Reviews - The Paper Palace

8.26k reviews for:

The Paper Palace

Miranda Cowley Heller

3.71 AVERAGE

rkpig's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

blondiesbooksgr's review against another edition

4.0

3.75 stars, rounded up. This is a slow burn and has some sexual abuse in it which is hard to read, but by the end of the book, I found myself content with the ending and enjoyed getting to know the characters in it.

meganori's review against another edition

4.0

3.5*
I was expecting a light summer romance but that was not this book! It was a sad story about a family including trauma, sexual abuse, death and more.

melissagurner's review against another edition

4.5

hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

robi911's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was fantastic but I don’t like an open ending. If I wanted a “choose your own adventure” I would read those types of books. I feel let down by an intentionally ambiguous ending every time. I don’t want to put it all together. I want the novel laid out, black and white. This was a strong 4 star book until the ending.

sophiehunt's review against another edition

3.0

Entertaining, beautiful imagery and well written, yet overly indulgent in its attempt to capture moral ambiguity. As far as Freudian analysis goes, this book was fascinating, but only scratched the surface of our moral contradictions, shame and universal evils. I think the author did a good job at exploring intergenerational patterns of abuse, shame, and parental neglect. Some really dark themes were covered, yet they were the backstory to a problematic and poorly captured love affair. It felt almost grotesque at times, as if the trauma of abuse and death were being romanticised. The author was successful in capturing Elle's turmoil in the simultaneous love she feels for Peter and for Jonas, but it was a bit ridiculous at a point. Also, the way Elle was written changed dramatically between her as an adult (flippant, assertive and whingey) and her as a child and adolescent (empathetic, sensitive, agreeable). My favourite part was the sister dynamic between Anna and Elle and its evolution over the novel.