Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

42 reviews

thewordapothecary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Mostly I’m just confused. Why the hell did I just read an entire book to basically have no closure for the main plot. There’s unnecessary trauma included in the book that totally could’ve been left out. Elle is the unluckiest character, and I know that bad things happen to lots of people… but her life was one bad thing after the other. She’s a bad person. The one good thing that’s ever happened in her life and she acts like she could easily give it up. The only thing saving this book from a one star is the last handful of chapters and even that is a stretch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

talyahonor23's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

While I enjoyed the reading this book and the writing style, I hated every single character.  Why did shegave to go into so much deatil with the child abuse? Even the adult sex scenes were either violent or too explicit.  And Why was everyone so rich and so beautiful? The only one who is considered neither is poor Gina. There was also a lot of sexual violence against most females characters as well as everyone leading very shitty lives. Was no one allowed ro be happy for real? I hate cheaters but I was intrigued by their story. The author is a little dated...using butter on a burn has been considered an old wives tale for years. Her obsession with meat and dairy is also a little out of touch. But it was an easy and interesting read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

saoreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It's amusing how the journey went from initially disliking the main character to gradually rooting for her, but not really (picky on some parts). There are reasons behind every action and the subsequent consequences, regardless of how positive or dire they may be. If it's not you fulfilling something in that life, something is bound to happen. The subtleties throughout the book, along with metaphors leading up to the years portrayed, shed light on generational patterns. Ultimately, it's her choice, and the outcome remains uncertain. The ending brings about new beginnings—whether good or bad, it could be either or even both.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

wsimcik's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, and Abandonment

elsmithies's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death

sarahemhavens's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

2.0

this one was not for me, I struggled my way through. The writing was alright, some quotes did stand out to me - but overall, this book was very meh, and really off putting at some points.

“I wonder if he would love me if he could see inside my head”
(The other quote is an absolute spoiler so I will be refraining bc I like to keep these spoiler free)

I was hoping to be enveloped in this book the way I was with Malibu Rising, because it’s the same idea when it comes to writing timeframe and storytelling, but I don’t think it was done very well in this one. Though the focus of the book is supposed to be how one night changes everything, the primary focus, I felt, was more on the fifty year spread. This book gave me, personally, a whole lot of nothing. I wanted more out of it and at the same time, less of so many other things.

There was also a lot of trauma and triggering things (sa, csa/cse/csea) which left me feeling skeeved out and just unsettled.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death

Minor: Pedophilia and Abandonment

triggering

bookasaurbri's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Incest, Rape, and Abandonment

Moderate: Cancer, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Murder, and Pregnancy

daniela_is_reading's review against another edition

challenging dark sad

• Loveable characters? No

3.25

Please read trigger warning before picking this book up.

There's a theme of sexual abuse throughout the book, and it's quite confronting. What fell short for me is my inability to actually like any of the characters, which is upsetting. Nevertheless, i still didn't mind the read, I just felt frustrated. And....., maybe that's the point. It's complex.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

kaestrong's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Minor: Cancer and Abandonment

cecereads__'s review against another edition

4.5

This was defo a page-turner for me. I was pretty much fully immersed in the story.
I think the author is very accomplished in getting the characters to act/interact/react authentically (however disturbing or sad it might be for the reader). Quite a lot of deeply disturbing/tragic occurrences making it a very tough read at times. There’s a point where I wanted to fight one of the characters… I was beyond fuming.

The weakness of the dad was hard to read. The girls had a lot going against them from the start. Many of the things that happened (outside of the most heinous ones done by Conrad which made me f-ing fuming) made me want to cry for them.
Anna was a favourite. Eleanor is definitely a flawed character - sometimes you know what explains her behaviour but it was also clear that she didn’t want the responsibility of making the choice between the two. But it is almost impossible when you have a love for both, I do recognise that. Not sure how I felt about the ending bc she could easily change her mind from one moment to the next. Which was so heartbreaking for Jonas to keep having to relive. I do, though, like that she was self-aware most of the time e.g. in how her blaming Jonas (unfairly but understandably immaturely) was their downfall after the drowning - but Jonas was 14 at the time for goodness sake … 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment