A review by amberelizabeth7
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

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

3.75

On one hand, I devoured this in mostly one sitting, finding the pace and writing style really engaging.
On the other hand, one timeline is utterly horrific, and the other is 24 hours with some decisions made by adults. The pace was great between the two timelines and it was well crafted and told, but I felt the more interesting long term timeline didn’t come to conclusion in the present day timeline and I felt like the good writing and character development had slightly tricked me into not realising the plot of the present day story that feels like the main one didn’t really go anywhere. 
It seems intended that finding out that Conrad didn’t just rape Elle excuses Elle and Jonas of their complicity in Conrad’s death, and relieves them of their guilt to be together. I don’t particularly buy that, and therefore it feels like I was told all of this history for it not really to be relevant to Elle and Jonas just finally having the courage to admit to themselves and one another how they really feel. That happening also doesn’t feel like a reasonable conclusion to the long timeline of Elle, especially with it left open.
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