she fired back.
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I was realising that the things we haven’t learnt about ourselves are the very things people come into our lives to teach us.
Chasing Paper Cranes is filled with beautiful, often poignant quotes like this one. Quotable quotes are a staple to all coming-of-age stories, this one being no exception. Yet in Chasing Paper Cranes, it felt like the story had been built around these quotes—as though the author was determined to provide the reader with these little life lessons, and went to any means to ensure that the story was able to get there. It made these lessons feel disingenuous, and therefore the rest of Layla’s story unengaging.
Chasing Paper Cranes is a coming-of-age story with realistic ambition. The young adult market is currently swamped with coming-of-age stories about fifteen-year-olds realising their potential as a part of their world, something that I think is so incredibly unrealistic for young people these days. (I don’t think we truly come of age until our twenties.) Chasing Paper Cranes tells a coming-of-age story about a twenty-two-year-old university student as she travels through Europe, chasing love and realising its feebleness and unexpectedness.
The story is told from Layla’s point of view as she goes to meet her boyfriend from the very first time after beginning an online relationship with him a few months ago. They meet up in London where their partnered universities are holding a conference, but Sam’s nothing like what Layla expected. Misguided expectations and unrealistic fantasies work together to bring Layla and Sam’s relationship to its final end, and from here Layla’s real journey begins. With her new friend Cal, she goes on a spontaneous backpacking journey through Europe, meeting new people and learning important little Life Lessons along the way.
The premise had me excited for this book. The fact that it was written by the incredible Courtney Peppernell had me itching to get my hands on it. The beautiful cover had me sold. I went into this book expecting to read the most incredible story of my life, but I came away only mildly satisfied. It was a nice enough story, but it left me feeling underwhelmed.
There were two key elements of Chasing Paper Cranes that disappointed me the most: the characters and the writing. The beginning of this book was the most enjoyable because there was a handful of characters who were consistently involved in Layla’s life. I was able to get to know these characters, to understand their intricacies, to appreciate them as indiviuals helping to build the story. They weren’t necessarily likeable characters, but they were consistent, and relevant to the story.
Then Layla’s story moved away from these characters, and suddenly more and more new ones were introduced. There was a new group of characters for each European country that Layla visited with Cal, with very few remaining relevant after a mere chapter or two. It was incredibly frustrating, because I can’t even remember any of their names. There were so many characters, and they all seemed to be exactly same as the others. There was nothing remarkably notable about any of them: they were all overly kind and accepting and funny and full of life knowledge to give to Layla. There was no antagonist to the story, and every character was so unrealistically good. I can understand the sentiment behind this choice, but it just didn’t read very well.
The writing, too, was difficult to read at times. Chasing Paper Cranes is Peppernell’s debut, which she has released independently with very little distribution beyond Amazon, so it is likely that her editorial team was limited. This led to a lot of grammar and syntax issues throughout the book, and the interruption of incorrect punctuation took something from the reading experience for me. There were full stops where there should have been commas, commas where there should have been full stops, semicolons used incorrectly, inverted commas in all the wrong places, and general awkward sentences that didn’t flow well at all. It’s something that would send me into an absolute rage if I weren’t aware that this was an independent debut.
I think that Peppernell can only improve from here, and I hope that she takes on all the wonderful feedback that readers have given. Chasing Paper Cranes has so much potential to be improved, for scenes to be revised and the purpose of characters to be re-evaluated.
Despite its setbacks, this book was still a lovely little gem, and a breath of fresh air in the new adult market. It is a coming-of-age story with high ambition and an emphasis on finding yourself as it tells the story of a young woman coming to value the love between friends. You will have to be a little bit forgiving when reading this book, but remains a sweet little gem of potential.
-----------------------------------------------
I was realising that the things we haven’t learnt about ourselves are the very things people come into our lives to teach us.
Chasing Paper Cranes is filled with beautiful, often poignant quotes like this one. Quotable quotes are a staple to all coming-of-age stories, this one being no exception. Yet in Chasing Paper Cranes, it felt like the story had been built around these quotes—as though the author was determined to provide the reader with these little life lessons, and went to any means to ensure that the story was able to get there. It made these lessons feel disingenuous, and therefore the rest of Layla’s story unengaging.
Chasing Paper Cranes is a coming-of-age story with realistic ambition. The young adult market is currently swamped with coming-of-age stories about fifteen-year-olds realising their potential as a part of their world, something that I think is so incredibly unrealistic for young people these days. (I don’t think we truly come of age until our twenties.) Chasing Paper Cranes tells a coming-of-age story about a twenty-two-year-old university student as she travels through Europe, chasing love and realising its feebleness and unexpectedness.
The story is told from Layla’s point of view as she goes to meet her boyfriend from the very first time after beginning an online relationship with him a few months ago. They meet up in London where their partnered universities are holding a conference, but Sam’s nothing like what Layla expected. Misguided expectations and unrealistic fantasies work together to bring Layla and Sam’s relationship to its final end, and from here Layla’s real journey begins. With her new friend Cal, she goes on a spontaneous backpacking journey through Europe, meeting new people and learning important little Life Lessons along the way.
The premise had me excited for this book. The fact that it was written by the incredible Courtney Peppernell had me itching to get my hands on it. The beautiful cover had me sold. I went into this book expecting to read the most incredible story of my life, but I came away only mildly satisfied. It was a nice enough story, but it left me feeling underwhelmed.
There were two key elements of Chasing Paper Cranes that disappointed me the most: the characters and the writing. The beginning of this book was the most enjoyable because there was a handful of characters who were consistently involved in Layla’s life. I was able to get to know these characters, to understand their intricacies, to appreciate them as indiviuals helping to build the story. They weren’t necessarily likeable characters, but they were consistent, and relevant to the story.
Then Layla’s story moved away from these characters, and suddenly more and more new ones were introduced. There was a new group of characters for each European country that Layla visited with Cal, with very few remaining relevant after a mere chapter or two. It was incredibly frustrating, because I can’t even remember any of their names. There were so many characters, and they all seemed to be exactly same as the others. There was nothing remarkably notable about any of them: they were all overly kind and accepting and funny and full of life knowledge to give to Layla. There was no antagonist to the story, and every character was so unrealistically good. I can understand the sentiment behind this choice, but it just didn’t read very well.
The writing, too, was difficult to read at times. Chasing Paper Cranes is Peppernell’s debut, which she has released independently with very little distribution beyond Amazon, so it is likely that her editorial team was limited. This led to a lot of grammar and syntax issues throughout the book, and the interruption of incorrect punctuation took something from the reading experience for me. There were full stops where there should have been commas, commas where there should have been full stops, semicolons used incorrectly, inverted commas in all the wrong places, and general awkward sentences that didn’t flow well at all. It’s something that would send me into an absolute rage if I weren’t aware that this was an independent debut.
I think that Peppernell can only improve from here, and I hope that she takes on all the wonderful feedback that readers have given. Chasing Paper Cranes has so much potential to be improved, for scenes to be revised and the purpose of characters to be re-evaluated.
Despite its setbacks, this book was still a lovely little gem, and a breath of fresh air in the new adult market. It is a coming-of-age story with high ambition and an emphasis on finding yourself as it tells the story of a young woman coming to value the love between friends. You will have to be a little bit forgiving when reading this book, but remains a sweet little gem of potential.
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