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Girls of Paper and Fire #3
Girls of Fate and Fury
The epic romance of Lei and Wren comes to a breathtaking conclusion in the explosive finale to the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling Girls of Paper and Fire series.
'Don't struggle, Lei-zhi. It's time to take you back to the Hidden Palace. You're going home.'
The jaw-dropping conclusion to Girls of Storm and Shadow left the fates of Lei and Wren hanging in the balance. There's one thing Lei knows - she can never return to the Hidden Palace. The trauma and tragedy she suffered behind those opulent walls will plague her forever. She cannot be trapped there with the sadistic king again, especially without Wren.
The last time Lei saw the girl she loved, Wren was fighting an army of soldiers in a furious battle to the death.
With the two girls torn apart and each in great peril, will they reunite at last, or have their destinies diverged forever?
'Don't struggle, Lei-zhi. It's time to take you back to the Hidden Palace. You're going home.'
The jaw-dropping conclusion to Girls of Storm and Shadow left the fates of Lei and Wren hanging in the balance. There's one thing Lei knows - she can never return to the Hidden Palace. The trauma and tragedy she suffered behind those opulent walls will plague her forever. She cannot be trapped there with the sadistic king again, especially without Wren.
The last time Lei saw the girl she loved, Wren was fighting an army of soldiers in a furious battle to the death.
With the two girls torn apart and each in great peril, will they reunite at last, or have their destinies diverged forever?
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2021
About the author
Natasha Ngan
8 books3,544 followersNatasha Ngan is the New York Times bestselling author of the Girls of Paper and Fire trilogy. She grew up between Malaysia, where the Chinese side of her family is from, and the UK. This multicultural upbringing influences her writing, and she is passionate about bringing diverse stories to readers.
Ngan studied Geography at the University of Cambridge before working as a social media consultant and fashion blogger, and yoga teacher.
She lives on the west coast of France with her partner and their Staffordshire bull terrier, Nova.
She is represented by Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary.
Follow Natasha at: http://natashangan.com or on Instagram: @_natashangan
Ngan studied Geography at the University of Cambridge before working as a social media consultant and fashion blogger, and yoga teacher.
She lives on the west coast of France with her partner and their Staffordshire bull terrier, Nova.
She is represented by Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary.
Follow Natasha at: http://natashangan.com or on Instagram: @_natashangan
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,061 reviews
October 26, 2021
28/01/21
All I'll say for now is........
Wren POV
All I'll say for now is........
Wren POV
Want to Read
January 29, 20211.) Girls of Paper and Fire ★★★★★
2.) Girls of Storm and Shadow ★★★★
this cover is perfect. be still, my everything.
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2.) Girls of Storm and Shadow ★★★★
this cover is perfect. be still, my everything.
Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Youtube | Twitch
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May 24, 2020I was wrong but now I actually know the title!!!! It's Girls of Fate and Fury
i KnOw ThE TiTlE
-----------------
I can't change the title because I'm not a librarian but I am (almost) 100% sure that the title is
It says so on the publicity page of my ARC of Swipe Right For Murder so... pretty official
| Goodreads | Blog | Pinterest | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram
i KnOw ThE TiTlE
-----------------
I can't change the title because I'm not a librarian but I am (almost) 100% sure that the title is
Girls of Sand and Snow
It says so on the publicity page of my ARC of Swipe Right For Murder so... pretty official
| Goodreads | Blog | Pinterest | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram
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December 29, 2021I am loosing my absolute MIND over this cover
February 26, 2025
ok this was everything i wanted from this series but didn't get in the first two books.....
pls pls pls don't disappoint 😭
pls pls pls don't disappoint 😭
April 23, 2023
3.5 stars
July 9, 2022
3.5 stars
Before Reading:
Please please please please please be better than book 2 and restore this series to its former glory
After Reading
...Well... This was definitely better. Was it "glorious"? Not exactly.
I really had no idea what to expect going into this, given that I rated the first book a full five stars and listed it in my top reads of 2018, and then I gave second book 2 stars and a disappointed rant review. I'm not sure I've ever had my ratings for a series look like such a rollercoaster before, and I've been pretty conflicted about how to rate this one.
In retrospect, I probably could have predicted exactly what my thoughts would be on this, given that it's now a dual POV with one half following Lei as she returns to the Hidden Palace and the other half following Wren as she continues with the rebels. Lei's POV reminded me a lot of the first book, complete with many of the same characters and settings, while Wren's POV did the same for the second book, so of course I mostly enjoyed Lei's POV and I was mostly annoyed by Wren's.
I've just never been able to connect with all these characters that were introduced in book 2. Lova and Ketai are the only ones that ever seem to get sufficient character development. Now that they're all combined in one book, the total amount of characters feels so bloated with an almost separate cast of characters from the first book to the second book. I did enjoy going back to the Hidden Palace and returning to all the characters I loved so much more like Kenzo, Blue, and Aoki, but we still barely got enough time with them.
While I was excited to see that Wren was getting her own POV, this also turned out to be frustrating because for some reason Wren is in 3rd person past tense while Lei is in 1st person present. It's obviously intentional, but I can't figure out why. I don't have anything against 3rd person in general — it can certainly be useful and/or necessary for telling certain kinds of stories — but it undeniably creates more of a distance from the reader and the character, as does past tense a lot of the time. This meant that Wren feels more distant and separate from the reader while Lei feels more immersive and in-the-moment, which is a bizarre reading experience. I don't see why Lei and Wren's POVs should be depicted differently when they're both sympathetic main characters on the same timeline.
It seems like reviewers are pretty divided on how they liked this book, and I can see why people loved it, while I can also see why people didn't. The first half, particularly in Wren's POV, is pretty slow and rambling; I think it was an attempt to build tension, but it just went on far too long. At the same time, the second half actually really comes together. We get some excellent action scenes and when Wren and Lei finally reunite, their interactions are so satisfying and sweet. I think their romance has always been my favorite part of this book — which is pretty rare for me.
When I was about a third of the way through, my rating was sitting at 2.5 or 3 stars because I was so bored and it didn't feel like anything was happening. But things really do pick up around the 40% mark, and that's what did manage to turn my reading experience around, at least a little. I actually really enjoyed the final climax sequence and I felt like things were resolved in a satisfying way. The resolution is also far too long, lasting at least four chapters, but I do like what Ngan chose to do with the characters.
One specific spoilery note on the ending in this paragraph:
I don't really understand what the point of the Demon Queen was? She was introduced pretty late in the series, and we were kind of led to believe that she would be important later, but I'm honestly not convinced we could have done without her entirely? I liked her as a character, but I wish she had been utilized better.
... (end spoilers)
I've really wavered between rounding up to 4 stars or rounding down to 3 stars on this book, but I honestly did enjoy my reading experience in the end, and I do conceptually appreciate this series a lot now that I've reached the end. Chalk it up to my enduring love for the first book, but I did still like this series after everything.
My theory is that it got bogged down by too many characters and maybe just not enough planning about how exactly to resolve the conflicts set up in book one, which made it take way too long. This series probably would have been much better as a duology, but then I also wonder if the plot would have been too simplistic. I know this is probably overstepping the bounds of a reviewer, but I would've loved if the plot had stayed almost completely within the bounds of the Demon King's court and been confined to political machinations (with stakes limited to poisoning, execution, etc.) culminating in the large battle scene at the end. But hey, I'm not the writer here.
Do I recommend this series? ...Well.
I do recommend the first book, and I guess if you feel like going on from there, go for it. If you don't like either of the first two books, I don't think it's worth it to continue with this one, but if you do like one of the two, this book genuinely is just like a combination of both, so maybe it'll work for you. I didn't love the series overall, but I think I will keep an eye out for Natasha Ngan's next project.
Content Warnings: mention of, trauma from, and threat of rape; suicide for magical reasons; thoughts of suicide; toxic parental relationship; mild homophobia; gaslighting; severe injury in battle; loss of limbs
Before Reading:
Please please please please please be better than book 2 and restore this series to its former glory
After Reading
...Well... This was definitely better. Was it "glorious"? Not exactly.
I really had no idea what to expect going into this, given that I rated the first book a full five stars and listed it in my top reads of 2018, and then I gave second book 2 stars and a disappointed rant review. I'm not sure I've ever had my ratings for a series look like such a rollercoaster before, and I've been pretty conflicted about how to rate this one.
In retrospect, I probably could have predicted exactly what my thoughts would be on this, given that it's now a dual POV with one half following Lei as she returns to the Hidden Palace and the other half following Wren as she continues with the rebels. Lei's POV reminded me a lot of the first book, complete with many of the same characters and settings, while Wren's POV did the same for the second book, so of course I mostly enjoyed Lei's POV and I was mostly annoyed by Wren's.
I've just never been able to connect with all these characters that were introduced in book 2. Lova and Ketai are the only ones that ever seem to get sufficient character development. Now that they're all combined in one book, the total amount of characters feels so bloated with an almost separate cast of characters from the first book to the second book. I did enjoy going back to the Hidden Palace and returning to all the characters I loved so much more like Kenzo, Blue, and Aoki, but we still barely got enough time with them.
While I was excited to see that Wren was getting her own POV, this also turned out to be frustrating because for some reason Wren is in 3rd person past tense while Lei is in 1st person present. It's obviously intentional, but I can't figure out why. I don't have anything against 3rd person in general — it can certainly be useful and/or necessary for telling certain kinds of stories — but it undeniably creates more of a distance from the reader and the character, as does past tense a lot of the time. This meant that Wren feels more distant and separate from the reader while Lei feels more immersive and in-the-moment, which is a bizarre reading experience. I don't see why Lei and Wren's POVs should be depicted differently when they're both sympathetic main characters on the same timeline.
It seems like reviewers are pretty divided on how they liked this book, and I can see why people loved it, while I can also see why people didn't. The first half, particularly in Wren's POV, is pretty slow and rambling; I think it was an attempt to build tension, but it just went on far too long. At the same time, the second half actually really comes together. We get some excellent action scenes and when Wren and Lei finally reunite, their interactions are so satisfying and sweet. I think their romance has always been my favorite part of this book — which is pretty rare for me.
When I was about a third of the way through, my rating was sitting at 2.5 or 3 stars because I was so bored and it didn't feel like anything was happening. But things really do pick up around the 40% mark, and that's what did manage to turn my reading experience around, at least a little. I actually really enjoyed the final climax sequence and I felt like things were resolved in a satisfying way. The resolution is also far too long, lasting at least four chapters, but I do like what Ngan chose to do with the characters.
One specific spoilery note on the ending in this paragraph:
I don't really understand what the point of the Demon Queen was? She was introduced pretty late in the series, and we were kind of led to believe that she would be important later, but I'm honestly not convinced we could have done without her entirely? I liked her as a character, but I wish she had been utilized better.
... (end spoilers)
I've really wavered between rounding up to 4 stars or rounding down to 3 stars on this book, but I honestly did enjoy my reading experience in the end, and I do conceptually appreciate this series a lot now that I've reached the end. Chalk it up to my enduring love for the first book, but I did still like this series after everything.
My theory is that it got bogged down by too many characters and maybe just not enough planning about how exactly to resolve the conflicts set up in book one, which made it take way too long. This series probably would have been much better as a duology, but then I also wonder if the plot would have been too simplistic. I know this is probably overstepping the bounds of a reviewer, but I would've loved if the plot had stayed almost completely within the bounds of the Demon King's court and been confined to political machinations (with stakes limited to poisoning, execution, etc.) culminating in the large battle scene at the end. But hey, I'm not the writer here.
Do I recommend this series? ...Well.
I do recommend the first book, and I guess if you feel like going on from there, go for it. If you don't like either of the first two books, I don't think it's worth it to continue with this one, but if you do like one of the two, this book genuinely is just like a combination of both, so maybe it'll work for you. I didn't love the series overall, but I think I will keep an eye out for Natasha Ngan's next project.
Content Warnings: mention of, trauma from, and threat of rape; suicide for magical reasons; thoughts of suicide; toxic parental relationship; mild homophobia; gaslighting; severe injury in battle; loss of limbs
Want to Read
February 28, 20212/28/21:
One year after my last update - we have a cover!! And it is STUNNING. I wasn't a fan of the GoSaS cover, but this one - the ARCs better have this cover!
2/19/20:
A - a title - we have a title -
YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS
8/17/19:
How do I wait until 2020 for this book after that GoSaS ending?? How do I wait???
Ohmygosh. I'll be here... waiting...
One year after my last update - we have a cover!! And it is STUNNING. I wasn't a fan of the GoSaS cover, but this one - the ARCs better have this cover!
2/19/20:
A - a title - we have a title -
YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS
8/17/19:
How do I wait until 2020 for this book after that GoSaS ending?? How do I wait???
Ohmygosh. I'll be here... waiting...
Want to Read
January 29, 2021NATASHA NGAN SAID "WREN POV" AND LEFT US TO WRITHE IN PAIN.
June 8, 2022
Happy Pride month!
Wow! This was a pretty enjoyable book. The plot was your typical fantasy journey, and is forgettable, so do not read this for an interesting plot. But the character development in this was outstanding! The author cameup with unique characters that bring attention to several traumas people go through, and is able to show how the characters heal. This is not a series I would re-read, but it definitely was a good one. It kept pace throughout the book and had a satisfying ending.
Lei + Wren forever in my heart.
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Ahhhh this releases in a week!!!
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I need this book! Excited for it. :)
Wow! This was a pretty enjoyable book. The plot was your typical fantasy journey, and is forgettable, so do not read this for an interesting plot. But the character development in this was outstanding! The author cameup with unique characters that bring attention to several traumas people go through, and is able to show how the characters heal. This is not a series I would re-read, but it definitely was a good one. It kept pace throughout the book and had a satisfying ending.
Lei + Wren forever in my heart.
------------------------------
Ahhhh this releases in a week!!!
-------------------------------
I need this book! Excited for it. :)
Read
March 23, 2023When I look back at this series, I can’t help but feel that Ngan had a really strong idea for the first book but didn’t ever quite figure out how to flesh it out into a cohesive, successful trilogy. As with the second book, a lot of the things that happened in this book ended up being filler and neither Lei’s or Wren’s stories through most of the book contributed satisfyingly to the finale. I also feel that the decision to write Lei’s chapters in first-person present tense and Wren’s chapters in third-person past tense was a mistake. This choice becomes especially ineffective and jarring when their plots get synced up and they are fighting through the palace together with the perspectives switching in such a way.
I think this series’ second biggest weakness is its side characters - they are either not fleshed out enough to carry their intended emotional weight or they are just incredibly annoying. The Paper Girls stand out as the main example of the former type - Blue and Aoki have mini character arcs but the rest are one dimensional and their bonds are not demonstrated especially powerfully for all the times that Lei talks about them being a family. It’s lovely that the survivors are all together and healing at the end, but this could have been a million times more amazing if I had really bought their bonds and felt that they were deeper characters. As for the annoying side characters, Lova takes Bo’s place here as the extremely grating “quippy” character who drags down every scene she is in and is constantly spewing banter that is not actually funny. Finally, for the major role that she ends up playing in the ending, the Demon Queen Shala only shows up a couple of times, and I also believe it was a mistake on Ngan’s part to not plant any seeds about her characterization (let alone her existence!) in earlier books.
Wren and Lei continue their trend of hiding secrets from each other and making massive decisions that impact their relationship without communicating with each other first. When I look back, it honestly feels like these dynamics are more fundamental to their relationship than anything else.
We all know I’m an absolute sap for endings about healing after trauma and Ngan made some especially lovely decisions with her ending here - revisiting the temple for the Hidden to mourn those who died; turning the palace into the Free Palace, a refuge for abused women; all the girls gathering together at Lei’s family shop with a new puppy and Shala’s baby named after the word for love. I’m especially happy with how Blue was treated - she was consistently the most interesting character to me and I’m so glad that her ending was a happy one (with the adorable little detail that she’s a talented artist who draws hilarious cartoons!).
I was thinking about the kind of developmental feedback I might have given Ngan if I had been in that position (AS IF!). I think these books would have been infinitely stronger if she had focused much more on the relationships between the Paper Girls and their characterization. I would have loved an even deeper dive into the elements of trauma, survival and rebellion. I would have suggested making the second book about recruiting the allies who randomly show up as a surprise before the raid on the Hidden Palace in this book so that book two has more relevance to the finale. I would have suggested making Lei and Wren’s actions throughout book three contribute more to the final battle and downfall of the Demon King. Finally, I would have suggested cutting a lot of the humor/banter and focusing on making the Hanno ally side characters less one-note while reducing the amount of their bickering with each other.
Whatever their flaws, though, these books have all been pleasantly written, engaging and enjoyable to read. I think Ngan wrote about an important, difficult topic in an approachable and effective way for YA readers. I’m definitely glad that I read this series, but I’m still left thinking about all the changes that could have truly elevated it.
I think this series’ second biggest weakness is its side characters - they are either not fleshed out enough to carry their intended emotional weight or they are just incredibly annoying. The Paper Girls stand out as the main example of the former type - Blue and Aoki have mini character arcs but the rest are one dimensional and their bonds are not demonstrated especially powerfully for all the times that Lei talks about them being a family. It’s lovely that the survivors are all together and healing at the end, but this could have been a million times more amazing if I had really bought their bonds and felt that they were deeper characters. As for the annoying side characters, Lova takes Bo’s place here as the extremely grating “quippy” character who drags down every scene she is in and is constantly spewing banter that is not actually funny. Finally, for the major role that she ends up playing in the ending, the Demon Queen Shala only shows up a couple of times, and I also believe it was a mistake on Ngan’s part to not plant any seeds about her characterization (let alone her existence!) in earlier books.
Wren and Lei continue their trend of hiding secrets from each other and making massive decisions that impact their relationship without communicating with each other first. When I look back, it honestly feels like these dynamics are more fundamental to their relationship than anything else.
We all know I’m an absolute sap for endings about healing after trauma and Ngan made some especially lovely decisions with her ending here - revisiting the temple for the Hidden to mourn those who died; turning the palace into the Free Palace, a refuge for abused women; all the girls gathering together at Lei’s family shop with a new puppy and Shala’s baby named after the word for love. I’m especially happy with how Blue was treated - she was consistently the most interesting character to me and I’m so glad that her ending was a happy one (with the adorable little detail that she’s a talented artist who draws hilarious cartoons!).
I was thinking about the kind of developmental feedback I might have given Ngan if I had been in that position (AS IF!). I think these books would have been infinitely stronger if she had focused much more on the relationships between the Paper Girls and their characterization. I would have loved an even deeper dive into the elements of trauma, survival and rebellion. I would have suggested making the second book about recruiting the allies who randomly show up as a surprise before the raid on the Hidden Palace in this book so that book two has more relevance to the finale. I would have suggested making Lei and Wren’s actions throughout book three contribute more to the final battle and downfall of the Demon King. Finally, I would have suggested cutting a lot of the humor/banter and focusing on making the Hanno ally side characters less one-note while reducing the amount of their bickering with each other.
Whatever their flaws, though, these books have all been pleasantly written, engaging and enjoyable to read. I think Ngan wrote about an important, difficult topic in an approachable and effective way for YA readers. I’m definitely glad that I read this series, but I’m still left thinking about all the changes that could have truly elevated it.
February 7, 2022
"Anyway, suffice it to say I'm still waiting to be won over by this series and at this stage I can only hope it ends well. It's a pretty low bar for me at this point."
That was how I left off my review for book two in 2019. Suffice it to say.. hopes were dashed. Having said that, though, this was not the series for me and I think I mostly knew that by book one. So no one is surprised by this result and also, you know, grain o'salt.
Also please note I'm only putting in this low-bar effort to review because we have reviews for the first two books on the blog. Otherwise this likely would've only existed on GR. Aren't you all lucky.
I found the first half of this finale to be an utter and total slog to get through -- true, I could remember almost nothing about how book two ended, or much about book two in general because it being a journey-centric instalment. But I soon remembered enough to get by. And even still, despite the bonus of having a new POV, nothing sparked joy or excitement. There was some minor enjoyment, or at least I was dialled in, for about twenty percent near the middle, but once that had passed.. more slog. Somehow, despite everything going on, especially a certain reveal near to the end, there was so intensity. There was no dramatic sense of stakes or danger or anything. Which I think is my whole issue with both the story and the writing : while sometimes emotion is conveyed, I can never actually feel it.
I can absolutely understand why people not only love this world but also the representation found within the pages as well as identifying with the characters. I appreciate all of those things. But that's as far as it goes.
I doubt I'll read this author again but I'm glad to have completed this series, and have one less unfinished story hanging over my head.
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
That was how I left off my review for book two in 2019. Suffice it to say.. hopes were dashed. Having said that, though, this was not the series for me and I think I mostly knew that by book one. So no one is surprised by this result and also, you know, grain o'salt.
Also please note I'm only putting in this low-bar effort to review because we have reviews for the first two books on the blog. Otherwise this likely would've only existed on GR. Aren't you all lucky.
I found the first half of this finale to be an utter and total slog to get through -- true, I could remember almost nothing about how book two ended, or much about book two in general because it being a journey-centric instalment. But I soon remembered enough to get by. And even still, despite the bonus of having a new POV, nothing sparked joy or excitement. There was some minor enjoyment, or at least I was dialled in, for about twenty percent near the middle, but once that had passed.. more slog. Somehow, despite everything going on, especially a certain reveal near to the end, there was so intensity. There was no dramatic sense of stakes or danger or anything. Which I think is my whole issue with both the story and the writing : while sometimes emotion is conveyed, I can never actually feel it.
I can absolutely understand why people not only love this world but also the representation found within the pages as well as identifying with the characters. I appreciate all of those things. But that's as far as it goes.
I doubt I'll read this author again but I'm glad to have completed this series, and have one less unfinished story hanging over my head.
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
December 31, 2022
Creo que eso de esperar dos años por esta tercera parte me jugó en contra: no recordaba nada, ni siquiera cuáles personajes me gustaban ni por qué.
Lo único que puedo decir de esta lectura es que la he hecho por compromiso y no me ha gustado, la mayor parte del tiempo es un tira y afloja que en las primeras páginas entretiene, pero después cansa. Me gustó que se arriesgara a matar tantos personajes recurrentes, pero... algunas muertes si se volaron la barda de lo innecesarias que eran.
Lo único que puedo decir de esta lectura es que la he hecho por compromiso y no me ha gustado, la mayor parte del tiempo es un tira y afloja que en las primeras páginas entretiene, pero después cansa. Me gustó que se arriesgara a matar tantos personajes recurrentes, pero... algunas muertes si se volaron la barda de lo innecesarias que eran.
November 3, 2021
4 Stars!
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger Warnings: Violence, Self Harm, Reference to Sexual Abuse and Trauma Recovery
Wow. What a way to end the series. I was so so so nervous going into this one, I've genuinely loved this series and all that it stands for. There are so many heart felt moments throughout these series and I cannot applaud Natasha Ngan for how she deals with trauma throughout. It is always brought up in such a sensitive way and the fact that it doesn't disappear and is with the characters throughout it really is done in such a way.
Going into this I KNEW there was going to be deaths of characters, I had an expectation of someone I thought would die, but honestly so much happened! There were some scenes that I was just absolutely blown away by. I genuinely think my favourites without going into spoilers were between the "Paper Girls" and an unfurling lets say. It was so intense and the execution and I just had all of these emotions for so many characters!
Due to this being the finalé I was skeptical as to how it would end, and I genuinely feel like this outcome is believable, I say time and time again that war in books SHOULD have casualties, it really irks me when an author isn't willing to sacrifice people but this felt real.
So many tears were shed, but it was just so well done! I genuinely can't wait to read more of what Natasha Ngan has to offer, this series is one I 100% recommend! Great characters, great representation throughout. Just overall a well executed series, I can't wait to re-read!
----------
Excuse me… how have I only just seen this cover AND title… I swear Fairyloot better do another version plzzzzzz xoxoxo
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger Warnings: Violence, Self Harm, Reference to Sexual Abuse and Trauma Recovery
Wow. What a way to end the series. I was so so so nervous going into this one, I've genuinely loved this series and all that it stands for. There are so many heart felt moments throughout these series and I cannot applaud Natasha Ngan for how she deals with trauma throughout. It is always brought up in such a sensitive way and the fact that it doesn't disappear and is with the characters throughout it really is done in such a way.
Going into this I KNEW there was going to be deaths of characters, I had an expectation of someone I thought would die, but honestly so much happened! There were some scenes that I was just absolutely blown away by. I genuinely think my favourites without going into spoilers were between the "Paper Girls" and an unfurling lets say. It was so intense and the execution and I just had all of these emotions for so many characters!
Due to this being the finalé I was skeptical as to how it would end, and I genuinely feel like this outcome is believable, I say time and time again that war in books SHOULD have casualties, it really irks me when an author isn't willing to sacrifice people but this felt real.
So many tears were shed, but it was just so well done! I genuinely can't wait to read more of what Natasha Ngan has to offer, this series is one I 100% recommend! Great characters, great representation throughout. Just overall a well executed series, I can't wait to re-read!
----------
Excuse me… how have I only just seen this cover AND title… I swear Fairyloot better do another version plzzzzzz xoxoxo
August 28, 2021
me? rating a book in the girls series 5*? duh.
A MASTERPIECE, NATASHA I HATE YOU BUT LOVE YOU SO MUCH
A MASTERPIECE, NATASHA I HATE YOU BUT LOVE YOU SO MUCH
March 15, 2023
2023 reads: 14/350
2023 tbr: 7/100
this is the conclusion to the girls of paper and fire trilogy.
trigger warnings
lei has been captured by the king’s men and taken back to the hidden palace, the one place she never wanted to return. wren is with the rebels and doing her best to get lei back.
could i tell you most of the plot? no. could i write ballads about leiwren? absolutely. i love how this book was more character-based and i enjoyed reading how everything played out! i’m so glad i finally decided to finish this series and i’ll miss leiwren and the side characters so much😭🫶
2023 tbr: 7/100
this is the conclusion to the girls of paper and fire trilogy.
trigger warnings
lei has been captured by the king’s men and taken back to the hidden palace, the one place she never wanted to return. wren is with the rebels and doing her best to get lei back.
could i tell you most of the plot? no. could i write ballads about leiwren? absolutely. i love how this book was more character-based and i enjoyed reading how everything played out! i’m so glad i finally decided to finish this series and i’ll miss leiwren and the side characters so much😭🫶
January 3, 2022
Girls of Fate and Fury Book Review by Natasha Ngan
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*Spoiler warning for the entire Girls of Paper and Fire Trilogy*
I wanted to like this book more than I did.
I also wish I had more to say about this book and the ending of a trilogy, but I really…don’t. Which is not a favorable opinion.
A while back, I read the first book of the installment titled Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, and while by no means was it a perfect book, I really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the Chinese and Malaysian influences, I enjoyed the focus of a primarily female cast, I enjoyed the F/F romance, the attention and sensitivity given to sexual assault and the trauma and coping that comes with it, the mental state of people in positions of lower power, the complexities of a world with a caste system of people with animal-demon features, and the fight for one’s freedom and willpower.
After the first book, it kinda just went…downhill.
The second book, aptly called Girls of Storm and Shadow, was already a letdown from the first, where Ngan takes us away from the political world of the King’s Palace and sends the characters on a wild goose-chase to different parts of Ikhara.
This book already took a nose-dive due to the mediocrity of the side-characters, the nonsensical nature of the plot, and the roller-coaster of a relationship between Wren and Leh-zhi.
The third book is irrevocably worse.
The book begins with Lei and Wren separated from each other, which, after the less than unfortunate tumult of their relationship in the second book, starts less than ideal for the reader, who honestly just wants them to be reunited.
Also, someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first book that switches POV’s between Wren and Lei? A change that I didn’t like even if I understood why Ngan did it. The first two books we only see Lei’s perspective and we get used to seeing Ikhara through her world view and also her feelings for Wren.
The tension of Lei and Wren’s relationship is nullified when we understand both sides. Lei whines and misses Wren but isn’t sure if Wren can forgive her for the things she said in the Jana Desert.
But then the POV’s switch and we see that Wren certainly loves Lei and hopes that Lei can forgive her for murdering a Lady Dunya’s daughter and hiding it, amongst a slew of other deeds.
Maybe the goal was to build more tension as the reader is aware of both sides, but it just made me frustrated beyond belief. In addition to this, switching POV’s between the two girls really slowed down the pace of the novel and made it really boring at times.
We would be in Lei’s position at the Little Palace dealing with the Demon King and being reunited with some of the Paper Girls and them bam! We’d switch to Wren who was dealing with Lova’s flirting, the draining of her magic, and sitting on her father’s war council.
It just didn’t flow or work for me at all.
Honestly, we didn’t need Wren’s perspective whatsoever and I don’t understand the switch to include it in the first place. Perhaps that would have made the book too short. Perhaps that was a sign in the first place.
There’s just…nothing happens in this book.
I can summarize it in four sentences. Ready? Here it is:
Lei and Wren are separated, Wren is preparing for war, and Lei is back at the Palace. No other characters really matter. A war happens and they kill the Demon King and the caste system breaks. The end.
That’s genuinely it.
I personally feel that Ngan sort of lost the mark after the first book. The world of Ikhara is so interesting and the caste system so intriguing and by focusing on two paper girls, I just felt like it was an abysmally boring story in the face of a much cooler universe.
The Demon King is laughably evil and Lei is a remarkably good soldier for a human in a world ruled by demons and half-demons who are undeniably stronger and bigger than her. It doesn’t make any sense.
I get that the message is that they’re strong in number, blah, blah, blah, but that isn’t even true half of the time as Leh-zhi is fighting people alone. And even when she is with the other Paper Girls, most of them dislike her, and they’re stupidly bad at fighting.
Urgh.
Lei-zhi’s and Wren’s relationship also just fell apart for me after the first book. In the first book, it made sense to me. They were both Paper Girls. There was mutual attraction, affection and chemistry.
But starting in book two, all they do is argue, Lei develops a drinking problem and an impossible altruistic conscience, and Wren just murders people for the sake of the “war”.
But the series continues to tell us that Lei is Wren’s whole world and Wren is the other half of Lei’s soul. It just became really superficial and cheesy for me.
Additionally, Wren and Lei don’t even meet up until the last third of Girls of Fate and Fury and then we as readers don’t even get a moment of solace to see them reunite and rekindle their relationship because there’s a giant war happening.
The payoff was not worth nearly two book’s full of Lei and Wren being on the brink in their relationship.
The other characters are negligent. Ngan wants you to care when people die, but I really didn’t. Not any of them. When Chenna and Mistress Azami died? Didn’t care. I was supposed to, I know I was, but the build-up of their characters were too superficial and too late for me for their deaths to matter.
In the words of JoJo,
“It's just too little too late
A little too long
And I can't wait”
You’re right, JoJo. I couldn’t wait until the end of the book so I could read something else that was better and more interesting.
The book isn’t terrible, but it was completely unnecessary, as was the second book. Honestly, Ngan could have combined books 2 and 3 in about 50,000 words, added it to the end of Girls of Paper and Fire and called it a day.
Or, at the very least, combined books two and three to make it a duology. It didn’t need to be a trilogy and by making it so, the plot and the characters got watered down until they were nothing but soggy messes.
I still appreciate things that Ngan has done. Her representation is amazing, both culturally and of people with different sexual preferences, her attention specifically to the trauma of sexual assault is really well done, and her inclusion in this book of a character with a physical disability was really great to see.
Her world is still impressive to me, with the three castes, the demon-features of these castes, and the inherent political and socio-economic influences that come with it, but somewhere along the way Ngan stopped focusing on these elements and instead focused too much on a predictable romance and a magical war that I’ve seen done a million times before.
Recommendation: Read Girls of Paper and Fire and then just stop. You don’t need to read anymore after that. Still want more? Go read fanfiction for it, it would probably be better. Or better yet, make up your own ending using Ngan’s rich world and interesting ideas.
Score: 4/10
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*Spoiler warning for the entire Girls of Paper and Fire Trilogy*
I wanted to like this book more than I did.
I also wish I had more to say about this book and the ending of a trilogy, but I really…don’t. Which is not a favorable opinion.
A while back, I read the first book of the installment titled Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, and while by no means was it a perfect book, I really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the Chinese and Malaysian influences, I enjoyed the focus of a primarily female cast, I enjoyed the F/F romance, the attention and sensitivity given to sexual assault and the trauma and coping that comes with it, the mental state of people in positions of lower power, the complexities of a world with a caste system of people with animal-demon features, and the fight for one’s freedom and willpower.
After the first book, it kinda just went…downhill.
The second book, aptly called Girls of Storm and Shadow, was already a letdown from the first, where Ngan takes us away from the political world of the King’s Palace and sends the characters on a wild goose-chase to different parts of Ikhara.
This book already took a nose-dive due to the mediocrity of the side-characters, the nonsensical nature of the plot, and the roller-coaster of a relationship between Wren and Leh-zhi.
The third book is irrevocably worse.
The book begins with Lei and Wren separated from each other, which, after the less than unfortunate tumult of their relationship in the second book, starts less than ideal for the reader, who honestly just wants them to be reunited.
Also, someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first book that switches POV’s between Wren and Lei? A change that I didn’t like even if I understood why Ngan did it. The first two books we only see Lei’s perspective and we get used to seeing Ikhara through her world view and also her feelings for Wren.
The tension of Lei and Wren’s relationship is nullified when we understand both sides. Lei whines and misses Wren but isn’t sure if Wren can forgive her for the things she said in the Jana Desert.
But then the POV’s switch and we see that Wren certainly loves Lei and hopes that Lei can forgive her for murdering a Lady Dunya’s daughter and hiding it, amongst a slew of other deeds.
Maybe the goal was to build more tension as the reader is aware of both sides, but it just made me frustrated beyond belief. In addition to this, switching POV’s between the two girls really slowed down the pace of the novel and made it really boring at times.
We would be in Lei’s position at the Little Palace dealing with the Demon King and being reunited with some of the Paper Girls and them bam! We’d switch to Wren who was dealing with Lova’s flirting, the draining of her magic, and sitting on her father’s war council.
It just didn’t flow or work for me at all.
Honestly, we didn’t need Wren’s perspective whatsoever and I don’t understand the switch to include it in the first place. Perhaps that would have made the book too short. Perhaps that was a sign in the first place.
There’s just…nothing happens in this book.
I can summarize it in four sentences. Ready? Here it is:
Lei and Wren are separated, Wren is preparing for war, and Lei is back at the Palace. No other characters really matter. A war happens and they kill the Demon King and the caste system breaks. The end.
That’s genuinely it.
I personally feel that Ngan sort of lost the mark after the first book. The world of Ikhara is so interesting and the caste system so intriguing and by focusing on two paper girls, I just felt like it was an abysmally boring story in the face of a much cooler universe.
The Demon King is laughably evil and Lei is a remarkably good soldier for a human in a world ruled by demons and half-demons who are undeniably stronger and bigger than her. It doesn’t make any sense.
I get that the message is that they’re strong in number, blah, blah, blah, but that isn’t even true half of the time as Leh-zhi is fighting people alone. And even when she is with the other Paper Girls, most of them dislike her, and they’re stupidly bad at fighting.
Urgh.
Lei-zhi’s and Wren’s relationship also just fell apart for me after the first book. In the first book, it made sense to me. They were both Paper Girls. There was mutual attraction, affection and chemistry.
But starting in book two, all they do is argue, Lei develops a drinking problem and an impossible altruistic conscience, and Wren just murders people for the sake of the “war”.
But the series continues to tell us that Lei is Wren’s whole world and Wren is the other half of Lei’s soul. It just became really superficial and cheesy for me.
Additionally, Wren and Lei don’t even meet up until the last third of Girls of Fate and Fury and then we as readers don’t even get a moment of solace to see them reunite and rekindle their relationship because there’s a giant war happening.
The payoff was not worth nearly two book’s full of Lei and Wren being on the brink in their relationship.
The other characters are negligent. Ngan wants you to care when people die, but I really didn’t. Not any of them. When Chenna and Mistress Azami died? Didn’t care. I was supposed to, I know I was, but the build-up of their characters were too superficial and too late for me for their deaths to matter.
In the words of JoJo,
“It's just too little too late
A little too long
And I can't wait”
You’re right, JoJo. I couldn’t wait until the end of the book so I could read something else that was better and more interesting.
The book isn’t terrible, but it was completely unnecessary, as was the second book. Honestly, Ngan could have combined books 2 and 3 in about 50,000 words, added it to the end of Girls of Paper and Fire and called it a day.
Or, at the very least, combined books two and three to make it a duology. It didn’t need to be a trilogy and by making it so, the plot and the characters got watered down until they were nothing but soggy messes.
I still appreciate things that Ngan has done. Her representation is amazing, both culturally and of people with different sexual preferences, her attention specifically to the trauma of sexual assault is really well done, and her inclusion in this book of a character with a physical disability was really great to see.
Her world is still impressive to me, with the three castes, the demon-features of these castes, and the inherent political and socio-economic influences that come with it, but somewhere along the way Ngan stopped focusing on these elements and instead focused too much on a predictable romance and a magical war that I’ve seen done a million times before.
Recommendation: Read Girls of Paper and Fire and then just stop. You don’t need to read anymore after that. Still want more? Go read fanfiction for it, it would probably be better. Or better yet, make up your own ending using Ngan’s rich world and interesting ideas.
Score: 4/10
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2021
On my blog.
Rep: South, East & Southeast Asian inspired characters and setting, sapphic mcs, lesbian, gay & bi side characters
CWs: mentions of past sexual assault and rape, gore, violence, death
Galley provided by publisher
When I read Girls of Paper and Fire in 2018, it was at the start of a kind of boom in f/f YA fantasy. And I loved it. Now, reading the final book in the series, in 2021, having read a lot more f/f YA fantasy since, I find I’m a little… bored by it, in all honesty.
That sounds harsh, sure, but thinking back on this book, I found it quite slow, with a lot of hanging around and not a lot of plot progression. I think, what I liked about it, I liked for the nostalgia of how I felt reading the first two books (although more the first than the second, it’s true). This isn’t to say it’s a bad book—it’s a book I think I’ve grown past.
There’s not that much I can say about this book that’s not somehow spoilery, but I’ll give it a go.
What I liked about this book, as I said, was partly nostalgia, but I did also genuinely enjoy seeing Lei and Wren get their happy ending. I was, after all, mostly there for them and not so much the plot itself, insofar as it didn’t impact them. And I always felt that you could trust Natasha Ngan to treat them and their traumas with the requisite care. In part, that meant that the ending wasn’t so much of a surprise to me—I was never that worried that they wouldn’t survive—but there was something comforting about the safety of knowing that.
I think really, then, where this book let me down was the pacing and the plot. Of course I knew from the first two books that it might be a slowburning kind of book. I had, somewhat, expected that. But it was not only slowburning, but really long. I felt it didn’t need to be nearly so long as all that, especially since it took about 150 pages for anything of real note to take place in Wren’s POV at least. And then there was the fact that the plot itself ended sixty pages before the book itself did. Yes, those sixty pages were used to tie up loose ends in terms of character relationships, but it made the pacing somewhat odd and I skimmed most of that part in an effort to just finish the damn thing.
This sounds negative, sure, but I fully believe it just ties back to the fact that I’ve changed as a reader, and have read and enjoyed a lot more f/f YA fantasy by now than I had when I started the series. So really, sorry to this book, it’s not you, it’s me.
Rep: South, East & Southeast Asian inspired characters and setting, sapphic mcs, lesbian, gay & bi side characters
CWs: mentions of past sexual assault and rape, gore, violence, death
Galley provided by publisher
When I read Girls of Paper and Fire in 2018, it was at the start of a kind of boom in f/f YA fantasy. And I loved it. Now, reading the final book in the series, in 2021, having read a lot more f/f YA fantasy since, I find I’m a little… bored by it, in all honesty.
That sounds harsh, sure, but thinking back on this book, I found it quite slow, with a lot of hanging around and not a lot of plot progression. I think, what I liked about it, I liked for the nostalgia of how I felt reading the first two books (although more the first than the second, it’s true). This isn’t to say it’s a bad book—it’s a book I think I’ve grown past.
There’s not that much I can say about this book that’s not somehow spoilery, but I’ll give it a go.
What I liked about this book, as I said, was partly nostalgia, but I did also genuinely enjoy seeing Lei and Wren get their happy ending. I was, after all, mostly there for them and not so much the plot itself, insofar as it didn’t impact them. And I always felt that you could trust Natasha Ngan to treat them and their traumas with the requisite care. In part, that meant that the ending wasn’t so much of a surprise to me—I was never that worried that they wouldn’t survive—but there was something comforting about the safety of knowing that.
I think really, then, where this book let me down was the pacing and the plot. Of course I knew from the first two books that it might be a slowburning kind of book. I had, somewhat, expected that. But it was not only slowburning, but really long. I felt it didn’t need to be nearly so long as all that, especially since it took about 150 pages for anything of real note to take place in Wren’s POV at least. And then there was the fact that the plot itself ended sixty pages before the book itself did. Yes, those sixty pages were used to tie up loose ends in terms of character relationships, but it made the pacing somewhat odd and I skimmed most of that part in an effort to just finish the damn thing.
This sounds negative, sure, but I fully believe it just ties back to the fact that I’ve changed as a reader, and have read and enjoyed a lot more f/f YA fantasy by now than I had when I started the series. So really, sorry to this book, it’s not you, it’s me.
December 23, 2021
Kinda wished they died.
February 24, 2022
5/5 stars, this series has been so wonderful
Considering that I had rated every other book in this series five stars, it was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021 and I have to say I was not disappointed. I am so glad that this series finished off in such an epic way, all of it has been a fantastic ride with the characters and plotlines. It was a sad conclusion as well, and I won't forget how it broke my heart for a long time but nevertheless am I happy I got to finish this off.
As this is the final book in a series, I won't give a synopsis but I will still talk about the plot and setting. The magic and caste system is something that is done so well in this series, and it's wonderfully built for the reader to discover. In the beginning, it is a bit of a mystery to Lei, and the reader begins to learn more about her world alongside her. There are three main castes, Moon is full demons, Steel is half-demons, and Paper is fully human. The magic is a bit more complicated than three simple castes but is still really fun to see grow and expand as the series continues. The plot for this book was thrilling and fast-paced as well, constantly keeping me on my toes.
I think my favorite part of these books is always the diversity. There are sapphic main characters both of Asian descent, bisexual and pan side characters in the LGBTQ community, as well as characters from many different Asian heritages. All of this is portrayed so normally as well, no one is ever really called out on it besides a couple of instances, it's taken as normal. I really loved this part of the series as I believe we should have more books where being queer is just the "norm" and people in the book don't have to question it.
Lei is such a compassionate and badass woman in this series, she means the world to me. I was so happy to see the duality of empathetic and badass in a book, as it feel it happens far too little. She didn't really change in a character way through this book, but she really shaped the war and the world around her. I felt for her a lot of the time when she was forced into the palace, but was really glad to see her have the ability to stand on her own.
Wren is a bit complicated for me and always has been, but I really enjoyed her in this book. She definitely deserves a mention though because of her amazing character growth that she went through. A detailed backstory and intriqute motivations drive her thorughout the story, and she starts simply being good at being ruthless. However as time goes on, she begins to see the benefits of empathy and compassion, as Lei has taught her. It was really interesting to see her take those traits on and still continue to be someone who is ruthless.
The normal romance aspect of this book was left a bit on the side, as Lei and Wren were seen apart for most of this book. However their determination to see one another again was really admirable, and they both loved each other enough throughout the book to always think about one another. I think their romance is really sweet and it's lovely that they were able to find something good in all of the trauma that has haunted both of their lives. It's a really deep connection that they both share and I was really happy to see that stay in this book even when they were apart.
Overall, this has just been an absolutely fantastic ride with this fantasy series and I'm beyond overjoyed that I loved this one just as much as the other two. It's severely underrated though it shouldn't be, and incredibly diverse and fascinating. I love this series to death and seriously think more people need to read it.
[TW: violence, self-harm, sexual abuse (referenced), trauma recovery, gore (heavy), and torture]
Considering that I had rated every other book in this series five stars, it was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021 and I have to say I was not disappointed. I am so glad that this series finished off in such an epic way, all of it has been a fantastic ride with the characters and plotlines. It was a sad conclusion as well, and I won't forget how it broke my heart for a long time but nevertheless am I happy I got to finish this off.
As this is the final book in a series, I won't give a synopsis but I will still talk about the plot and setting. The magic and caste system is something that is done so well in this series, and it's wonderfully built for the reader to discover. In the beginning, it is a bit of a mystery to Lei, and the reader begins to learn more about her world alongside her. There are three main castes, Moon is full demons, Steel is half-demons, and Paper is fully human. The magic is a bit more complicated than three simple castes but is still really fun to see grow and expand as the series continues. The plot for this book was thrilling and fast-paced as well, constantly keeping me on my toes.
I think my favorite part of these books is always the diversity. There are sapphic main characters both of Asian descent, bisexual and pan side characters in the LGBTQ community, as well as characters from many different Asian heritages. All of this is portrayed so normally as well, no one is ever really called out on it besides a couple of instances, it's taken as normal. I really loved this part of the series as I believe we should have more books where being queer is just the "norm" and people in the book don't have to question it.
Lei is such a compassionate and badass woman in this series, she means the world to me. I was so happy to see the duality of empathetic and badass in a book, as it feel it happens far too little. She didn't really change in a character way through this book, but she really shaped the war and the world around her. I felt for her a lot of the time when she was forced into the palace, but was really glad to see her have the ability to stand on her own.
Wren is a bit complicated for me and always has been, but I really enjoyed her in this book. She definitely deserves a mention though because of her amazing character growth that she went through. A detailed backstory and intriqute motivations drive her thorughout the story, and she starts simply being good at being ruthless. However as time goes on, she begins to see the benefits of empathy and compassion, as Lei has taught her. It was really interesting to see her take those traits on and still continue to be someone who is ruthless.
The normal romance aspect of this book was left a bit on the side, as Lei and Wren were seen apart for most of this book. However their determination to see one another again was really admirable, and they both loved each other enough throughout the book to always think about one another. I think their romance is really sweet and it's lovely that they were able to find something good in all of the trauma that has haunted both of their lives. It's a really deep connection that they both share and I was really happy to see that stay in this book even when they were apart.
Overall, this has just been an absolutely fantastic ride with this fantasy series and I'm beyond overjoyed that I loved this one just as much as the other two. It's severely underrated though it shouldn't be, and incredibly diverse and fascinating. I love this series to death and seriously think more people need to read it.
[TW: violence, self-harm, sexual abuse (referenced), trauma recovery, gore (heavy), and torture]
December 28, 2021
A satisfying end to this series, Girls of Fate and Fury neatly wraps up the storyline of the series.
November 24, 2021
“The small bird flies on the wings of the golden-eyed girl”Nine Paper Girls. Each claimed their very own piece of my heart in Girls of Paper and Fire. While I loved them all, I identified mostly with three: Lei, the Moonchosen, trained assassin Wren and Blue, winner of the girl with the most attitude award. Then there was sweetheart Lill, not one of the nine but so darn adorable that I couldn’t help but want to protect her from the big, bad world.
My favourites all returned in this final book of the trilogy, a book I’d both anticipated and dreaded. I needed to know what would happen to each of my girls and I couldn’t wait to spend more time with them, loving them and learning from them, but I wasn’t ready to say good bye to them just yet. Although I’m sad to be leaving them behind (for now; I know they’ll be waiting for me when I return for my reread), I’m also grateful because my heart is so full having known them.
These girls are everything I want in characters, and in myself, if I’m going to be honest. They’ve been through absolute hell but, despite everything, they keep showing up. Although literal survival would be a triumph at this point, they’re always reaching for more. They want justice, they want peace and they’re going to fight, in an actual war, to achieve it. Their resilience, their courage, their ability to still love and be loved, is extraordinary.
When the world denies you choices, you make your own.That’s not to say that they don’t feel the effects of what they’ve survived so far. There are the nightmares, the flashbacks, the dissociation, the times when the past tries its darnedest to swallow them whole. PTSD, although it’s not officially diagnosed in Ikhara (none of our girls really have the time to make an appointment with a psychologist anyway), is evident in the various trauma impacts the reader is privy to. Coping mechanisms, healthy and otherwise, are as varied as the individual characters, and I adore that about this series. There is no one correct way to respond when you’ve experienced the kind of trauma these girls have; all of their responses are normal.
“Fire in. Fear out.”While recovery from sexual assault remains something our girls are all dealing with, another character is having to figure out her life post-disability. This character is a total badass and one of my new favourites. They’re able to acknowledge their disability and the impact it has on their life without it defining them and I loved them even more for that. The authenticity and sensitivity evident in the writing, already proven by the way the author has handled the experience of and survival after sexual assault, are extended to the experience of disability.
There will be reviews that will talk about the story and others that will talk about its themes. I’m here to tell you that I love these girls even more now than I did before I began this book. I got to return to the Hidden Palace to confront the past and spent precious time with characters I didn’t think I’d cross paths with again.
This isn’t only Lei’s story. We’re also given chapters written from Wren’s perspective in this book and I couldn’t help noticing the differences between the two. Lei, who is more open and leads with her heart, has chapters written in the first person. Wren, the trained assassin who guards her heart more, has chapters written in the third person, almost as if she needed to keep the reader at arm’s length because she’s not certain they���re worthy of her trust.
This is a story for all Paper Girls both on and off the page. Like the books before it, I felt seen in its pages. I was reminded that you can survive your past. You can continue to fight even when your mind and body are telling your spirit you can’t. It’s okay to accept help from the supportive people around you. You are not the labels others place on you. You can look forward to a future where your past, while it can never be undone, doesn’t have to define you.
“Give them hell, girls. For all of us.”Content warnings include .
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read this book.
Blog - https://schizanthusnerd.com
lost-interest
April 3, 2021we finally have a cover and a synopsis for this book!
that cover is so freaking gorgeous as the first ones. i'm not sure if i prefer the cover for the first book or for this one. they are both so beautiful.
i may have not liked the second book that much but i have high hopes that this will be better as the first one was an excellent book and i know that the author can write a book well.
that cover is so freaking gorgeous as the first ones. i'm not sure if i prefer the cover for the first book or for this one. they are both so beautiful.
i may have not liked the second book that much but i have high hopes that this will be better as the first one was an excellent book and i know that the author can write a book well.
June 19, 2022
Dnf at 64%
I can’t connect to this at all after loving the first two.
It seems to dull and boring, I can’t reconcile with the plot at all.
I think ya fantasy just isn’t my cup of tea anymore.
I can’t connect to this at all after loving the first two.
It seems to dull and boring, I can’t reconcile with the plot at all.
I think ya fantasy just isn’t my cup of tea anymore.
March 28, 2022
This trilogy will forever go down in history as one of my all time favourites and while I’d happily go on reading it forever (and will no doubt be rereading it) I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect ending.
Natasha Ngan is a shining talent and I really hope we get to see more from her in the future. (also netflix? please make this a high budget series asap.)
TW: discussions of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment
Natasha Ngan is a shining talent and I really hope we get to see more from her in the future. (also netflix? please make this a high budget series asap.)
TW: discussions of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment
May 31, 2022
I decided to see if Ngan would try to redeem the characters after she ruined them in the absolute disaster that was the second book. She did try, but this book was still bad.
Lei receives +1000 points to her plot armour. This girl truly can survive anything. Hordes of demon soldiers, fire, explosions, throat cutting, you name it. Wren’s plot armour is almost as ridiculous as Lei’s. Ketai Hanno’s top army generals have nothing on this golden-eyed snowflake and her child-murdering lover. At the end of Girls of Storm and Shadow, Lei was captured by Naja and returned to the Hidden Palace. If you thought this book would begin with another terrifying journey for Lei as she once again comes face to face with her abuser and rapist and she will have a painfully hard time finding another way to escape, you’d be wrong.
The king gives Lei special status as the “Moonchosen.” It’s never explained what exactly that means, but it elevates her above the station of a mere concubine. The king invites Lei to a bunch of fancy banquets and gives the other Paper Girls to Lei to serve as her maids because the king just can’t help but admire how amazing Lei was at trying to kill him and start a rebellion. After Lei tried to kill the king, he started a massive paranoia-driven purge of traitors in the palace and kills anyone who had the slightest connection to Lei. He even had loyal followers like General Yu executed just because Yu was the one who kidnapped Lei and brought her to the palace. (Somehow escapes notice, even though she was connected to Zelle, who helped Lei, and she is seen speaking to Lei at a large public gathering which arouses the suspicion of nobody but Naja. But nobody cares what Naja has to say anymore because she broke her arm, I guess.) If the king had decided to go on a wild rampage to kill every human in the world, that would have made more sense.
I don’t think Ngan had to dumb down the king so much in order to make her protagonists emerge victorious. There were other avenues she might have taken with this plot, since the Hannos have many surviving allies in the palace. I’ll just reiterate what I said in my review of book 2: if you put your characters in danger, you should put some thought into how to get them out of it so that their escape or victory feels earned.
The rebel network within the palace has such poor communication that a group of humans and demons work together on a rescue effort to get Lei out of the palace despite the fact that Lei emphatically told a member of the group that she didn’t want to be rescued without the other Paper Girls and another that she wanted to help the rebellion. Then the rebels set off an explosion that almost kills Lei because they can’t be bothered to ensure that the people they’re trying to help won’t be in the vicinity of danger. But then again Lei can survive anything so I guess it doesn’t matter.
The author often forgets that the characters can’t know what’s going on in another person’s head or in a different part of the world in which they have no way to communicate with people there. When the characters at Ketai’s council meeting are discussing the possibility of rescuing Lei from the Hidden Palace, Lei’s father states that he knows “it’s not what Lei would want.” He explains his reasoning:
The following chapter showcases another glaring example.
I hated Aoki and Blue. I didn’t buy their “friendship” with Lei. Aoki is in love with the demon king who raped and abused them all and is jealous whenever he pays attention to Lei instead of her. She snubs Lei for months because she’s angry with her for trying to kill their rapist. Lei’s endless patience and kindness toward her and her tendency to blame herself for Aoki’s misery irritated me to no end. If your friend was madly in love with your abuser, would you not get frustrated with your friend, even if the abuser also abused your friend? The only time I liked Blue was when she frankly told Aoki what a stupid fucking idiot she is. The rest of the time she just makes snarky insults because she has no personality beyond that. But Lei is always so sickeningly nice to Aoki and Blue. I wish those two had died instead of .
It annoyed me that Lei kept blaming herself and apologising to other characters for things that she hadn’t even done wrong, like the situation with Aoki and the rift from her relationship with Wren. It’s amazing that a character so eager to fight to the death to end oppression is such a doormat when it comes to her personal relationships.
The book only gets more stupid. Nitta, who broke her back in book 2, is now paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. And she goes to battle...and fights in her wheelchair. I had to put the book down for a moment and laugh at how fucking stupid this is. The battlefield is described as a rocky plain. Even if someone carried her to the battlefield, she wouldn’t be able to move around the rocks and grass, and she’d get killed in about 3 seconds. If Lei got +1000 on plot armour this book, Nitta got +5000.
This book continues the annoying trend of unqualified teenage characters getting positions of power and leadership when there are more experienced adults around. Ketai puts Wren in charge of leading the army in his absence instead of his general. Wren does have fight training and magic but she’s still just a teenage girl without any real experience in war, and she went against her father’s orders with regard to so Ketai trusting her with this much authority makes no sense. Wren is suffering from an unhealed back injury, which constantly pains her and slows her down, so maybe going to war isn’t the best idea—just kidding, it’s a great idea. She’s an amazing Xia warrior despite struggling to control her grip on her magic and she has +900 plot armour so she’ll be fine. There’s a cringey scene of Wren and Nitta trying to intimidate Commander Chang for being kind of annoying, and Nitta rolls her wheelchair over his foot and it’s so incredibly stupid that reading it gave me secondhand embarrassment.
Final thoughts on this series: I think Ngan should have made all the characters human and had the castes divided based on socioeconomic status. I think the animal demon aspect just adds an unnecessary factor of nasty weirdness because you’re imagining lizards and bulls and dogs and whatnot and it just makes the whole story less relatable on a human level. Abusers and rapists in real life aren’t scary demons with horns, they are just regular men.
On the third book I still had great difficulty picturing what the demons were supposed to look like, because the author often writes that a demon character is very beautiful but the physical description of the character just sounds...gross.
This book also needed better editing. I caught so many errors but, considering all the bigger problems with the plot and characters, I couldn’t bother to keep track of them.
Lei receives +1000 points to her plot armour. This girl truly can survive anything. Hordes of demon soldiers, fire, explosions, throat cutting, you name it. Wren’s plot armour is almost as ridiculous as Lei’s. Ketai Hanno’s top army generals have nothing on this golden-eyed snowflake and her child-murdering lover. At the end of Girls of Storm and Shadow, Lei was captured by Naja and returned to the Hidden Palace. If you thought this book would begin with another terrifying journey for Lei as she once again comes face to face with her abuser and rapist and she will have a painfully hard time finding another way to escape, you’d be wrong.
He can’t have missed the reaction when I entered, the whispers of the crowd. The King of before would have wanted to watch me approach. The King of before would have taken pleasure in seeing me squirm.The psychopathic demon king is somehow scared of the teenage girl he has recaptured and could execute at any moment he likes. You would think the king would imprison, torture, and rape Lei again after he’s gotten her back...perhaps even give her to other men to rape to make an example out of her. I don’t want to see more scenes of Lei or any other female character being physically or sexually abused, I truly don’t. I’m just saying these are things that a powerful abusive man who kidnaps girls as sex slaves would do, realistically. An abuser who has lost control of his victim will often go to great lengths to get her back and regain control of her. The king could also just kill Lei and relieve himself of the fear that she would make another attempt on his life, but Lei’s plot armour protects her from the antagonist making any decisions that would harm her and benefit him. In fact, the king rewards Lei for her rebellion.
A thrill runs down my spine. Because it seems that King is gone, and this one—the King of after I stuck a knife in his throat, after his world was shattered with the promise of war...
This King is scared.
The king gives Lei special status as the “Moonchosen.” It’s never explained what exactly that means, but it elevates her above the station of a mere concubine. The king invites Lei to a bunch of fancy banquets and gives the other Paper Girls to Lei to serve as her maids because the king just can’t help but admire how amazing Lei was at trying to kill him and start a rebellion. After Lei tried to kill the king, he started a massive paranoia-driven purge of traitors in the palace and kills anyone who had the slightest connection to Lei. He even had loyal followers like General Yu executed just because Yu was the one who kidnapped Lei and brought her to the palace. (Somehow escapes notice, even though she was connected to Zelle, who helped Lei, and she is seen speaking to Lei at a large public gathering which arouses the suspicion of nobody but Naja. But nobody cares what Naja has to say anymore because she broke her arm, I guess.) If the king had decided to go on a wild rampage to kill every human in the world, that would have made more sense.
I don’t think Ngan had to dumb down the king so much in order to make her protagonists emerge victorious. There were other avenues she might have taken with this plot, since the Hannos have many surviving allies in the palace. I’ll just reiterate what I said in my review of book 2: if you put your characters in danger, you should put some thought into how to get them out of it so that their escape or victory feels earned.
The rebel network within the palace has such poor communication that a group of humans and demons work together on a rescue effort to get Lei out of the palace despite the fact that Lei emphatically told a member of the group that she didn’t want to be rescued without the other Paper Girls and another that she wanted to help the rebellion. Then the rebels set off an explosion that almost kills Lei because they can’t be bothered to ensure that the people they’re trying to help won’t be in the vicinity of danger. But then again Lei can survive anything so I guess it doesn’t matter.
The author often forgets that the characters can’t know what’s going on in another person’s head or in a different part of the world in which they have no way to communicate with people there. When the characters at Ketai’s council meeting are discussing the possibility of rescuing Lei from the Hidden Palace, Lei’s father states that he knows “it’s not what Lei would want.” He explains his reasoning:
“She risked her life to start this war.” Wren heard Lei’s father speaking as if from far away. “She’d want us to do everything to win it. Even if she were here with us, she’d be in danger. Nowhere will be safe for Papers until the King is off the throne. That is exactly why she fought”—he caught himself—“is fighting. And she would want us to respect that.”Nobody in this council meeting knows that Lei is a plot-armoured Moonchosen getting special treatment for plot-contrived reasons. They, reasonably, assume that the king is punishing her with more abuse. For all they know Lei could be locked up in a torture chamber somewhere in the dungeons of the palace. Lei’s father’s certainty that Lei wouldn’t want to be rescued literally only makes sense if he knows she’s not in danger, which is impossible for him to know. There are barely any scenes of Lei and her father speaking to each other. Logically he should have no clue what Lei would want.
The following chapter showcases another glaring example.
I glance about to make sure the others are still out of earshot. Then I say in an undertone, “The Queen doesn’t want the King to have his heir. She knows what it’ll mean for Ikhara. I think she’s on our side.”Lei saw the queen for a few minutes without exchanging a single word with her. There is no way Lei could discern all this just from a few intense looks from the queen.
I hated Aoki and Blue. I didn’t buy their “friendship” with Lei. Aoki is in love with the demon king who raped and abused them all and is jealous whenever he pays attention to Lei instead of her. She snubs Lei for months because she’s angry with her for trying to kill their rapist. Lei’s endless patience and kindness toward her and her tendency to blame herself for Aoki’s misery irritated me to no end. If your friend was madly in love with your abuser, would you not get frustrated with your friend, even if the abuser also abused your friend? The only time I liked Blue was when she frankly told Aoki what a stupid fucking idiot she is. The rest of the time she just makes snarky insults because she has no personality beyond that. But Lei is always so sickeningly nice to Aoki and Blue. I wish those two had died instead of .
It annoyed me that Lei kept blaming herself and apologising to other characters for things that she hadn’t even done wrong, like the situation with Aoki and the rift from her relationship with Wren. It’s amazing that a character so eager to fight to the death to end oppression is such a doormat when it comes to her personal relationships.
The book only gets more stupid. Nitta, who broke her back in book 2, is now paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. And she goes to battle...and fights in her wheelchair. I had to put the book down for a moment and laugh at how fucking stupid this is. The battlefield is described as a rocky plain. Even if someone carried her to the battlefield, she wouldn’t be able to move around the rocks and grass, and she’d get killed in about 3 seconds. If Lei got +1000 on plot armour this book, Nitta got +5000.
This book continues the annoying trend of unqualified teenage characters getting positions of power and leadership when there are more experienced adults around. Ketai puts Wren in charge of leading the army in his absence instead of his general. Wren does have fight training and magic but she’s still just a teenage girl without any real experience in war, and she went against her father’s orders with regard to so Ketai trusting her with this much authority makes no sense. Wren is suffering from an unhealed back injury, which constantly pains her and slows her down, so maybe going to war isn’t the best idea—just kidding, it’s a great idea. She’s an amazing Xia warrior despite struggling to control her grip on her magic and she has +900 plot armour so she’ll be fine. There’s a cringey scene of Wren and Nitta trying to intimidate Commander Chang for being kind of annoying, and Nitta rolls her wheelchair over his foot and it’s so incredibly stupid that reading it gave me secondhand embarrassment.
Final thoughts on this series: I think Ngan should have made all the characters human and had the castes divided based on socioeconomic status. I think the animal demon aspect just adds an unnecessary factor of nasty weirdness because you’re imagining lizards and bulls and dogs and whatnot and it just makes the whole story less relatable on a human level. Abusers and rapists in real life aren’t scary demons with horns, they are just regular men.
On the third book I still had great difficulty picturing what the demons were supposed to look like, because the author often writes that a demon character is very beautiful but the physical description of the character just sounds...gross.
The lion-girl’s arms were crossed. Her golden tail twirled lazily, the lustrous fur that clung to her body almost an exact color match for the wide marigold trousers and wrap shirt she wore, the top’s fastener loosely made so her generous curves spilled out. Lova was a perfect example of how striking Moon castes could be, her half lioness, half human features melded together in a way that brought out both beauty and power.____________________________________
Like all Moon castes, the Queen’s features are a blend of animal and human. On her, the mix is sublime. Her face is slim, like the King’s, nose more delicate than the usual bull demon’s, with deep, wide-set eyes framed by heavy lashes. Reddish-bronze hair wraps her body, with pale patches at the base of her neck and circling her left horn, as if those spots have been painted by a brush dipped in moonlight.Nothing about these characters sounds even remotely attractive, and since I just can’t imagine an attractive humanoid covered in fur, I default to picturing a lion and cow instead.
This book also needed better editing. I caught so many errors but, considering all the bigger problems with the plot and characters, I couldn’t bother to keep track of them.
April 10, 2022
This book did NOT hold back, damn. I wasn't prepared for the pain. This was a worthy conclusion to one of my favourite trilogies, and I'm glad I finally read it. I have to admit book 2 and 3 didn't entirely live up to book 1 for me, but that was also hard to top, and I do still think both sequels were very solid. Book 2 introduced some great characters, but I think book 3 was the stronger one, because it felt like there was more of a direction. I do wish overall that Lei and Wren could have interacted more, but I was glad to see Wren's perspective in this installment.
Want to Read
March 18, 2020All we need now is the date and the cover!
Want to Read
May 27, 2021that cover though...OMG! is wren getting a cover all to herself??
edit: Ngan hinted at Wren's POV so I have concluded that is, in fact, Wren on the cover. she's so gorgeous help
edit: Ngan hinted at Wren's POV so I have concluded that is, in fact, Wren on the cover. she's so gorgeous help
Want to Read
February 3, 2021that cover 🤩🤩
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