Girls of Paper and Fire

Gr 10 Up—Seventeen-year-old Lei is kidnapped and forced into sexual servitude by the vicious Demon King who rules her country. Her land has three castes: the low-status Paper caste who are fully human, high-status Moon caste or demons who are half animal in form, and middle-status Steel caste who have some animal features. Lei and her fellow Paper Girls live in a special section of the magical Hidden Palace where they are subjected to forced medical examinations, abused by their trainer, and raped by the bestial ruler. While Lei's fear and disgust at her impending assault are thoroughly depicted, her mental state afterward is less well described. Her enslavement becomes more bearable when she falls in love with Wren, a Paper Girl on a mission to kill the king, and their tender relationship provides some of the happier moments in this brutal story. Ngan grew up in Malaysia, and the setting shows the influence of several Asian cultures: the Hidden Palace resembles China's Forbidden Palace, the king forces the girls to drink sake, characters wear Malaysian kebayas and Chinese cheongsams. Lei's fate echoes those of the imperial concubines held by several Chinese emperors, as well as the "comfort women" forced to service World War II Japanese troops in Malaysia and other countries. Lei and her allies have backstories and motivations that make their situation all the more disturbing.