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A review by votesforwomen
Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
2.0
I kind of didn't like this one from the beginning...but I wanted to be able to write a review of it, so I decided I wasn't going to DNF it. But oh, man, what a review this is going to need. *cringes*
LIKES
-...it was a really quick read? Like, I couldn't put it down, even though I didn't like it. Oh well. :P
-Some of the descriptions were really good!
-I wish there had been more about Kenzo! I liked the little bit of him that we saw and I thought he seemed like an interesting character. Oh well.
-I think that's about it.
DISLIKES
-This could get long.
-So, the whole blurb is about "Lei's mysterious, beautiful golden eyes." That's supposed to be a really big deal. It sets the plot in motion and is supposed to be why she's all appealing to the King or whatever. But like...we NEVER hear anything about them again. She's kidnapped because she has beautiful eyes! But what does Lei think about her eyes? What do the other Paper Girls think about her eyes? Do her eyes even really matter, seeing as there's never really another mention of them? Could there have been another way to set this plot up? I don't know, but that bothered me A LOT.
-I'm not docking stars because of the romance (I knew it was in there when I decided to read this book), but I will say that it was a cringey, insta-love-y romance that made absolutely no sense. If Wren had been a guy, everyone would've disliked this romance, I'm sure of it. Lei and Wren have like two conversations before Lei is like "OH MY GOSH I'M IN LOVE WITH HER!!!!!!" and it was...idk it was confusing? Really, really confusing? and Wren was a super uninteresting character. She was like the female version of the brooding, mysterious, dark stranger guy who the girl knows isn't necessarily good for her but who FASCINATES her beyond reason anyway. Like...physical-attraction-based instalove with waaaaay too many uncomfortable makeout scenes. But that's okay! Because it's DIVERSE!
-The whole plot read very much like a way worse version of the Selection. Did we need Blue to be a horrible person? Did we need any of the girls to be pitted against each other? Because I get that it might be realistic...but what if all of them had been allies? I feel like THAT would have been more unique than what was in here, because we see girls ripping each other apart all the time and NEVER girls who are in an awful situation who just all band together. :P
-The language. There wasn't much, which was kinda nice, but which meant that whenever someone DID swear, it was incredibly jolting. They used words from our world...but like? What is it with fantasy worlds that have totally different mythology from ours, a different moral compass, a different set of beliefs about the afterlife, and different terms for its people? Like...creative swear words can help GROW your world's uniqueness rather than destroy it. I want to see LESS of our swearing and more unique swearing, does that make sense? XD
-There was an awful case of "revealing information as it became relevant." There was one character who ended up being quite important who didn't even show up until right before the climax. I think they might have mentioned her ONCE before that point, but I have a goldfish memory! You can't expect me to remember every little detail of the random side people xD Also I don't think that things like the "Xia" and their magic really had any foreshadowing. They were gone until it was relevant and then they became prominent and it turned out everyone knew about them. *sighs* Oh well.
-This is a personal thing, but we NEVER had a clear picture of what the King actually looked like and that bugged me greatly :P It's like so....he's a....bull? Right? Maybe? Idk.
-Change that to never knowing what ANYONE looked like. Good grief.
-Plus the ending was a total cop-out. Le sigh.
-Plus, and this was probably just me, but a lot of the descriptions were way too graphic and I just...nope. Faith is OUT.
Overall, 1.5 stars and no thanks :P This may all be personal! You may like this one far better than I did! But...it's a hard pass from me. Oh well. :P
LIKES
-...it was a really quick read? Like, I couldn't put it down, even though I didn't like it. Oh well. :P
-Some of the descriptions were really good!
-I wish there had been more about Kenzo! I liked the little bit of him that we saw and I thought he seemed like an interesting character. Oh well.
-I think that's about it.
DISLIKES
-This could get long.
-So, the whole blurb is about "Lei's mysterious, beautiful golden eyes." That's supposed to be a really big deal. It sets the plot in motion and is supposed to be why she's all appealing to the King or whatever. But like...we NEVER hear anything about them again. She's kidnapped because she has beautiful eyes! But what does Lei think about her eyes? What do the other Paper Girls think about her eyes? Do her eyes even really matter, seeing as there's never really another mention of them? Could there have been another way to set this plot up? I don't know, but that bothered me A LOT.
-I'm not docking stars because of the romance (I knew it was in there when I decided to read this book), but I will say that it was a cringey, insta-love-y romance that made absolutely no sense. If Wren had been a guy, everyone would've disliked this romance, I'm sure of it. Lei and Wren have like two conversations before Lei is like "OH MY GOSH I'M IN LOVE WITH HER!!!!!!" and it was...idk it was confusing? Really, really confusing? and Wren was a super uninteresting character. She was like the female version of the brooding, mysterious, dark stranger guy who the girl knows isn't necessarily good for her but who FASCINATES her beyond reason anyway. Like...physical-attraction-based instalove with waaaaay too many uncomfortable makeout scenes. But that's okay! Because it's DIVERSE!
-The whole plot read very much like a way worse version of the Selection. Did we need Blue to be a horrible person? Did we need any of the girls to be pitted against each other? Because I get that it might be realistic...but what if all of them had been allies? I feel like THAT would have been more unique than what was in here, because we see girls ripping each other apart all the time and NEVER girls who are in an awful situation who just all band together. :P
-The language. There wasn't much, which was kinda nice, but which meant that whenever someone DID swear, it was incredibly jolting. They used words from our world...but like? What is it with fantasy worlds that have totally different mythology from ours, a different moral compass, a different set of beliefs about the afterlife, and different terms for its people? Like...creative swear words can help GROW your world's uniqueness rather than destroy it. I want to see LESS of our swearing and more unique swearing, does that make sense? XD
-There was an awful case of "revealing information as it became relevant." There was one character who ended up being quite important who didn't even show up until right before the climax. I think they might have mentioned her ONCE before that point, but I have a goldfish memory! You can't expect me to remember every little detail of the random side people xD Also I don't think that things like the "Xia" and their magic really had any foreshadowing. They were gone until it was relevant and then they became prominent and it turned out everyone knew about them. *sighs* Oh well.
-This is a personal thing, but we NEVER had a clear picture of what the King actually looked like and that bugged me greatly :P It's like so....he's a....bull? Right? Maybe? Idk.
-Change that to never knowing what ANYONE looked like. Good grief.
-Plus the ending was a total cop-out. Le sigh.
Spoiler
Bad case of "let's kill off the only interesting characters, and then turn around and say OH LOOK THE VILLAIN DIDN'T ACTUALLY DIE O_O THE HORRORS-Plus, and this was probably just me, but a lot of the descriptions were way too graphic and I just...nope. Faith is OUT.
Overall, 1.5 stars and no thanks :P This may all be personal! You may like this one far better than I did! But...it's a hard pass from me. Oh well. :P