In a Land of Paper Gods

by Rebecca Mackenzie

Jiangxi Province, China, 1941Atop the fabled mountain of Lushan, celebrated for its temples, capricious mists and plunging ravines, perches a boarding school for the children of British missionaries. As her parents pursue their calling to bring the gospel to China's most remote provinces, ten-year-old Henrietta S. Robertson discovers that she has been singled out for a divine calling of her own.Etta is quick to share the news with her dorm mates, and soon even Big Bum Eileen is enlisted in the Prophetess Club, which busies itself looking for signs of the Lord's intent. (Hark.) As rumours of war grow more insistent, so the girls' quest takes on a new urgency - and in such a mystical landscape, the prophetesses find that lines between make believe and reality, good and bad, become dangerously blurred. So Etta's pilgrimage begins.A story of a child far from home and caught between two cultures, In A Land of Paper Gods marries exuberant imagination with sharp pathos, and introduces Rebecca Mackenzie as a striking and original new voice.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, China, Asia, Cults, Book Club

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2016

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Mackenzie has chosen a fascinating basis for her story: the experience of Christian missionaries, and their children, in China before and during WW2. The narrative voice is predominantly that of young Henrietta, the child of parents busy spreading the word of God. Growing up within the influence of two cultures means that Etta is an interesting character, if not likeable. The historical events of the period move from the background of the story to the explosive foreground, the steady advance of the Japanese military forces becomes increasingly important to her life and that of all the characters. This was well done, especially the uncertainty and scattered information Etta shows in her understanding of contemporary circumstance and its affects on her life.

For the most part, the novel is engaging, though I felt it suffered from a peaks/troughs dichotomy. Perhaps my ambivalence towards the main character meant that I was not greatly interested in the slower moments of her story. There were bits I loved: the wild beauty of China and the 'thin' places where the spiritual world is closer to our own. However, for me, there was nothing to take this book from good to great. Even so, the concept is novel enough that I am assured of Mackenzie's talent and will look out for her next work.

Many thanks to Rebecca Mackenzie, Headline, and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

[David Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a Land of Paper Gods is set in China. She is born there and this is Henrietta’s story.

Blond and pale she is the daughter of missionaries and for the first six years of Henrietta’s life she is known by her Chinese name Ming-Mei meaning Bright and Beautiful. Author Rebecca Mackenzie’s debut novel is delightfully descriptive and this is a book of thoroughly engaging historical fiction. We following six year old Etta’s (Henrietta S. Robertson) journey in 1941 to the Lushan Missionary School on the sacred mountain, through five years with the back-drop of the Second Sino-Japanese War between China and Japan.

Having left her parents, Etta’s arrives at the mountain school and quickly makes friends with Big Bum Eileen, Sarah, Isobel, Fiona, Kathryn, Edith, Flo and Hilary. These fellow daughters of missionaries will become the Prophetess Club, after Etta feels called and proclaims herself a prophetess. Hark, they shall all seek signs of the Lord’s intent. Often amusing, but always beautifully written we discover the staff who run the school and watch as Etta feels the pain of mistakes made while learning and growing at such a precious age.

The final third of our story is sometimes brutal and certainly emotional as the realities of war catch up with young Etta and her friends. A very different and moving read for me and I of course couldn’t help but enjoy the bright and beautiful Henrietta and grow to feel strongly about her welfare. I can recommend this book to you without hesitation, it is a very good story and I eagerly look forward to the author’s next book. (ARC Received)

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first half of Rebecca Mackenzie's In a Land of Paper Gods far more interesting than the second. Whilst I wasn't overly enamoured by many of the characters, the sense of place was strongly evoked. Regardless, I have read historical novels rather like this one which have held my interest more, and little about it struck me as particularly original. It is a nicely written book, but Mackenzie is not an author whom I'll go out of my way to read the future work of.

[Hazel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

“My name is Henrietta S. Robertson. That’s my English name… My Chinese name is Ming-Mei.”

As the child of members of the Interior Alliance Mission, Henrietta has grown up between two cultures: English and Chinese. From the age of six she was sent to boarding school on a mountain in the Jiangxi Province, where four years later she remains as a small, pale, lonely girl.

For a girl as young as ten, Etta has a big imagination. She decides that God has called her to be a prophetess, and encourages the other girls in Dormitory A to join her in a Prophetess Club. This results is Etta getting into all sorts of trouble as she naively goes about inventing prophecies; all the while the Second Sino-Japanese War gets closer and closer to their mountain sanctuary.

Told mostly from Etta’s point of view, In a Land of Paper Gods is a hilarious historical novel about a young girl’s innocence. A large part of the story is about the missionary school rather than the ongoing war, therefore the focus is on Etta’s interpretation of the bible and her understanding of the differences between Western Christian and Chinese culture. However, once America joins the war effort, it is shockingly quick how the tale can go from humorous to heartbreaking.

The other character who plays a large part in this novel is Muriel, a dorm aunty, whom Etta regards highly. Muriel wanted to be a missionary but instead has found herself working at the Lushan school, keeping an eye on the ten and eleven year old girls. Although most of the book is written in Etta’s first person narrative, Rebecca Mackenzie has also included the occasional diary entry from Aunty Muriel. Since these are so few, it is not clear what their purpose is, as the story could easily continue without them.

Despite being an historical novel, In a Land of Paper Gods focuses less on fact and more on the impact the times had on a young girl. It is interesting to see the character development of Etta as she goes from a naughty, attention-seeking schoolgirl, to a young woman who must fend for herself. All the while she has her belief in God to resort to for explanations about the world she is living in. The reader also witnesses the growth of a relationship between Aunty Muriel and Etta. To begin with it is that of an adult and child, however it ends with them being equals in their suffering.

In a Land of Paper Gods is a pleasure to read. It is comically entertaining to begin with as the reader grows to love the characters, particularly mischievous Etta. It is hard to put the book down due to pure delight of the storyline, yet when the story turns darker it is just as difficult to put down, as we want to find out if the characters are going to be okay.

For some people, the Christian content will not mean anything, however it is possible to enjoy the novel without a religious background. For those, like myself, who do have a Christian upbringing, this aspect makes the story even better. Readers may recognize themselves or of their childhood in Etta, particularly her understanding of the bible.

Overall I loved this book. I was not sure what to expect, and have often found historical novels set in China to be rather dull. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to discover how good this book was. I encourage others to read In a Land of Paper Gods, and I look forward to reading what Mackenzie writes next.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine if you were born and raised in a foreign country by your parents, picking up the native tongue and given a native name by which you were known until you were 6 years old. And then you are sent away to school on a remote mountain in a different part of that vast foreign country. This is what happens to Ming-Mei, or Etta (Henrietta S. Robertson to give her her full name), the main character in In the Land of Paper Gods, born to British missionary parents in China. The novel opens in 1941 and concentrates on Etta's story between the ages of ten and fifteen.

It would be a wrench for any child to have to leave their parents at such a young age but when the child is a daydreamer with a vivid imagination (which alienates her dorm and class mates), it seems that much harder on the child, and even bordering on cruel. She seems to be particularly struggling, something of a lost child with that feeling of being adrift from her parents, the ties having been cut (or having snapped as they do rather symbolically in the novel). The fact that she goes through various names in the book adds to this sense of vagueness of her character, that she is on the cusp of becoming someone and not set as a person yet: at school, she is Etta to her friends, Henrietta to the teachers and staff, Samantha when she sets up the group of Prophetesses and Ming-Mei again when she encounters the Chinese. You wonder if this little girl will ever find herself, let alone home and her family again.

For a time it is only Etta's nature and imagination which get her into trouble: the difference between good and bad, and the lines between truth and lies blur and distort as easily as the temples and buildings, the trees and even the people fade in and out and blur on her mystical (and often actually mist-shrouded) mountain. But things take a more serious turn when she tries to befriend a young local girl, and shortly afterwards the outside world and the war raging round about them come to their mountain-side school and force them all to grow up more rapidly.

Mostly told from Etta's point of view, together with one of her teacher's brief diary entries, this is a compelling, and haunting coming of age story set in China during the second Sino-Japanese War. My heart ached for Etta, as she tried to find out who she was without the love and guidance of her parents from such an early age, and yet I was also heartened to see someone who went their own way even if it was unpopular or got them into trouble. That doesn't mean to say that I agree with everything she did but I could understand how it happened, and why. And it made me angry at the parents for sacrificing their children in order to concentrate on their calling as missionaries. This was a thought-provoking read, and one that evoked a lot of emotions. In a Land of Paper Gods will no doubt have me thinking about it for some time to come. It's a strong debut novel and I'll be interested to see what the author goes on to write in future.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling read. The final third in particular is excellent.

[Jackie Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a Land of Paper Gods, by Rebecca MacKenzie, is a book that I approached with high expectations having read many glowing reviews. Perhaps for this reason it took some time before I felt fully engaged. Yet the early chapters were necessary in order to understand what came next. By half way through my heart was hurting for what had been done to the young protagonist. This was the human cost of religious fervour from a point of view I had not previously considered, and having been inspired by true events was all the more difficult to comprehend.

“Missionary parents need somewhere to send their children so that they might continue their work. […] As Jesus said to Peter, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold.” God will bless us for these sacrifices […] The adults nodded and murmoured. I felt furiously sick.”

Etta is a young schoolgirl born in China, sent away when she was six years old to a boarding school for the children of British missionaries on the distant mountain of Lushan. Prior to this she had spoken Chinese as well as English and answered to her Chinese name of Ming-Mei, which means bright and beautiful. Now aged ten she has only vague memories of her parents having seen them but twice in the interim. She is forbidden to speak Chinese whilst at school.

Etta is a lively, boistrous girl, regularly losing points from her Goodness Card for untidiness and unseemly behaviour. Like all children, she craves admiration. When she believes that God has spoken to her she sets up the Prophetess Club, recruiting the other girls from her dormitory. When one of these girls threatens to gain control Etta dreams up tasks to draw the others back to her. She takes them out of bounds, to a glade she has discovered where a young Chinese girl plays. She proposes that they copy their elders and convert the child, with tragic results.

In the background are the rumblings of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The cruelties of children and loneliness of the school regime give way to the more extreme experiences of wartime occupation. The challenges Etta and her school must face are now physical as well as mental.

The poignancy of children sent away by their parents is painfully presented. When a mother pays a visit to the school her young son breaks down when she leaves and must be manhandled away. A girl from Etta’s dormitory, Sarah Charleston, has her mother come for a short stay. The girls are taken to a mountain pool to play, all eager to experience a mother for themselves.

“We dived – Mrs Charleston, look at me! We bombed – Mrs Charleston, watch this! We roly-polied underwater – Mrs Charleston, did you see that? We swung on the vine, out over the pool – Mrs Chrleston, look, I’m a monkey! Mrs Charleston’s name rang across the forest. Even Sarah leapt up on the vine shouting, ‘Look at me, Mrs Charleston!’ When she caught what she said, a look of pain crossed her face, and she fell into the pool.”

The arrival of the war to their doorstep curtails such visits. The children hear news of parents escaping the country, or being held prisoner in camps. They wonder if they will ever again see these strangers who have become faded memories, black and wight images from the photograph each keeps on their bedside cabinet.

The author brings China, especially the mountain of Lushan with its mists and glades and temples, to life with stunning imagery. Etta’s journey goes briefly beyond, but the girls’ known world is their school until the soldiers arrive. They have learned to follow rules and live within themselves, indoctrinated with the Christian teachings and starved of love. One of the first acts of a threatening Japanese soldier is to free a young boy from a cruel punishment inflicted by a teacher. Etta had once again broken rules by trying to offer comfort.

The war forces the residents of the school to live in constrained and tightened circumstances. It also allows the children to experience more worldly adults and Etta begins to understand that there are other ways to live. Her subversive tendencies become her strength despite the continuing rejection by her peers.

I wondered how the suffering inflicted on these children, instigated by their own parents, would affect them in later life. So much hurt had to be suppressed in order to survive. Perhaps this is why our boarding school educated politicians appear to lack the ability to empathise.

This poignant tale slowly engulfs the reader with its beautifully crafted prose. I ache for what these children were put through, and not just by the war. A highly recommended read.

My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Tinder Press.

[Maya Panika]

Set in china in the nineteen forties, this is the tale of a group of children caught up in the Japanese invasion of china. The children of missionaries are sent by their parents to a boarding school in Jiangxi Province - abandoned, as many see it; some will never see their parents again.
The best of In a Land of Paper Gods is the powerful and richly detailed setting of the Missionary school in Lushan, on a mountain sacred to the Chinese, the clever weaving of history with fiction and some terrific characteration.
The heroine of the tale is Henrietta – Etta. Just 10 years old when first sent away to school, Etta is an erratic, impulsive, over-imaginative child who longs to be in with the Golden Girls - who naturally reject her, causing her to seek attention in other ways. Full of peculiarities born of her strict religious upbringing, borderline delusional at times, Etta’s religious play-acting ultimately leads (in one the hardest, most tragic passages of the book) to the death of another child – which should be the climax of the tale, but isn’t. I’m not entirely sure if it has a climax, or any kind of pivot at all. It is a peculiar story that fascinates, yet never satisfies. The plot is definitely the weakest part of this novel.
The central theme seems to be the search for a family: for the lost mother and fathers (in some cases literally lost forever, caught by the Japanese invasion, their fate never known), but more often, those adults and children who substitute for lost parents and siblings. All the children of the Lushan School ache for their families, fixing affections and hero worshipping teachers, other missionaries, even a Japanese soldier - in a desperate attempt to replace the families who have seemingly abandoned them.
In a Land of Paper Gods is extraordinarily well written but the story meanders, lacking focus and never seeing to go anywhere – which is not necessarily a criticism; the journey to nowhere is entertainingly and fascinatingly done, but it left me with a vague, unsettled feeling that Etta’s story did not finish, but simply ended where it did – as happens in life, but it is deeply unsatisfying in a novel.

[Linda Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A no -spoilers review of a stunning debut here http://lindasbookbag.com/2016/01/24/i...
Henrietta (Etta) S. Robertson is sent to Lushan, a private school for the children of missionaries in China. Here Etta will learn what it is that makes us who we are.

I’m astounded by In a Land of Paper Gods. I found that I didn’t really read the book as much as absorb it and experience it. Beautifully written, the descriptions are so evocative that I could picture each so clearly. Rebecca MacKenzie has a perfect eye for detail from a hair like a crack in a washbasin to the stench of rotting flesh. I was there in the settings, not merely reading about them.

Alongside the vivid nature of the descriptions and settings is a multi-layered text so that it is part allegory, part dream state, part diary, part history and part travelogue. In a Land of Paper Gods is also an emotional coming of age story that we live with Etta as she recounts her experiences. The pain of growing up is laid bare and there is an intensity of sadness that will remain with me for a long time. There are also deft touches of humour.

I don’t wish to spoil the plot, but, set against a true historical background, In a Land of Paper Gods brings the personal and individual side of world events into sharp and sometimes shocking focus.

Although this is a debut novel, for me there wasn’t a word out of place. I found the writing evocative and haunting so that it was almost hypnotic. I was surprised to find tears running down my face as I was so absorbed by the experience of reading. I loved it.

In a Land of Paper Gods is the kind of book that sings to your soul as Etta expands and grows as a character. I will be thinking about it for a very long time.

[josbookblog · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a Land of Paper Gods opens in 1940 whilst Etta, aged 10, is attending a school for the children of missionaries – a boarding school that enables their parents to continue with their work of introducing Christianity to the Chinese without having children to look after.

Etta’s childhood is an unusual one, and she seems trapped in a strange limbo between two vastly different cultures, never fully belonging to either of them. Initially raised in the Chinese province where her parents seek to convert the local populace, Etta learns Chinese and begins to understand (as much as she can at that age) the local customs. She even has a Chinese name – Ming-Mei, meaning bright and beautiful. At the age of 6, she is transported to the English speaking Lushan School, leaving everything she has known up to that point behind, her early years becoming almost irrelevant.

Possibly as a result of her exposure to the idea of divine callings, Etta believes that she has been chosen as a prophetess. She quickly shares this revelation with the girls in her dorm, thus forming the Prophetess Club. But what starts out as some harmless fun has dire consequences, despite the good intentions.

Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, Etta’s situation becomes increasingly tense as Japanese forces move into China, and she and the other pupils are eventually sent to an internment camp for the remainder of the war.

I really enjoyed this enchanting début, and I’ll be recommending it to lots of people. My full spoiler free review can be found at:
http://josbookblog.co.uk/2016/01/23/i...

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Etta who is the main character of this beautiful and thought provoking west meets east story, is not a particularly likable character. She and her school friends are children to the christian missionaries that do God’s work somewhere in China while their children are given ”good education” in a christian spirit in a boarding school in the same country, but very far away from most of the families. The II World War is in progress, but it has not reached China yet. It is through Etta’s 10 years old eyes that we see the boarding school somewhere in remote China. We experience the loneliness and the reality of the young girls who with far too little grown-up supervision create a strange, religious world where real or imagined visions manage and define their lives. It is through her eyes that we later experience the war, the first soldiers, internment and finally the liberation.

It is one of those stories that grow on you. Etta age 10 is difficult to take, it is difficult to imagine the world and the ideas that appear in her head. But then circumstances change and Etta suddenly grows up. Her energy that used to get her in trouble before, is now channeled into something different. The religion to my relief stops playing any part whatsoever. Now it is just a tough reality, no dreams, no visions but the hardest wartime reality that one can imagine…. As my attouchement to Etta and her company grew, so did my overall judgement of this book. It was really good, even if I found the beginning heard to take.

[Anne Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ten-year-old Henrietta Robertson has been boarding at a school halfway up a sacred mountain for the past four years. Partly due to the distance, partly because much of China is now under Japanese occupation, she’s been home only twice and, if it weren’t for the photograph beside her bed, she wouldn’t know how to recognise her missionary parents. Battling against Big Bum Eileen for leadership of the girls of Dormitory A, she establishes a society of prophetesses. But her friends’ interest wanes when they begin to prepare for their baptism. Excluded because no letter arrives granting her parents’ permission, Henrietta courts a little Chinese girl she discovers playing in the mud, with the intention of converting her and making her an honorary daughter. When her efforts lead to tragedy, Henrietta runs away from school, only to find there are greater dangers in the countryside beyond its boundaries.
Full review http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

You are 10 years old, and it's 1941 in China. Your parents are missionaries and have sent you to boarding school in faraway Lushen. Your name is Etta and you are about to grow up in so many ways.
This is Rebecca Mackenzie's first novel and it packs a punch. The writing is exquisite particularly the descriptions of a war torn China. The character of Etta is one of a mixed up, bewildered and lost young girl. Etta misses her parents, at times forgetting what her parents even look like and if she will ever see them again. As war rages and the school is invaded by the Japanese Etta's resilience is tested in the internment camps and she is forced to grow up.
Some readers may find the novel 'slow' in places but this is because the author wants to set the scene, convey the feelings and emotions of the characters. Stick with it as its a fabulous debut.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably 2.5 stars, actually. This book began really well and I was chuckling to myself... but then the amusement faded and I became quite disenchanted with it. The characters didn't follow through, nor did the situations. I found it difficult to follow the physical locations also and then the years just disappeared.

[Phil Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best fiction books I read in 2016. It's set in a boarding school in China for the children of missionaries during World War 2. She writes in such a way that you really feel for the characters. The plot is fascinating too. I didn't want it to end.

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a Land of Paper Gods is set in a school for missionary’s children in the 1940s. Etta, who also has the Chinese name, Ming Mei, is a ten year old girl who lives in the school up a mountain where her overactive imagination and religious upbringing lead her into misadventures until the war gets closer and forces her to grow up.

In some ways, this book reminded me of one of my favourite books of last year, Magda Szabó’s Abigail, which a similar boarding school surrounded by war set up. What immediately set this apart from that book was the humour. Early on, the reader is introduced to Etta’s rival, Big Bum Eileen, whose growing boobs are a fascination to all the other girls - Etta doesn’t appreciate their awe over the boobs as it breaks the first commandment of “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” I loved the contrast between religious culture and kid culture throughout the book. At one point Etta and her friends make a prophetess club, adopting feminine versions of prophet names, leading to one being given the wonderfully ludicrous name of ‘Habakukina’. There’s another known as Jere-Neigh because the girl in question isn’t all that into playing prophets but ‘mostly focussed on being a horse’. She is later described as trotting as the others walk.

Etta meets a four year old girl with extra fingers whilst playing out of bounds. Starved of motherly contact herself (there’s a very affecting scene where a mother visits and all the girls vie for her attention) she plays mum’s and babies with the little girl. After seeing a healing ceremony she decides to hold one herself with awful results - the humour of the book starts to sour a little.

The humour is further stripped by the arrival of the Japanese army and the imprisonment of the whole school in a containment camp. Things are hard; there is malnutrition, teeth and hair full out, they have a jar to keep captured bedbugs in. Yet, though the outright humour is gone, the community of the school and Etta’s own bravery and curiosity survive. I found her enforced maturity to be really well depicted as she remained essentially the character we met at the beginning. (I collect descriptions of different smiles and I found “smiling her teeth” to be a very succinct version of a specific kind).

Freed at the end, it’s actually the tearing apart of the school community that comes closest to breaking Etta. Separated from the others, she’s not really sure who she is, she certainly doesn’t know who she is as a daughter. We leave before she meets her parents at Portsmouth docks but are left with a brittle hope. I liked Etta, I wish her well.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Book Group is one where we all read the same book, and each choose from the Book Discussion Scheme catalogue. This was my choice - the catalogue had a subject heading of humourous - but oh, it was a disappointment. And I feel dreadful saying that, when the writer put so much heart and research into it, and it had a great premise - but it needed more.

At 6, Henrietta is sent away from her missionary parents to school. This is China, where many souls need to be saved, and so children are sent from all over to a boarding school at Lushan. Both boys and girls are educated together, but for Henrietta, life mainly revolves around the girls in her dormitory. the first part of this book sets the scene of life for these children - the big childhood concerns of who are your friends; the little lies and petty squabbles. Henrietta is imaginative and as much of her education is Christian and biblically based, she has prophecies, and wrangles with her conscience and popularity. While this part is world building, and we see how the children lived, were educated and the tensions between their western outlook and China, it drags on a bit. there is a difficult story within this, featuring a young Chinese girl with 12 fingers, and this sets up the second part of the story, where Henrietta runs away from the school. Many parts of china are now under the control of the Japanese, and the last third is set in a detainment camp.

The story picks up pace here, and while it shows the cruelty of the Japanese guards; the deprivations, starvation and illness, it is not too graphic. Henrietta grows up in the camp, and becomes a more likeable character. The end of the war brings one of the truest and most heart breaking endings - a meeting with parents. Parents who haven't seen you for years; parents who sent you away to pursue a higher calling.

Half the book group didn't finish the book - the slowness and lack of action put them off. Further editing would have helped - it would not have detracted from the world building or the character development, but made the story pacier. Yes, it was humourous in part, but not enough to deserve the subject heading.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atop the fabled mountain of Lushan, celebrated for its temples, capricious mists and plunging ravines, perches a boarding school for the children of British missionaries. As her parents pursue their calling to bring the gospel to China's most remote provinces, ten-year-old Henrietta S. Robertson discovers that she has been singled out for a divine calling of her own.

Etta is quick to share the news with her dorm mates, and soon even Big Bum Eileen is enlisted in the Prophetess Club, which busies itself looking for signs of the Lord's intent. (Hark.) As rumours of war grow more insistent, so the girls' quest takes on a new urgency - and in such a mystical landscape, the prophetesses find that lines between make believe and reality, good and bad, become dangerously blurred. So Etta's pilgrimage begins.

A story of a child far from home and caught between two cultures, In A Land of Paper Gods marries exuberant imagination with sharp pathos, and introduces Rebecca Mackenzie as a striking and original new voice.

This was a book club read and I'm not sure I would have chosen it but, as with many other book club choices. I'm very glad that I did. Unlike some others I enjoyed the second half more than the first which I found a little tiresome but still engaging. The lasting impression the story leaves on me is the girls' need for love and their desire for a mother.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It’s a good, solid story following the childhood of Etta, the daughter of missionaries to China, from the time that she is sent away to boarding school and through the Japanese invasion of China in the Second World War. As someone who grew up on boarding school stories this was a very different world - it’s not a particularly cruel one, but the effects of the separation of young people from their parents is seen much more clearly, especially as the war further prolongs the separation of these children from their families. Alongside this, we also have the consequences of groups of children with overactive imaginations sequestered together and also within a culture that has an unshakeable belief in god and the righteousness of the missionary cause.

On the downside the story was maybe a but unbalanced as the period within the boarding school moves slowly, whilst post invasion things clip along at a much faster pace. However overall I very much enjoyed reading a well written story within a setting, and using a perspective, that I have not read about before.

[Alexis O · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting setting for the story, a missionary school in China during WWII. Mackenzie is very good at making the voice of a child heard. There was the light innocence and tenderness of childhood at the start of the book and all the silly struggles that young girls have with one another but as the book and time went by, it became darker. The reader and Etta gain a fuller, richer view of what the world is. You see this girl grow up, what she becomes through her own misguided actions and through what she observes in those around her. What I love is how Etta takes two actions at the end of the book (one with her former teacher and the other after rushing to her room angry about dinnertime discussion), that are so clearly the result of everything she experienced during the book, but at the same time, these actions are not presented clumsily. They are beautifully in line with the young woman this world has made Etta become.

[Lizzie Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent read. Explores lives of students and teachers at a mountaintop missionary school in China during WWII. Great observation of characters' interactions, motivations and inner musings. Poetic descriptions. A delicate rendering of the charm of innocent existence continuing, same as it ever was, with real and present danger looming from just below the cloud forests. Quite a shock when disruption hits so fully, preempted by a couple of sad and shocking occurrences at the school itself. Change in atmosphere reminiscent of 'The Wicker Man', and as well pulled off. As the scene and setting changes the author continues to weave us into the everyday lives of principle characters and builds their new coexistence very naturally. There's a stoic rendering of the new normal which doesn't diminish the reader's understanding of the brutality going on. Themes of religion, parenthood, "being called", community, group behaviour, individualism, nature.

[Sian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 stars (now even half stars aren't enough for me)

This was beautifully written, with a captivating narrator and interesting themes and questions about family and motherhood, Christianity, the nature of 'home' and maturing from child to womanhood... But no actual, discernible plot. Which I am mostly prepared to forgive, because it was a lovely read. I particularly loved Lushan and how beautiful and magical it seemed, and then the looming threat of the Japanese.

But I think I may be developing a phobia of novels where a group of children form a secret society under the leadership of a charismatic child with a vivid imagination - badness always follows!

(Also - beautiful cover, one of my recent faves!)

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our main character, Etta, the daughter of missionaries in China, spends the first six years of her life living at home, using her Chinese name. Then is sent off to boarding school and starts using her English name.
All the children in the school are missionaries children, sent to keep up schooling, and keep out of the way whilst parents do good work.
We go through some school years, some highs and lows, the fear of approaching Japanese, and then prison camp and freedom.
There were some great bits in this book, but they didn't quite make up for the not so interesting bits. I didn't particularly care for Etta one way or other,so some bits dragged.
overall a good read though.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite enjoyed this

Interesting read. Hard to understand the missionaries who sent their children off to boarding school so that they could continue their missionary and the book makes no attempt to explain that. Instead it's the story of a girl growing up away from her parents and of her eventual return to England (and her parents) following the communists assuming power in China. Although it covers the period of the Japanese invasion and her internment in a pow camp it does not go into huge detail but instead remains focused on the girl and her feelings.

[Book Grocer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchase In aLand of Paper Gods here for just $8!

It is 1941, and war has come to China. For ten-year-old Etta, chafing against the strict regime in her boarding school on remote, misty Lushan, this means little. But change is creeping closer, and Etta is waiting for a sign... Well written. A fascinating and an intelligent but easy read.

Steph - The Book Grocer

[Leong Chin Yee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot remember why I got this book. It is not an exciting book like others that I read that made me want to finish it quickly; I took time to read and journey with Etta, as if I was reading her journal and trying to relive her experiences as a missionary kid in Lushan and then as a war intern. Her separation from her parents did bring an ache to my heart as I understand the difficulties of being away from home and at that time when communication was hard.

[Dylan Rossi · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could do 3.5 I would as there's obviously been a ton of effort into the book. It just took a really, really long time to get into the book. It did get exciting towards the end though for sure, but it never peaked if you get me.

[Jess Bolam · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book simply broke my heart.

[Maria Fillary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in China WW2. British missionary children living in a missionary school & the impact of the war.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / 5