GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE

The title’s a bit of a mouthful, and the premise – about a teenage girl kidnapped from her village to serve as a king’s concubine – is rather distasteful. But thankfully Natasha Ngan has taken an ages-old idea and, being a thoroughly modern writer, breathed new life into it.

The story follows Lei, a human (“Paper”) living in a world with half-demons and full demons, who of course are the ones in charge. Leading them is the bull-demon king, a nasty bastard who chooses each night’s bed partner from a tally of terrified – or, depending on their backgrounds, honoured – girls. Lei wants none of the bull-king’s attentions; her fear of what will happen when she finally does spend the night with him is the visceral, driving force of the novel. Plus things get more complicated when she falls for one of her fellow Paper Girls, who harbours a few secrets of her own...

Violence and humiliation are common here, but there’s also a beautiful love story at the book’s heart. Sure, the surroundings of the Royal Palace are claustrophobic at times, and some of the minor characters are boringly familiar archetypes, particularly the bitchy Mean Girl types. But others convince – particularly, weirdly, the king himself: a homicidal Minotaur on Viagra. Excuse us while we shudder... Jayne Nelson