The Paper Palace: A Novel

This book made me uncomfortable in the most intentional way. The Paper Palace isn’t about a sweeping love story — it’s about choices, consequences, and the emotional messiness of real life. Every page felt heavy with memory, regret, and the kind of longing that doesn’t have an easy answer. I didn’t always like the characters, but I understood them — and that’s what made this book hit. The way the story moves between past and present slowly reveals how trauma, love, and silence shape who we become. It forces you to sit with morally gray decisions and the reality that sometimes there is no “right” choice, only the one you live with. This wasn’t a comforting read for me, but it was a powerful one. It lingered long after I finished, leaving me reflective, unsettled, and thinking about how much our past quietly controls our present.

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