Where do I even start with this book? I had been warned. I knew that this was going to be a strange, disturbing yet addictive path to follow. And despite every warning, I kept reading.
Paper Princess starts with the introduction of our
protagonist Ella, a 17yo girl who’s alone in the world and who tries to mantain
her indipendence by doing all kind of works, even those that a girl her age
should not even consider doing. I liked the idea of having a young yet strong
female protagonist, as I usually struggle when the narration is led by immature
characters and I have to say that for great part of the book I enjoyed how Ella
managed to stay strong despite everything she was forced to face. She was the
perfect mix of humour and wittiness, despite also showing at times her
suffering and therefore her young age. But when the Royals start to get
involed, I admit that I expected Ella to be a little more tough than what she then
shows. I think that for a girl with such past, she was fooled too easily by the
sick, corrupted world of the Royals and I really hoped that she would have
defied all clichèes and end up resisting them. Well, she didn’t.
Apparently nobody can because The Royals, are just
unimaginable things. When they appeared on those stairs, all five of them, I
knew that they were going to be actively implied in Ella’s future but I could
never imagine how or how many of them.
This book has a way of treating sex and boundaries in a most
disturbing yet addictive way. I was shocked while skimming through the pages by
the amount of taboos brought up and completely brushed aside, like brothers
getting horny for their “sister” or their father screwing his girlfriend a mere
inch away from Ella. I think I made the most hilarious faces while reading some
of these passages, that I wish I had filmed me. Like when this whole insane
scenario just reached a peak and Ella gets drugged, her heroic brothers just kept
repeating – like in a serious tone – that the only way to make her feel better was
to give her RELIEF, as if fucking is actually considered as a medical
prescription for coming out of the high! And how passionate those souls were to
offer themselves in sacrifice! I’m not gonna lie and tell you that some parts
of the book were quite hot to read, but still, they were mostly uncomfortable
and sometimes so absurd that I just wanted to roll my eyes and shut the book.
Another annoying thing regarded how the brothers initially slut-shamed and
tortured Ella by hinting at how they could do to her whatever they liked, rape
being very close to their behaviour, that was supposed to be accepted just for
how hot they were portrayed. I have not felt insulted by the superficiality of
this story, but I understand how these scenes could be very triggering for
someone who might have lived difficult situations.
Sex being obviously a central topic to this story, I have to
say that there were also other types of relationships developed, like Ella’s
bond with Eaton or with Valerie, both good examples of friendships that helped in actually adding on to the plot, that if it wasn’t for the spicy bits,
wasn’t that much complex.
The worst thing about this book though, is that even if you
know that it is really disturbed, so disturbed that you should probably end it,
you just end up getting sucked in its toxicity, just like Ella. I’m not gonna
lie, I’m going to buy book #2, first because I know that we have probably seen
the worst of the family and we can only have the better left, and secondly
because it ended with a cliffhanger that, even if it was not totally
unexpected, made me curious about what will come up next in Broken Prince. What
can I say? I’m just human!
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