Reviews with content warning for Death - Паперовий палац

I think I must have skipped over the ‘trauma’ element in the blurb because this book ended up being a lot different to what I was expecting.

There are heavy themes throughout about sexual abuse and mother daughter relationships. I would say that these are the two main themes of the book, not really the affair.

I think the author wrote these themes really well and it really did leave me sucker punched at times, I feel like I really felt the weight of the characters. It also did a good job of portraying how these themes are prevalent in many women’s lives in one way or another, varying in severity.

Until the last paragraph this was probably more of a 4.75 for me but the ending was very vague. I think I know what happened but I’m not entirely sure, I guess it is open to interpretation, however I quite like to just be told what happened.

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elevent11's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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haleypages's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.75

This book was incredibly atmospheric and felt like an amalgamation of One Day and Where the Crawdads Sing. It was a slow start, but then I sank into it fully. It is so clear that the author has deep knowledge and love for the cape, and it seeps out of the pages. However, the event halfway through the book, that really defines the protagonist's adult life, felt so rushed and happened in a page and a half. Although I understand it wasn't the event itself, but the ramifications that were the center of the book, it was jarring how little page time was spent on the event itself.

Overall, I really fell in love with Elle and her struggles (it was especially nice to see literally fiction in which the protagonist is a wonderful mother), and I enjoyed the complicated relationships in the novel, and that not every important conversation was had.

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