Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Паперовий палац

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Паперовий палац by Miranda Cowley Heller

369 reviews

carionreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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ercabrwll's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Major TW: S.A. (specifically of minors) I don’t love when a book relies on S.A. to drive the narrative, and the end left much to be desired. The actual writing is beautiful; would love to see other works by the author not so heavily intertwined w/assault.

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ajakubison's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

This was a deeply disturbing book and I almost quit. If I were physically reading, it would have been the first DNF of 2025. Anyone with a past with sexual violence, especially in youth, or of manipulation may find this very hard to read. Thankfully, I was listening to it and decided to speed it up and finish it. That said, I don’t feel any better for having finished it. I don’t know what the main character chose in the end. A few things were tied up but many were not.

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erine's review against another edition

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challenging sad

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content warning: child abuse and sexual assault.

The first third of the book was a bit slow and my exasperation about the main character overrode any driving force to read this. The plot pivots between 24 hours in the present day, and then peeks back into the main character's past (and her mother's past, and grandmother's). At some point, the weight of the narrative stays more in the past, and that's when I found the pace picking up and I was more deeply engaged by the time we circled back around to the final chapter in the present.

But readability doesn't always make for a pleasant story.

I never really warmed to any of the characters, and while I enjoyed the writing it wasn't enough to outweigh the fact that I couldn't connect to Eleanor. It reminded me of The Glass Hotel, but at the end of that book I felt satisfied; when I finished this one I felt... slimy.

There were generational traumas that were passed down through the characters in this book, over three generations of women. And that might have offered an interesting viewpoint, but after having recently read both Age 16 and A Council of Dolls, I found that those two books tackled generational themes in a similar way but left me feeling more satisfied in the way that both the trauma and the growth over time was portrayed. I found less growth in this book and more excuses.

In the end, it was hard not to compare this story overly much to others. Ultimately it might have been the sexual abuse of children that took place throughout generations that kept me from feeling more positive about this story. There's no question that these things happen, and that stories about these kinds of issues can help heal those wounds. But this book felt more like it was trying to rub salt in those wounds rather than heal them. And the ending was incredibly sad. Not in a teary kind of way, but more that human behavior sometimes makes me sad and disgusted. And I did not need a story that emphasized those themes at the moment.

I was left with the impression that Eleanor is going to leave her husband to go for a swim with her longtime friend and recent lover Jonas. In the process there is no way that she doesn't break up both her marriage and his and destroy a family relationship that has grown over the course of decades. Even if she goes for the swim and returns to her husband, it's hard to ignore that her 24 hours of lust was fueled by relief that she was not the only one being sexually assaulted by her stepbrother who she not-quite-murdered. I really had a hard time believing that the easing of that guilt could inspire her to get it on with Jonas, when I never really felt a spark between them in the first place.

Not my cup of tea.

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kelseyr713's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

Couldn't put this down! The writing is lyrical and the author's ability to portray place is impeccable. I really cared about Elle and enjoyed the dual timelines. The only thing that would have made this better for me was an epilogue.

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