S R Savell

Paper Hearts is a YA novel, and it's (unfortunately) safe to say that I'm no longer anywhere near the target audience. So it's probably no surprise that for most of the book, I was feeling extremely sorry for Michelle's mother who seemed to come in for a lot of unwarranted aggression from her daughter. And Michelle has a lot of aggression in store -- not just for her mother but for pretty much everyone she meets.

Enter Nathaniel, the gentle giant who seems much too good for this world and most especially for Michelle, and his grandmother. The two of them seem like characters from a fairytale -- the goodhearted hero who has to fight endless obstacles and the wise fairy woman who sends people on a quest. But as we are slowly finding out, Michelle -- while not exactly princess material -- is definitely due a bit of fairytale dust, and despite my earlier reservations, I ended up rooting for her to have a "happily ever after" (wolf included).… (mere)

So, when I first started this book, I was very skeptical. I mean, just look at that plot summary - it just reeks of teen angst. And I hate teen angst, probably because I wasn't very angsty as a teen and so, to me, novels with teen angst usually mean whiny drama queens with a "poor me" mentality. And at first, this book seemed to bring more of the same. In the beginning, Michelle is angry at the world to such a degree that she couldn't recognize genuine kindness if it bit her right in the face. It's a quality that I hate in protagonists and when I first saw signs of it in this book, I was very concerned.

Thankfully, this book is so much more than just another teen angst novel.

Because unlike many of those angsty teen drama queens who I despise so much, Michelle actually has real issues. You don't learn about them til later on in the novel, and by that point, thanks to Nathaniel, she's started to become more than just an angry, antagonistic brat. But when you find out what all she's been through, you can't be mad at her for any bratty, rude, or antagonistic behavior. If anyone deserves to act out, it's Michelle. Yes, she does some pretty awful stuff that kind of encourages the way that people treat her, but this girl has really been through the wringer.

And as for Nathaniel - oh my goodness, what a sweetie. It's impossible to not like Nathaniel. When Michelle is a total and complete bitch to him, he just takes it and treats her with kindness and love in return. And soon enough, Michelle begins to realize just how special he is and before long, they're healing each other. It's a healthy relationship that's formed in the life of a girl who, on paper, would probably be very unlikely to have a healthy relationship because she's got so many issues that no guy in his right mind would ever see something promising in her. Thankfully, Nathaniel does, and he fixes her as best as he knows how, simply by accepting her and treating her with love. And what's even better - Nathaniel needs to lean on Michelle just as much as she needs him.

This book is filled with really awesomely crafted characters, from Michelle and Nathaniel to Nathaniel's grandmother (what a gem!), from Michelle's completely self-absorbed mother to her scumbag of a boss. It has a plot to match - the plot twist came completely out of nowhere. Like, I had to re-read the part where the twist is introduced because I was so completely blind-sided. It was almost (but not quite) Fight Club level. And while there were definitely some bad parts to the ending, I think that overall, it ended on a happy note, which is something that I always love. And now for the spoiler that I wish that I didn't have to include because it's such a HUGE spoiler, but I will because it is such a sensitive topic:
the book does contain rape. It's not super duper detailed but it does happen and it's a pretty major focus of the ending. Before you get too worried, the good news is, Nathaniel (wonderful, perfect, Nathaniel… (mere)

One of the commonplaces in writing and editing fiction is that the reader must always be on the narrator's side. Whether the narrator is a good person or a bad person, likeable or despicable, he or she must always be appealing for the reader. PAPER HEARTS breaks this rule sullenly.

The plot of this novel is simple: despite a difficult start, Michelle pursues a friendship, and then a romantic relationship, with Nathaniel. The relationship becomes very serious very quickly, and readers follow Michelle as she discovers the kind of person she means to be.

Michelle is an abrasive narrator, and I found the first few chapters in her voice strongly repellant. Eventually the story revealed an interest beyond the narrator herself and started to advance. Again, there were problems. The transformation of Michelle's attitude toward Nathaniel was too sudden to be plausible, and the time scale of the book didn't make sense. During the final crisis readers learn more of the reasons for Michelle's seething rage and bitterness, but these reasons arrive too late to be believable or relevant.

The pacing of this novel is also poor. Sometimes the narrator describes scenes in excruciating detail; other times — in one case, quite self-consciously — she skips over important events in a few words. Similarly, there are numerous unresolved plot points at the novel's conclusion. Some of them are swept away in a few lines; others are simply lost. One of the most awkwardly handled aspects of the story is the book chase Michelle is sent on by Nathaniel's mother. Readers aren't even told the titles of the books, and the resolution of this plot is just silly. I felt the writer violated my trust in the narrative with this decision — but by that point, I had been so thoroughly let down by the rest of the book that the writer's choice was no real surprise.

The recent trend in self-publishing has encouraged many writers to distribute raw, unedited work; they seem to believe that editors and publishers are censors, keeping writers from their potential readers. That's simply not true: book editors help writers find their readers, often by saying no to writers until their style has matured. Arguably, a lack of maturity is the trouble with this book. There may be a good, and even a likeable, book buried in this text, but the reader must work to find it; and some readers simply won't make the effort — nor should they have to. The writer should have the discipline to tell a story so that it engages readers, rather than repels them.

I have worked in publishing for almost twenty years and have never seen an "uncorrected proof" as weak as the ARC that was sent to me. I assume by "uncorrected proof" the publisher meant unedited manuscript. I hope this was a one-time error on the publisher's part. Releasing an ARC in this condition did this first-time author no favours.

I do not recommend PAPER HEARTS. Readers looking for hyper-real issues novels can find much stronger books, and there are many other sharp, fresh voices out there who will provide a more satisfying reading experience.… (mere)