If you’re a YA book lover, chances are good that you’ve at least heard of So Paper Fury even if you’re not one of the close 80k that follow the blog on WordPress (Source). It’s a blog I would describe as cult-classic, and also a YA book blog that has been around for YEARS. By years, I mean roughly 6 years now since she started it back in 2014, but long enough that if you’ve been in the YA community for any amount of time you’ve heard of CG Drews (CG is short for Charlotte). She’s Australian (totally obvious at times given the humour) and the blog began its life as “just” a book blog, but it developed into something more personality-driven than your run-of-the-mill “here is a 5 star review of a book” type of blog.
A lot of that personality comes through in the voice that CG writes in. It’s not like this highly curated, “professional” voice that I see in so many book blogs. Cait writes like people talk, which sounds like a stupid thing to say but book blogs so often make me feel like I’m reading something that’s trying too hard to sound formal or prim and proper (side eye to that type of blog post). The result with Paper Fury is a hodgepodge of posts about books, writing, the business of being an author, other personal things, but then these gloriously specific takedowns of Everything Ever. The humour throughout is self-deprecating in that very millennial-Gen-Z-I-have-no-life-but-I-can-make-a-meme-out-of-it type of way, so if you are a fellow victim of your TBR laughing at you then you’ll feel right at home.
In terms of tone and writing style, this blog stands out because it is written with humor. As noted, many of the posts have non sequitur asides that are somehow incredibly apropos? For example, in a post about plot she may be commenting on how a book could use a bit more foreshadowing but then will also insert a joke about her pets or a ridiculous what if scenario. Also, her usage of footnotes (which are liberal) contain many of the best comedy bits. This is not to say that this blog is a bad example of writing style. It is just a very particular style. The post content is very much in the mode of the stream of consciousness. It is thus not chaotic and difficult to read but more alive and real. It is very much the closest you can get to reading someone's thought processes without it being an actual transcript.
The content is all over the place in the best possible way, book reviews, but also writing advice (actually helpful, not like those “show don’t tell” posts I’ve seen on other blogs…), posts about writing like how to write a fight scene without being lame and how to deal with the emotional carnage of editing your own book (important writer problems!). Then there are also posts about tags and memes and monthly wrap-ups with lists of books and whether or not they destroyed her soul. The range of posts is what keeps it fresh and surprising as you never know if you’re going to get a post disecting character development or just a straight up rant about how all YA contemporaries are set during the summer even though life does not work that way.
The blog is well laid out, and easy to navigate. It is a simple blog, with no particularly flashy web design. It is consistent in its branding with pink and bookish graphics. This fits the overall feel of the blog, which is in line with the YA bookish aesthetic, without being childish. The effort is clearly there, but not at the expense of the content, which is as it should be.
The topic areas that seem to come up the most are mental health and diverse representation. She writes openly about both her own experiences with anxiety and neurodivergence, as well as the books she is reading and their own representation. She is very vocal about the need for better representation in YA in particular. This is not about token diversity but about books that meaningfully represent marginalized experiences. She is also quite clear in calling out books for getting representation wrong, which…that matters. It matters especially in the YA space as this is a time when many readers are developing their understanding of the world through the books they read.
On the community side of things, Paper Fury used to have a very active comments section back when blogs were kind of a THING, and now much of that community is more spread over social media, but Cait has always been someone who was good at engaging with her readers, and I mean actually talking with her readers. It’s not just this kind of phony “thank you for reading! !” way that some authors/authors-to-be go. There’s a whole built up audience of book nerds that like the chaotic, book-loving energy and who also appreciate when someone is like “this book was garbage and here’s why” instead of tiptoeing around it with fancy language.
In reading through the archives, it is interesting to see how the blog has evolved, or rather honed itself over time. Obviously, the posts from 2014 read differently than the more recent ones, but it is clear the core of her voice and content has remained the same while she has also learned what works for her and what does not. Her consistency in posting is one of the things I admire as she has been active for a number of years and has not lost the energy which makes this blog readable. This is not to say that all her posts are brilliant or ground breaking, but they are all hers. And that in an age when so much online content is so homogenized, that is something to be treasured.
It’s a blog for someone who wants a book blog that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still has substance beneath the jokes and the chaos. The ultimate comfort food for book nerds who are sick of faux-pretentious literary criticism but still want actual thoughts about books and what makes stories work or spectacularly fail. And also, it helps that CG is just funny, which is never something to underestimate when you’re choosing whether or not to follow another blog.
