Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Girls of Paper and Fire

Characters: 5/10
Enjoyment: 6.5/10
Plot: 6/10
Worldbuilding: 5/10
Writing: 8/10

This might as well have been a standalone. But it's not because of that extra page at the end. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm invested enough to read any further installments.

The idea was good, the execution not so much. The worldbuilding wasn't really explored. The plot and writing were simplistic. That's not a bad thing, but on one hand it read as a book for younger teens, on the other hand though it discussed mature themes. There's rape. It's not graphic, but there nonetheless. If there's anything that triggers me in books, its sexual assault. The girls are taken as mistresses and must have sex with the king against their will. Yes, they don't object, but it's either that or be killed.

The characters were underdeveloped. The king as a villain was just stupid. He's evil. OK, and? That's it? The paper girls were pretty indistinguishable. Aside from Aoki and Blue whose personality was being a bitch. The relationship between Lei and Wren didn't really have any foundation. It was pretty much just lusting and attraction.

Now, what I did like was what was done with Aoki's character. Not that I like what happened to her, but the book highlights how easy it is to fall victim to an abusive man. Aoki is the youngest out of the paper girls and naive. The king makes her feel special, so she starts having feelings for him. I like how it pointed out (although in a pretty juvenile way) that such a relationship is, in fact, not good (side-eyeing all the romance books that romanticize toxic relationships). Aoki is probably the most nuanced compared to the other two-dimensional characters.

Overall Girls of paper and fire wasn't a terrible book, just underwhelming.

Content Warnings

karapillar's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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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lajoy's review

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dark hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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sammymilfort's review

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dark emotional 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? It's complicated

1.0

I’ve had this book on my radar since I started watching booktok and no one told me how drained I would feel after.

I liked the authors writing style and the pacing of elements was good, but this book was traumatic and there was little to no reprieve.

I appreciate the author putting trigger warnings before her story to warn readers, but no one tells you how graphic the SA scenes get. I was enjoying the story in the first part (about 100 pages) but then it got to be too much for me.

I felt like many of the characters and world were underdeveloped and the only time I enjoyed this book was during the romance of Lei and Wren

The plot in itself is vague and kind of predictable, but other than that I kept thinking so many times as I read this how can this be marketed as YA?

The amount of times I was deeply disturbed from this book and had to take multiple breaks was astounding because that is how dark and truly horrible this reading experience was for me.

I know abuse is an important part in stories and highlighting it in stories is sometimes needed and important, but with this it felt cruel and unnecessary

I kept thinking to myself how could a teenager read this without being affected emotionally in some type of way. I know if I was still in my young teens I could not grasp or be able understand this in a way I do now, but this book is trauma based and I think it’s important to note that.

This story had so much potential but instead I am getting a therapy session out of this

Please if you are thinking of reading this book- CHECK TW and be prepared for graphic SA of minors and more

TW: Violence, Blood, Body Horror, Branding, Graphic SA and Rape, non consensual, physical and emotional abuse

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Body horror, Gore, Torture, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent

I’ve had this book on my radar since I started watching booktok and no one told me how drained I would feel after. I liked the authors writing style and the pacing of elements was good, but this book was traumatic and there was little to no reprieve. I appreciate the author putting trigger warnings before her story to warn readers, but no one tells you how graphic the SA scenes get. I was enjoying the story in the first part (about 100 pages) but then it got to be too much for me. I felt like many of the characters and world were underdeveloped and the only time I enjoyed this book was during the romance of Lei and Wren The plot in itself is vague and kind of predictable, but other than that I kept thinking so many times as I read this how can this be marketed as YA? The amount of times I was deeply disturbed from this book and had to take multiple breaks was astounding because that is how dark and truly horrible this reading experience was for me. I know abuse is an important part in stories and highlighting it in stories is sometimes needed and important, but with this it felt cruel and unnecessary I kept thinking to myself how could a teenager read this without being affected emotionally in some type of way. I know if I was still in my young teens I could not grasp or be able understand this in a way I do now, but this book is trauma based and I think it’s important to note that. This story had so much potential but instead I am getting a therapy session out of this Please if you are thinking of reading this book- CHECK TW and be prepared for graphic SA of minors and more TW: Violence, Blood, Body Horror, Branding, Graphic SA and Rape, non consensual, physical and emotional abuse

maruu_t's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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smoochinggirls's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring medium-paced

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

2.5

The book was ok the pacing of the story felt rushed like the climax came to soon. I found Lei and Wrens relationship cute but I wish more time was dedicated to building it up the romance felt really sudden. As for the other paper girls I wished there was more time spent on fleshing them out thr book doesnt really explore much of who they are..

Content Warnings

sarah984's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked this book a lot. It's an Asian-inspired dark fantasy, and managed to make the world feel big despite about ninety percent of the book taking place inside the palace grounds. The characters were great and showed a variety of ways that people react to trauma. Lei’s impulsiveness sometimes annoyed me, but she's seventeen so it makes sense.

Heading into the ending I was expecting this to be five stars, but the actual ending feels rushed (I feel like almost as much happens in the last 20 pages as in the entire rest of the book) and one plot point, while not really surprising, disappointed me.

Overall though the book was great and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

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bluejayreads's review

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4.5

I was a little concerned about all those trigger warnings going in. They are there, but they were handled well, and overall this turned out to be a very enjoyable book.

The story is very much focused on Lei and her emotional journey. She didn't want to be a Paper Girl, but she has to under threat of losing her last remaining family. And the first half to two-thirds focuses on her emotional journey dealing with being kidnapped and basically sold into sex slavery, navigating court life, making friends and enemies among the other Paper Girls. It's well-written and feels real.

The plot morphs quite a bit. It starts off with Lei being taken to the palace to be a concubine for the king, trying to survive that and hoping to maybe find her mother along the way. Then she falls in love with a fellow Paper Girl (I'm not going to reveal who, because I think that counts as a spoiler). And the last third is her love interest dragging her into a full-on revolution plot, which is not at all what I counted on from that back cover. The back cover makes it sound like a small story about romance and dealing with sexual assault. And then it takes an abrupt left turn into violent uprising and assassination. Don't get me wrong, it was good - to the point where I had to take a break because the tension was killing me - but not what I expected.

My biggest criticism is that I'm not 100% on board with the world. The caste bit was creative, and I liked the idea of anthropomorphic animals, part-animal-part-humans, and actual humans all living together in a society. And I liked that it was trying to have an East Asian atmosphere, but it felt thrown together with other elements that didn't quite mesh. For example, one of Lei's fellow Paper Girls is named Wren, which sounded jarringly Western to me. (Perhaps Wren actually is an East Asian name. Perhaps I'm not the best person to judge a multicultural author's efforts in combining multiple cultures. But every time I read Wren's name, it jolted me out of the atmosphere of the book).

All things considered, this is a very good book. I don't think I'm going to read the sequels though, mainly because I don't really think it needed one. Everything wraps up nicely at the end, and though you know there's more trials to come for Lei, it has a hopeful note and it's a great place to end. Then after the last chapter there's two paragraphs - not even long enough to be called an epilogue - that undoes most of what Lei accomplished in the climax. It feels more like "my agent sold this as a trilogy" than "this story needs to continue." So I'm pretending those paragraphs weren't there and taking my happy ending - because let's be real, Lei and her love interest deserve one.

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