The critical reception of Paula was divided: although most reviewers praise the book as a passionate and candid voyage through memory and grief, some find it disappointing after Allende's previous work. Negative reviews range from criticism of the author's use of her daughter's tragedy as a peg on which to hang the story of her own life to seeing the book as an overly romanticized autobiography relying on questionable facts, to pointing out that the author's kitschy rhetoric camouflages the book's introspective parts. However, the majority of critics applauded Allende's effort in her first nonfiction work and admitted to feeling drawn into the story's powerful emotional pull.

In a review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Patricia Holt praises the book and writes: "In her feverish determination to bring it all to life, and Paula along with it, Allende produces some of her best writing." Her writing...