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_everysecondbook 's review for:
Girls of Paper and Fire
by Natasha Ngan
Prepare yourself to feel an abnormal amount of justified rage for an entirely fictional story
5/5 stars
I loved this book SO MUCH. I don't read much fantasy, and normally it'll only be if the world is somewhat similar to our own. However, this is the best fantasy novel I have ever read, and I will yell its praises until the day I die.
This story is set in a world made up of three castes: paper caste, completely human like you or I; steele caste, mostly human with some animal qualities; and moon caste, mostly animal with slight human qualities. We follow Lei, a paper caste who is chosen, against her will, to become a Paper Girl: one of eight paper caste girls chosen to become the King's concubines for the next year.
One of my favourite things about this story is the way that Lei handles this situation. I found it so raw and real. She wasn't thrown into this situation, immediately found a way to get out of it, and nothing terrible happened to her. She feels a lot of anger and resentment towards some of the other Paper Girls as they do their jobs as concubines. I found this to be a very real take at what was happening around her. Personally, I took her anger at the other Paper Girls as confusion, like she couldn't possibly understand how they could do this without complaint. But everyone was dealing with it in their own ways, and was real to see how she couldn't fathom that.
The way that sexual assault and abuse is dealt with in this book was amazing. It was incredibly well done and not insensitive. It was a pretty decent commentary on these subjects as we see them in our world as well. There is also a situation where a Paper Girl falls for the King. It was dealt with so well and honestly was such a comparable situation to something that could happen today, in our world.
Also the romance is fucking amazing
One of the issues that this book has is the fact that it is stated that there will be a f/f romance in the synopsis. And that is no lie! But it was a little disappointing to find out that while m/m relationships were accepted, f/f were not. I think it was done this way to give an extra level of forbidden to the romance. But I do think there was enough surrounding the relationship to make it adequately forbidden without adding this in.
I had no idea this book was the start of a series, and while reading it I was pretty adamant about not continuing with the series. One of the major factors that contributed to me reading this book was the synopsis and it was pretty clear that it wouldn't carry through the series. But once I finished the story, and read LITERALLY the last page, there was no doubt in my mind that I will continue with this story.
5/5 stars
I loved this book SO MUCH. I don't read much fantasy, and normally it'll only be if the world is somewhat similar to our own. However, this is the best fantasy novel I have ever read, and I will yell its praises until the day I die.
This story is set in a world made up of three castes: paper caste, completely human like you or I; steele caste, mostly human with some animal qualities; and moon caste, mostly animal with slight human qualities. We follow Lei, a paper caste who is chosen, against her will, to become a Paper Girl: one of eight paper caste girls chosen to become the King's concubines for the next year.
One of my favourite things about this story is the way that Lei handles this situation. I found it so raw and real. She wasn't thrown into this situation, immediately found a way to get out of it, and nothing terrible happened to her. She feels a lot of anger and resentment towards some of the other Paper Girls as they do their jobs as concubines. I found this to be a very real take at what was happening around her. Personally, I took her anger at the other Paper Girls as confusion, like she couldn't possibly understand how they could do this without complaint. But everyone was dealing with it in their own ways, and was real to see how she couldn't fathom that.
The way that sexual assault and abuse is dealt with in this book was amazing. It was incredibly well done and not insensitive. It was a pretty decent commentary on these subjects as we see them in our world as well. There is also a situation where a Paper Girl falls for the King. It was dealt with so well and honestly was such a comparable situation to something that could happen today, in our world.
Also the romance is fucking amazing
One of the issues that this book has is the fact that it is stated that there will be a f/f romance in the synopsis. And that is no lie! But it was a little disappointing to find out that while m/m relationships were accepted, f/f were not. I think it was done this way to give an extra level of forbidden to the romance. But I do think there was enough surrounding the relationship to make it adequately forbidden without adding this in.
I had no idea this book was the start of a series, and while reading it I was pretty adamant about not continuing with the series. One of the major factors that contributed to me reading this book was the synopsis and it was pretty clear that it wouldn't carry through the series. But once I finished the story, and read LITERALLY the last page, there was no doubt in my mind that I will continue with this story.