Girls of Paper and Fire
Author: Natasha Ngan
Published by: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 400
Format: Kindle e-book
My Rating ★★★★
Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honour they could hope for…and the most demeaning. This year, there’s a ninth. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.
In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it’s Lei they’re after – the girl with the golden eyes whose rumoured beauty has piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king’s consort. There, she does the unthinkable – she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world’s entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.
**Please be aware that this book contains some scenes of violence and sexual assault.**
My thoughts
One day, Lei is forcefully taken away from her home to be a Paper Girl. Each year, the demon king takes eight Paper Girls from around the country to make them his concubines. Her mother was taken from her home years ago and now it’s her turn. The world is split up in a three caste system with humans being the lowest and demons on top. Lei, is a human whose beauty gets her noticed and stuck in the position of being the demon kings concubine. While supposedly an honour it is not the life Lei wants, and she does all she can to rebel against the King and escape.
The fact that this is a debut novel pretty much blows my mind. The writing in this book is so beautiful and vivid. I loved the concepts of the castes and I loved learning more about them as the story progressed.
The book tells such a unique story set in an Asian fantasy world dealing with many complex themes. The fantasy world Ngan has created is both beautiful and, at the same time,completely horrific. The author cleverly weaves in powerful themes of self-empowerment and self-love, identity and self-discovery, while fervently denouncing classism, homophobia, and the objectifying of women. I found the unique world building and the characters within this story so wonderful to read about, and I enjoyed seeing Lei develop. She was quite weak at the beginning of the story and being able to watch her grow in strength in so many ways made me warm to her character and route for her.
Overall I thought the romance was really sweet, and the bond between Lei and Wren felt genuine and fitted within the story well, as we see their connection very slowly grow from nothing. In such a bleak world something so lovely and sweet shines through with their relationship. The friendship and possibility of more created some memorable scenes in the book.I also enjoyed the battle scenes in this fantasy, which surprised me a lot as I often can find them tedious and unnecessary. In Girls of Paper and Fire, however, thee scenes felt very key to the plot and had me on the edge of my seat.
My only real complaint was the epilogue. I just didn’t feel it was necessary. I think there was plenty of material for the sequel, without such a crazy plot twist right at the end. It didn’t ruin the book or anything; I just thought it was a poor way to finish what was already such a fun and exciting read. The ending kind of infuriated me and left me rolling my eyes a little, but also I’m excited to see where the story goes next! Overall, I liked this one more than I’d expected, and I’m sure I’ll be moving on to books two and three sometime soon.
Overall reaction:
Published by: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 400
Format: Kindle e-book
My Rating ★★★★
Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honour they could hope for…and the most demeaning. This year, there’s a ninth. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.
In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it’s Lei they’re after – the girl with the golden eyes whose rumoured beauty has piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king’s consort. There, she does the unthinkable – she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world’s entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.
**Please be aware that this book contains some scenes of violence and sexual assault.**
My thoughts
One day, Lei is forcefully taken away from her home to be a Paper Girl. Each year, the demon king takes eight Paper Girls from around the country to make them his concubines. Her mother was taken from her home years ago and now it’s her turn. The world is split up in a three caste system with humans being the lowest and demons on top. Lei, is a human whose beauty gets her noticed and stuck in the position of being the demon kings concubine. While supposedly an honour it is not the life Lei wants, and she does all she can to rebel against the King and escape.
The fact that this is a debut novel pretty much blows my mind. The writing in this book is so beautiful and vivid. I loved the concepts of the castes and I loved learning more about them as the story progressed.
The book tells such a unique story set in an Asian fantasy world dealing with many complex themes. The fantasy world Ngan has created is both beautiful and, at the same time,completely horrific. The author cleverly weaves in powerful themes of self-empowerment and self-love, identity and self-discovery, while fervently denouncing classism, homophobia, and the objectifying of women. I found the unique world building and the characters within this story so wonderful to read about, and I enjoyed seeing Lei develop. She was quite weak at the beginning of the story and being able to watch her grow in strength in so many ways made me warm to her character and route for her.
Overall I thought the romance was really sweet, and the bond between Lei and Wren felt genuine and fitted within the story well, as we see their connection very slowly grow from nothing. In such a bleak world something so lovely and sweet shines through with their relationship. The friendship and possibility of more created some memorable scenes in the book.I also enjoyed the battle scenes in this fantasy, which surprised me a lot as I often can find them tedious and unnecessary. In Girls of Paper and Fire, however, thee scenes felt very key to the plot and had me on the edge of my seat.
My only real complaint was the epilogue. I just didn’t feel it was necessary. I think there was plenty of material for the sequel, without such a crazy plot twist right at the end. It didn’t ruin the book or anything; I just thought it was a poor way to finish what was already such a fun and exciting read. The ending kind of infuriated me and left me rolling my eyes a little, but also I’m excited to see where the story goes next! Overall, I liked this one more than I’d expected, and I’m sure I’ll be moving on to books two and three sometime soon.
Overall reaction:
