Girls of Paper and Fire book review

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
on November 6, 2018
Pages: 400
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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.
Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. Ten years ago, her mother was snatched by the royal guards, and her fate remains unknown. 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 learn the skills and charm that befit a king’s consort. There, Lei 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.

Girls of Paper and Fire has been on my Kindle for the longest amount of time and it was one that I always ended putting off until this year. I will say I had seen a lot of hype surrounding this book and I can definitely understand why people fell in love with it so quickly and so completely. I found that my reaction wasn’t quite the same, there were aspects of this story I really loved and there were somewhere I struggled to connect not only with the characters but also the storyline. I definitely think I’ll be picking up the sequel and seeing if it fills in any of the gaps I had with this one but I’m not ready to declare it my new favourite as of yet.

The characters in Girls of Paper and Fire are hard to categorise purely because there are so many of them and they aren’t all as fleshed out as I thought they should be. I think there are some characters that feel complete and fulfilled, and there are others that are really cliche and underdeveloped. I wish there had been more of standardisation for all of the characters and maybe even some more backstory on the others within the group. I really think it would have added to the world and also helped me connect to them and what was happening to them in general. The main character, Lei was interesting but I wish there had been more about the shop where she grew up and how her village worked. It would have been a better insight into the politics and also her motives as a main character.

There were some really great moments in Girls of Paper and Fire, I think the comradery and moments with the girls was my favourite though. They were all from different parts of the world and I really enjoyed that there were definite differences within them. I actually really loved the different castes and the way the world was organised. It was interesting and I am hoping that the series continues on that train of thought and we get more information about the world and the different way everything ends up working out.

The worst bit of Girls of Paper and Fire for me was just how fast everything happened and how rushed it ended up feeling. I really wanted there to be more information spread throughout and for there to have been more about the characters and their backstories as a whole.

I will recommend this one, the representation is good and well written, but I’m not willing to call it a new favourite but I’m definitely looking forward to the others in the series.

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!