Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
Wow… Just wow… I am completely and utterly blown away by this novel. I managed to snag a copy at YALC in the summer and the day after YALC, I went straight on holiday to Malta, so naturally, I thought that would be the perfect place to take Girls of Paper and Fire and to relax by the pool and read it.
In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it’s Lei they’re after–the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king’s consort. But Lei isn’t content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable–she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.
Can I just say that I have been waiting for this book to come out FOR SO LONG! This was one of my most anticipated releases for 2018, and originally, it wasn’t going to come out in the UK til 2019, but the publisher pushed it forward to November, so that it would be released at the same time as the US. I just feel so lucky to have got an ARC because I don’t think I could have waited much longer to read it!
“I don’t want an easy life. I want a meaningful one.”
― Girls of Paper and Fire
AND THE ARC WAS A FLOPPY PAPERBACK WHICH I ABSOLUTELY LOVED!
Anyway, onto the actual book…
The beginning felt a little bit slow to me. It was basically the journey that Wren made to the castle. There was drama at the beginning as well, when Wren was being taken away from her home, but the journey to the castle dragged a little bit. It kind of reminded me of he journey that the main character in Uprooted took.
Now, I just say this right now because people definitely need to know: there is A LOT of sexual assault that happens in this book including rape. These parts were so hard for me to read and I didn’t know that there were going to be scenes like this in there, but at least now I can tell you so that you’re prepared! I think the overcoming of the sexual assault that the paper girls went through is at the core of this book. Every girl suffers, and every girl tries to put on a brave face and tell everyone that they’re okay, but underneath, you know that they are torn up inside because of what they are being made to do.
“I know what it means to dream about the past.
To dream about things you have loved, and lost.”
― Girls of Paper and Fire
Even though some of the characters were very bitchy, I really liked all of them. Every single character such as Blue and Aiko were really fleshed out and sometimes, they didn’t feel like side characters because of how well they were written.
Once we got over the whole ‘journey to the castle’ thing, the plot became really interesting. It was a slow burning plot, don’t get me wrong, and it didn’t really kick off until the last 100 pages or so, but the build up towards the ending had me on the edge on my seat (or pool lounger?), because of Ngan’s beautiful writing. Her writing style is just so gorgeous. It’s not exactly purple prose like Wicked Like a Wildfire or The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, but the descriptions of the world and the characters make you feel like you’re actually in the story which is one of the many things that I couldn’t get enough of when I was reading this.
And of course, how could I write this review without talking about the AMAZING romance. Wren and Lei are just perfect together and I love them both so much. Wren has definitely become my new fictional crush. I love how supportive she is of Lei. Wren helps Lei through absolutely everything, physically and mentally and THAT’S the kind of relationship that I love to read about. The only thing that made me sad was that Wren was kind of pushed to the side at the end of the novel so that Lei could have her shining moment, but that’s something that I can definitely move past. I can’t wait to read more about this romance in the second book (which I didn’t think was even going to be a thing until I got to the end!)
“Instead of disappearing, she makes me feel reappeared. Reimagined. Her touch shapes me, draws out the boldness that had been hiding in my core.”
― Girls of Paper and Fire
Speaking of the ending… OH MY GOD! It was explosive and it had me completely shook. That’s all I’m going to say about that. But I thought that Girls of Paper and Fire was a standalone fantasy novel, and when I got to the end, I thought ‘it CAN’T be! IT JUST CAN’T BE A STANDALONE! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!’ And sure enough, a couple of months later, I went onto Goodreads, and noticed that next to Girls of Paper and Fire it said that it was book one in a series. I WAS SO HAPPY!
I can’t wait for the sequel and even though I love how Natasha Ngan is posting snippets of it on her Twitter, it just makes me even more restless because I need it in my life right now.
If you haven’t read this book already, you have to. You just have to.
Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Trigger warnings: sexual assault and rape, death.
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