The Paper Palace- a Woman's Lifelong Story of Love and Hardship

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller was an intriguing book that will easily pull at your heart strings. While reading the Paper Palace I wasn't able to put it down, the pace of the novel was very easy to keep up with. My expectations for this book were that it would be a simplistic love story, but it was so much more than that. It was an emotional and informational story of the process of trauma and love.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romance stories and realistic fiction. 

The Paper Palace is an intriguing story about a woman's life, through childhood and adulthood, who has to choose between two men: her lifelong best friend or her current husband. Elle, our main character, is a very emotional person who went through several traumatic events in her life that truly shaped her adulthood. We read through Elle’s experience with her parents divorce, her sexual abuse and rape, and many more events in her life. Throughout reading these events, I felt like I was living through her. 

One reason I would recommend this book is because Heller writes this book in a way that the reader is put into Elles shoes. We are able to understand Elle well throughout all of her thoughts and feelings. “He should leave her. Is that what I want? Gina and Jonas are our oldest friends.” (19). In this quote we are able to analyze Elle’s perspective and understand her thought process, this is something that makes a book much more enjoyable for me, it makes me feel like I can relate more to the characters. 

I highly recommend this book because the Paper Palace is a very realistic novel that makes it easy to become indulged in. The author includes many real world events like sexual assault, and family issues which makes this book very realistic and easy for the reader to understand exactly what is happening.  When I was reading this book, nothing else mattered because the way it is written truly makes the reader feel as if they are in the book. We were able to feel her emotions through her which is something that keeps me very engaged in a book. For example, when Elle was being followed by a man, we could feel her anxiety and adrenaline as we were waiting to find out what happened.   

Another reason I would recommend this book is because of its information on sexual assault and the dangers of it which is important to understand. The readers were able to see Elle’s experience with rape. Elle was raped by her stepbrother and sexually abused.  This was one of the most heart wrenching parts of the book as we see how a 16-year-old girl deals with sexual abuse and rape. Going through this experience with Elle made it easier to connect with her and possibly relate to her. This part of the book may be hard to read for some, but for others, it's very emotional and powerful as we see her get revenge. 

As someone who enjoys romance books I would recommend this because it was very interesting to watch how Elle and Jonas’s relationship progressed. The author included the first time they met and were able to see what Elle thought through every step of the way. Jonas and Elle are both slightly toxic people (both cheaters) but they seemed to fit together perfectly.  I noticed that whenever they were together Elle was a much happier version of herself. This relationship was one of the most interesting parts of the book and I enjoyed being able to think about what I would do in the situation and seeing what Elle did. 

In the novel the setting set the tone for the readers. Throughout her childhood we saw how important the cabin was to her, the cabin was the only place that wasn't constantly changing throughout both of her parents getting divorced and remarried multiple times. The cabin was her true home and an embodiment of her character. She was broken on the outside but a beautiful mess on the inside. The cabin had mice and was getting very old and broken down, but it was a magical place for Elle and her family. 

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone, whether you like romance or drama. This book is written beautifully as we get to experience life through Elle. It was an easy read that had me engaged the whole time.