A review by asphy3
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
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.
Spoiler
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
Graphic: Child death, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Rape, Incest, and Child abuse
Moderate: Cancer, Animal cruelty, and Abortion