Wow. The Paper Palace is a beautifully told character driven novel which captures you from the off.

Elle and her husband, kids and mother spend summers at The Paper Palace, described as a ‘camp’ built several generations ago and clearly shabby, warm and homely. Elle’s childhood friend Jonas is doing likewise, staying in his summer home with his extended family.

At the outset Elle and Jonas have, for the first time, given into their feelings, having sneaked away from a drunken dinner with their families. Over the next 24 hours Elle wrestles with her feelings about Jonas and the potential impact on her husband Peter. In an alternative timeline we unpack Elle’s life through a series of vignettes from the relationship with her parents, Jonas and Peter to a number of life altering events.

A Reece Witherspoons book club pick and a book which everyone is talking about. It is beautifully executed and deserves all of the plaudits and attention. A superb 4.5*

Thanks to Riverhead, PRH and Netgalley for an ARC.

This book had seen quite alot of attention on socials and has been well received, in addition to being the July pick for Recce Witherspoon's Book Club.

Despite that, I struggled to get into this and found it a difficult read until past the half way mark.

The story is unique in terms of the unfolding of a family history, full of tragedy, love and secrets over the course of 24 hours. And while I liked this as an idea, I found that the initial flashes to Elle's childhood a bit tiresome. Honestly, I think that then set the tone of the reading experience for me.

I did really enjoy the relationship between Elle, her Mother and her Sister, which I took to be portray a powerful bond, despite disappointments, regrets and mistakes.

All in all, I can see why this has been so popular but not something I could really 'get into'.

Elle is happily married to Peter, but has loved Jonas ever since they were children; however, there is a secret that only they share concerning her half-brother Conrad. When Jonas has sex with Elle in the present day, she has to decide whether to stay with the man she genuinely loves or to go with the boy she fell in love with but walked away from years ago.

This is a story about families, about growing up, dysfunctional parents, failed relationships, abuse, neglect, nature, and the prisons - real and imagined - that we build for ourselves over the years. People we fall in and out of love with, finding out that someone we failed to understand holds the key to our inner redemption - the latter is what happens when Elle goes to Memphis and meets her half-sister Rosemary.

Not all the members of Elle's family are likeable, although I found Wallace (Elle's mother) quite amusing at times. Peter was the anchor of the family, solid and dependable, unlike Elle's father who was always easily swayed by whichever woman he was seeing or married to, leading to the fracturing of the relationship with his daughters.

There is rawness and sadness in this story, sadness because of what happens to Elle's sister, and rawness because of hurts caused by events that spiral out of control.

Miranda Cowley Heller's writing is very descriptive, particularly of nature and the surroundings where the family spend a lot of their time - the paper palace of the book's title is a cabin in the woods, near ponds and a beach.

I was sent an advance review copy of this book by Penguin General UK, in return for an honest appraisal.

I really enjoyed reading The Paper Palace and read it over the course of a day. It wouldn't really be a genre of book I would normally select but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the plot line and thought the characters were well developed. I can't wait to read more from the author in the future.

Was a little confusing to start with as it jumped from present day to the past. But once I got to know the characters and the foundation of the story it was easier to follow.

The day I started reading this novel I noticed that it had been chosen as the July read for Reese Witherspoon’s book club. I’ve enjoyed many of their chosen books and had high hopes for this one.

Set around a cabin in the Cape Cod woods known as The Paper Palace, the story traces 24 hours in the life of Elle after she finally gives in to her feelings for her oldest friend, Jonas. As the past is revealed alongside the present we come to realise that the bond between Elle and Jonas has been forged in trauma and tragedy.

It’s hard to say more without giving too much away about the story, but at times this is a difficult read. Scenes stayed with me long after I’d finished reading and this won’t be a book for everyone.

It’s well written and keeps you turning the pages long into the night, but despite the experiences faced by the main character I felt her hard to warm to. The English husband is a bit too cliched for me - his mother decorated his flat with family portraits and he wears faded corduroy - but he’s ultimately the most likeable character in my opinion.

A moving and haunting debut, but I’ve enjoyed other books more this year.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

One perfect August morning, we find Elle Bishop taking a morning swim in the freshwater pond at 'The Paper Palace', the decaying camp in the back woods on Cape Cod, where her family have spent their summers for generations.

This is a place steeped in memories for Elle, both good and bad, but this year, having come to terms with the guilt and shame about traumatic events from her past, she finds herself facing a difficult decision about where her life goes from this point. Should she continue on the path she has made with her loving husband Peter, and their children, or leave them behind and try to regain something the life she might have had with her childhood sweetheart Jonas?

As the story of unfolds over the next 24 hours, Elle weighs her feelings, trying to make a decision about what she really wants, and her narrative is broken up by events from the past fifty years that tell of a legacy of family secrets, lies, terrible losses, and the incidents of her childhood that changed the expected course of her life - bringing her to this pivotal moment.

The Paper Palace is a quietly devastating novel, exploring how the weight of past misdeeds, childhood trauma, and the repeating pattern of maladjusted family behaviour can shape us into the adults we become. There is a lot of darkness and emotion in this book, as the years are stripped away, revealing the shocking history of this family, and dragging Elle's painful memories from the deepest recesses of her mind - and Cowley Heller is unflinching in the way she flays each and every moment to the bone, while deftly enhancing the experience of what you are reading with haunting symbolism in the environment and weather around her characters.

The way Cowley Heller incorporates some extremely thought provoking themes into this story is really rather interesting. While a love triangle in itself may not be a new concept, I thoroughly enjoyed the way she plays with the notion of desire, contrasting the passionate bond Elle has forged with Jonas based on their shared guilt at knowing the truth, and the safe comfortable love based on half-truths that she has with Peter. Can you ever truly make a fresh start without coming to terms with the guilt and shame you carry with you about your past actions, and what form might this absolution take? Can you ever go back to pick up the threads of a life that was denied to you by tragedy? How much are the self-serving behaviours of your forebears ingrained in the way you make your own decisions - even if you acknowledge the pain they have caused in your own life? Lots to delve into here.

This is the kind of story that compels you to read on through the emotional highs and lows, not allowing you to look away even for a second, despite the numerous distressing scenes, because the writing is so good - and even though I was unsure about ending of the story, it definitely carries through the message of the piece that life can be a very messy business.

If you like your novels to be many layered, intelligently constructed, and highly emotive, then this is definitely going to be a book for you - and it would make a great choice for a reading group or book club, because there is so much to dissect about what happens in these pages. Highly recommended!

4.5 stars. I wasn't sure what to make of this book for the first 100-150 pages but then there's a moment when the plot unfurls and your realise the narrative has been building to this moment. This is an uncomfortable but compelling read, deeply traumatic but also honest and an unflinching look at the complexities of families and childhood. I loved this book and if it wasn't for the slow start it would be a solid 5 star read for me. Urgent, uncompromising, and haunting - please read this book.

For years Elle has spent her summers at The Paper Palace, a series of cabins to holiday in, in the backwoods of Cape Cod. The cabins sit on the river bank, where the family have always swum. This year is no exception as she, her husband Peter, three children and her mother have returned. It feels like a second home, with life-long friends still in the area. Jonas is very special to Elle, in so many ways. She is older than him but, from childhood, they were drawn together, always there for each other. Now Jonas has married himself, with a family, but the intense relationship he has with Elle has never waned.

Elle loves Peter and Jonas. Over the next twenty-four hours, she has to decide who she wants to be with. Peter has no idea that the life he knows could come crashing down as time ticks away. There are some rather intimate scenes in the story, with the excitement between Elle and Jonas heightened with the risks that they take within sight of their partners.


The story drops back to their childhoods, the break-up of Elle’s parents’ marriage and the subsequent partners they go on to. It changes her life in so many horrendous ways. There are some hard to read scenes that contain child abuse and rape, so please be aware. Things will happen that make an unbreakable bond between Elle and Jonas, whose own childhood was not the easiest.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I like a book that can make me feel so passionate about the characters. There are beautiful descriptions that brought The Paper Palace and people to life. Brilliantly told, not easy to forget.

I would like to thank the publisher and Net Galley for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly

Written in a way that commands your attention and ensures you keep on reading, The Paper Palace is a great read. Spanning 50+ years from Elle's birth in 1966, yet set over 24 hours with flashbacks, I was immersed in the life of the family. In the present day, Elle finally has sex with Jonas, her best friend from childhood. What hold do they have over each other? Will this affect the family lives both have built over many years? Elle had a strange childhood - what we'd call dysfunctional despite always having money and living a somewhat privileged life. We have glimpses of her mother, Wallace's childhood too. Despite neglecting her daughters terribly, Wallace does have a deep love for Elle and Anna, and we see her as an eccentric old woman in the heart of her family. There are some traumatic events in the past, and although Elle finally finds some peace, how she has lived with the knowledge of what happened in her teens is testimony to her strength of character. I did enjoy this, although I found the ending frustrating. #netgalley #thepaperpalace

Elle spends her summers on Cape Cod at The Paper Palace which is a big house surrounded by rustic cabins in the woods. The cabins were built by her maternal grandfather with rather flimsy interior walls giving rise to their name. Elle is married to a Brit called Peter and has three children, Jack, Maddy and Finn. Their marriage is good but Elle is conflicted as she is also in love with her childhood friend, Jonas, who she has known since she was 11 and he was 8. The narrative in current time is set within one day but much of the book is going back in time telling the reader about the past of all the characters. There were a lot of characters, not least with various parents who had several serious relationships and marriages and and brought step-children into the family. I found it hard to remember who the characters were and was taken out of the story several times as I needed to search back to find out.

The plot was okay but I was very put off by explicit sexual scenes, some of which involved children. I had to stop reading it at one point and came back a few weeks later when I felt more able to read some of these things. The ending was ambiguous and disappointing to me. Not a great book for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

The book covers the 24 hours after Elle has had a passionate encounter with her childhood friend Jonas whilst staying at the Paper Palace, the family camp on Cape Cod, despite her husband, three children and her mother being there too. The story of the last 50 years or so is revealed and the devastating events that led up to the present day situation.

This book was an uncomfortable read at times and if I'd seen trigger warnings I would probably have avoided it. BUT it is an exceptional story and the prose is so beautiful, the characters so alive, that I could not stop reading it once I'd started! Highly recommended but with caution.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Written with depth and compassion, this is a richly layered book that is expertly constructed. The characters are complex and believable; the structure is sound; and the descriptions are gorgeous. By building her story around the events of just one day, and allowing the backstory to creep in through memories and reflections, the author creates a sense of immediacy and bittersweet nostalgia throughout. The sense of place is astonishingly effective - you really feel like you're there. I'll be recommending this to everyone.

Thank you to #NetGalley for allowing me to read #ThePaperPalace by #MirandaCowleyHeller
For as long as she can remember Elle has spent her summers in The Paper Palace a ramshackle dwelling in the back woods.
It’s early morning and she is going for her morning swim and thinking about what happened at dinner last night with Jonas her oldest friend.
Now she has to choose. Jonas or her husband Peter and their 3 children. As she goes through the day she relives what happened years ago to set her on this path and tries to work out which fork in the road she will now take.
A thought provoking beautifully written book.

Anybody thinking of plunging into this book as the "perfect beach read" (Reese Witherspoon's endorsement for her book club) should know that the scenes of rape that appear as trigger warnings occur on children, and they're not a one-off thing: they appear repeatedly throughout most of the book.

I almost decided not to finish this book when I was about 30% in, partly because of the above, and partly because it was slow and I had no idea where it was going. The scenes were graphic and felt gratuitous, and although I'm not easily triggered, I was in this case.

I did finish it, and I can still say that much of it was not needed. It was a book that could have been made much shorter. I didn't empathise with any of the characters (which, by the way, hate each other for no real reasons much of the time). They don't communicate with each other and I just wanted to scream at them that they should be honest and have a big discussion rather than small fights throughout one day.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thanks to #NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is well written but has left me at a loss and confused as to what the point of the story was.

Elle, her husband, children and her mother are at the Paper Palace (a summer holiday cabin) in the present day when she spends 5 minutes having sex with her best friend Jonas who shares all her secrets.

From there the story transverses between the past and present covering Elle’s grandparents, her parents and their friends and many partners/spouses to her childhood with Jonas and her sister and her husband Peter.

There is a cyclical pattern of sexual/emotional abuse in all the generations from the partners of parents to step siblings which could be a trigger warning as this is non consensual featuring children.

None of the characters have many redeeming qualities about them that made me identify or like them and even with age their communication skills were severely lacking.

The book ends back in the present day and doesn’t really come to anything, there is no fall out for Elle’s actions and no feeling that anything happened in the book except that the reader is taken on a journey through the life of this character. The book features a lot of death and suicide and is not very uplifting.

The synopsis of the book was much more promising than the actual content.

#ThePaperPalace releases 10 July 2021

This book was so beautifully written and I loved the way the story unfolded as the chapters jumped backwards and forwards through the years. The main character, Elle, has a somewhat difficult relationship with her mother and it becomes clear throughout the book that the mother has had some difficult times which perhaps explain some of her ways and personality. I love this depth of character development and it kept me hooked and guessing right up to the very end, as I had no idea which way the story was going to go,

This is a wonderful absorbing book, cleverly structured and beautifully written. It tells the story of Elle Bishop, using a dual timeline to contrast a single day in Elle’s life as a married mother of three on vacation at the family property on Cape Cod, with the history of Elle’s family over a span of 50 years.

The novel covers an enormous scope and details of many lives, decisions, misunderstandings and missed chances, drawing you in to a complex web of friends and family who each have their part to play.

And I love the ambivalence of the ending as Elle considers the choices she’s made and the ones she has yet to make - wonderful.

While I could appreciate that this was very well-written, I personally didn't quite click with the style and found it difficult to get absorbed in, finding myself reading it quite slowly. Nonetheless, there is so much to like about this novel and the author is one to watch.

Thought this was going to be a book of lost love and trying to find it again, I was wrong.
The story just doesn`t flow easy with jumping frequently from past to present, throwing in multiple scenes of rape, incest and sexual harassment which was very boring vulgar and sordid.
So definitely not for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC