Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - The Paper Palace

I had not read a book for myself for a while before randomly picking this up at the library. It was an alright jump back into reading novels; it’s an interesting story that also has highly descriptive imagery for the beautiful setting. However, it didn’t entirely grip me as I didn’t find myself rooting for the prominent love story. A large amount of characters were introduced throughout the story, and it was confusing at times to keep track of everybody. Additionally, there were multiple points depicting upsetting acts that I was not expecting. The ending is obscure and is left to the reader’s interpretation. Overall, it was okay, but I’m not sure I would recommend it.

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lbh_0327's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-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

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kaffee_auf_ex's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

2.0

Beautifully written, yet so incredibly problematic.

Every adult in this book only exists to abuse Elle. Even strangers only exist to punch her or break into her house and assault her. All the adults are abusive towards children. Trauma is there for pure shock value and to be edgy.

Reese Witherspoon teased that there would be a fascinating love triangle. She absolutely broke my trust. You call this a love triangle?

- mild spoilers ahead -

Does it deserve to be a love triangle if the husband and mother team up to abuse Elle? If we are told that she loves him but everytime she things to herself that she loves him it is in a situation in which he was being toxic because that's all he ever is? He is a red flag walking from the very moment he comes into her life. All he ever does is gaslight her and never take her seriously but instead bully her together with her mother who is incredibly abusive.

And maybe this could be okay if there was something that we get out of all that. If she ever realised he was being abused or really call out her mother for the incredible amount of abuse. But she never does.

And I won't even talk about Jonas not being a consent king because compared to all of the rape and abuse going on, he is the nicest person in the book if you don't count Anna who is my favourite character.

The story is unnecessarily long and filled with some more abuse that we don't need. Yes, there's an abusive spouse of a parent. Oh wait, they get remarried and we get another abusive spouse because the first wasn't enough. Oh, here's a family friend or whatever behaving inappropriately towards children.

And here is some abuse that another family member face that is not directly relevant but still told to us in graphic detail like all of the rape is because, well, shock value.

It's so sad that a woman can't have character growth without sexual drama but wait - there's no character growth. Elle is one of the worst main characters I have ever read because she is passive from the beginning even when her own passiveness hurts more people than just herself and she never learns. She never calls out abuse for what it is.

Let me summarise what this book is: Straight cis rich white people abusing each other and especially children because they don't have enough struggles in their lives to keep athem entertained and plot convenience. Easily the least diverse book I have read in my live because it doesn't feature anything else than straight cis rich white people.

One mayor question remains: Why did the author waste her incredible writing talent for such an edgy and tone deaf story? To sell more books? To have more chances at having it picked up for TV adaption? Because damn, that woman can write. She really sucked me in. I hope for her to get some perspective and write something less problematic because yes, I would like to read more of her writing, just a whole different story.

Content Warnings

sydneyreadssometimes_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Content Warnings

skibbonboulash's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

Let’s make the main characters childhood as traumatizing as possible then have a climax that is meaningless because you’re numb to trauma by then and then finish off with an underwhelming resolution and conclusion. You can tell the author writes for HBO (not a compliment)

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