A review by sophiehunt
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

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.