busymomreadsitall 's review for:

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

3.0

---

This one was tough for me. I almost DNFed quite a few times at the beginning when the first 3 chapters had CSA and what could be considered animal cruelty just pop up in a very rattling way. I was very "meh" for a lot of this book and honestly only finished it because I listened long enough that I felt like I needed to know how it ended. The main character really did have a very  traumatic childhood/adolescence, and a lot of generational trauma as well, but girlfriend should have gotten herself some therapy and done some work but it feels like there's no character growth for her. I felt bad for child/teenage Elle with everything she went through in the flashback chapters, but in the current times with all of the openness around mental health, me too, trauma etc, it was harder to like or sympathize with adult Elle.