Reviews - Der Papierpalast

8.46k reviews for:

Der Papierpalast

Miranda Cowley Heller

3.71 AVERAGE

gpierre's review against another edition

3.25

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Early on I wanted to DNF so badly but I pushed through. The book flips back and forth between Elle growing up and present day. The way it starts when she was BORN was absolutely insane to me. Talking about yourself in first person as a baby or even a young child…… no. I couldn’t follow the beginning at all. Not to mention it was extremely graphic/disturbing with a heavy emphasis on child SA.

About 25% in, the storyline stopped constantly flipping from past/present, and stayed in the past- building up the storyline of her upbringing. That’s when it had my attention, and I did start to enjoy it.

Minor spoiler on my thoughts about ending —> it was so disappointingly anticlimactic. But tbh it was a more accurate representation of life than most book endings. I just love a jaw on the floor/full circle ending and this was not it. Maybe it’ll grow on me.

The whole book was written in impressively vivid detail, making every moment easy to visualize. That I did appreciate. Overall this book was an odd one, and needs to come with a major trigger warning. I can see why some love it, I can also see why some despise it. I think I’m somewhere in the middle

Content Warnings