Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

381 reviews

lia934's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Rape, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicide, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Child abuse, Cursing, Medical content, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

allegrayr00's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Blood, Rape, Sexual assault, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Chronic illness, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Medical content, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Cursing, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cancer, Bullying, Child death, and Vomit

nommie8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Incredibly written. Hanya's ability to use simplicity to slow you down and absorb every detail, while using the same simplicity to invoke urgency was brilliant. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Violence, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Body shaming, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

baileysimm's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Rape, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Cursing, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Self harm, Pedophilia, Car accident, Ableism, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

elise_gaubert's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Cursing, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Vomit, Grief, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Drug use, Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, Trafficking, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Violence

paulae826's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

So deep and dark ! At times I had to stop to breathe because I was furious 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, and Cursing

alexjones_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

beautiful writing but the book could've been shortened if Yanagihara had been supportive of therapy.

also, I looked on loads of CW lists of this book and no one seemed to mention sex trafficking which was odd 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Vomit, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse, Body horror, Addiction, Blood, Pedophilia, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, Grief, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Child death, Dementia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Drug use, and Racial slurs

this is the longest time I've ever had to spend on a trigger warnings list

mary_do_12's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this book was a beautiful depiction of friendship. i’ve never read a story that put it quite into perspective like this one did. i’m  glad i read this book, because it made me look around at all the precious things i have and appreciate them because goodness, jude.
i cried 13 times in the span of reading this book and i feel like a piece of my heart has been torn out of my chest. i feel helpless and ashamed and deeply moved for jude.

coming to talk of all the great things this book offered, i do have to mention a few other things. first of all, the chapters were SO LONG. i told myself each night, i’m gonna read one chapter and then — even though i did only read one chapter — i ended up staying awake at least one more hour. 
i loved all the characters in this book, though by the 3rd or 4th part i found some dissatisfaction with the plot. i can’t really explain it but ever since willem and jude started dating, the setting felt a little off. but i have nothing to back that with, so i understand that i can’t really argue.

overall though, this book was very rewarding — with tears, knowledge, and a new perspective on life.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Medical trauma, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Death, Eating disorder, Torture, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, and Self harm

atlas_shruggs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

If this book had focused on Jude and Willem's relationship and love story, it would've been a 4,5. The last third is definitely a 4,5 but unfortunately I disliked the first 500 pages were so unforgiveably bad that I cannot in good conscience give it more than 1 star.
Don't get me wrong, the prose is beautiful and the character creation was spectacular but it truly does just read like ~800 pages of trauma porn. The overly graphic descriptions of Jude's self harm made me gag more than once and the fact that this is at least the second work from Yanagihara that features graphic sexual violence against children is alarming to say the least.
I did absolutely adore Willem and the chapters from his point of view were amazing, but it just couldn't save the book as a whole.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Gore, Blood, Cursing, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Rape, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Eating disorder, Car accident, Self harm, Violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, and Chronic illness

cowardlyteaman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This took me so long to read and annotate. It didn't feel like as much of a chore as I thought it would, but I still have mixed feelings about it.

I absolutely love the way these characters are built, to be honest. They all got on my nerves at different points, but I still cherished all of them. I really like it when flawed characters.🫶
Willem is wonderful, of course, but not perfect? He makes mistakes! He's selfish, even. Delusional, at points.
Jude has been through — more than most, to say the least. And to be completely frank, it gets old after a while. I get tired of hearing about his problems, and I get tired of reading about him falling into the same patterns over and over again. However, I'm sure he's just as tired as I am. Or far more, probably. When I realised this, it became easier to empathise with his character.
JB is such a wonderfully flawed character. He made me wince with second hand ... not even embarrassment, just pain. I love him, even if he's a crown dick at multiple points during the book.
Malcolm is just there, honestly. Emotional support architect. But I do love a homosexual who never manages to admit it.

However, there comes the problem ... that there is no plot. There is no plot whatsoever. There is no end goal, no ambition the characters have for the future. They just are.
Hadn't it been for the fact that I annotated and analysed this book (just for hobby), then I might have quickly discarded it...
The events are short and repetitive, and soon become extremely predictable.

Moving on to something slightly more off-track... the names.
Jude St. Francis is such a great name for a character. I love it so much. Fits him so well.
Willem Ragnarsson, however. Eh. As a Nordic person myself, I have to say that I'm a bit confused. He has a Danish mother and an Icelandic father who gave their son a Dutch name? It's by no means impossible, but William or Vilhjálmur or Wilhelm would've just made more sense? Don't even get me started on the fact that these two Swedish-speaking parents named their severely disabled son Hemming. In Norwegian (which in all honesty is not much different from Swedish), «hemming» means handicap. Hämning /hem-ning/ in Swedish. While I'm sure the author had no intention of this, it jus  seems absolutely ridiculous of them to name their child eith cerebral palsy Hemming. Not to mention that no-one's fucking named that in Denmark, Sweden, or Iceland.

That was my rant. It was worth it, despite the occasional drags of COMPLETELY irrelevant information.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Medical content, Mental illness, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Blood, Body shaming, Grief, Ableism, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Violence, Car accident, Death, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Rape, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Racism and Racial slurs