A review by cody8801
Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

4.0

Here’s my review finally (the first part is non spoilers, but I say when I go into spoilers stuff)


This book was amazing, it was probably one of my favourites of the year. It tells the story of Lei who gets taken from her family to become one of the kings concubines. She has to lead this new life at the palace as one of 9 paper girls, named after the caste she is-a Paper Caste. The caste system was really interesting, I loved the portrayal that demons were not inherently evil (at least thats what I thought when I read it). The romance was incredible, I loved it so much -listen to cliffs edge by Hayley Kiyoko when you’re reading this book, you won’t regret it.

There was a lot of sexual assault so tw for that, but what I thought was incredible was the section at the beginning of the book giving out helplines for rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and LGBT+. I’ve never seen a book have that before.

It was slightly reminiscent of Labyrinth lost, particularly the bird people and I really loved that. The world was really interesting and i would have loved a full map of the world instead of just a map of the palace place.

That’s all I’ve got for the non spoilers. read this book it’s amazing, I gave it 4/5 stars.

Let’s start with the court. I loved the layout, it’s different than any court in any book I’ve read. The king is a first class twat, obviously, he doesn’t have a single redeeming quality and I’m glad he didn’t die because he deserves to be skinned alive by every person he’s ever hurt. I hated what he did to Aoki. She’s so sweet and adorable and he just completely uses her in a way she can’t see, I felt so sorry for Lei when she was trying to tell Aoki what the king was really like.

The other paper girls consist of; zhin, zhen, Marioki?, Lei, Blue, That one girl who got kicked out before they even started and Wren. I don’t have much to say about any of them except Blue, Lei and Wren.

Let’s start with Blue, raging bitch but is actually just going through some shit. Honestly the girl deserves a break, she could have been a little nicer but whatever. Also that line where she was like “omg you don’t like girls do you” and being all nasty to Lei, I didn’t like her then. But when a lei found her in the bathing courtyard crying, I felt a little sorry for her then.

Lei is everything I wanted in a protagonist, I never once had to yell “no you idiot don’t do that” which I usually do. The way she constantly defied the king in every way she possibly could was so refreshing. And she managed to get through all this shitty shitty stuff without turning into a heartless bitch. She reminds me a little of Inej from six of crows. Her friendship with Aoki was so heartwarming, I love reading about strong female friendships. And her relationship with wren, well I’ll talk about her later I love them together so much.

Wren. Oh my god, Wren is so amazing. Her secret mission of being a paper girl was so amazing, it was like getting a mix of a spy story and a fantasy story. The way she tried to close herself off from everyone but couldn’t help falling for Lei, so cute. There was one quote I really loved about them two being in love but I can’t remember it, anyway, their relationship was so wholesome and adorable, god I would die for them.

I think that’s all, if I remember anything else I loved I’ll add it.