Reviews tagging 'Murder'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

24 reviews

carlacea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

before you start reading this book, i encourage you to make a list with all the bad things that could happen to someone. as some of those things happen, go back to your list and try to make it a bit more light-hearted because as the book goes on you will need it. 
a very dark story, but with shines of light in between. i wouldn't say is an enjoyable experience but at least it wasn't as graphic as i thought it was going to be when i read some reviews from the book. 
the next part might be consired a spoiler but it doesn't say anything really explicit, no names involved, but if you want everything to be a surprise...

one thing that i didn't like is how the author used romance to bring happiness, self assurance and healing to the characters, when i thought the book was going to be more about friendship. there is friendship in this couple, but i would've prefered if the same trust and reliability and inconditional acceptance had been shown through the light of friendship.

btw sorry if i made any mistakes grammatically or something, english isn't my first language

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Bullying, Vomit, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Cultural appropriation, Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Murder, and Racism

kalin_grace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

waynethelibrarian's review against another edition

This novel falls into a pattern of repetitive trauma and triggers that slightly escalate at each occurrence to the point they become unbelievable. I was buddy reading this book with my boyfriend. After he completed the book before me and we discussed up to the point I had reached, I realized by his description most of my qualms with the story up to this point only proceed to become more pronounced as the novel continues. I would HIGHLY caution  anyone from picking up this book unless you are equipped to deal with the sheer quantity of trauma this novel dumps on you. I’d advise looking through the content warnings and taking them seriously. If I had to give an overall rating, I’d say it warrants a 2/5. My qualms with the plot and characters doesn’t fully overshadow Hanya Yanagihara’s beautiful writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

abhess's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I am giving this 2 stars for the very few moments where I felt genuinely touched, because most of the time it just felt like grotesquely horrible trauma being thrown to the main character for the sake of creating an emotional (?) story - but for what? It felt like an exploitative and unnecessarily excessive depiction of trauma and abuse, given that the final overall take could have very easily been delivered without such vivid imagery. 

Tragedy does not equal a deeper meaning and I felt as if this book lacked purpose.

Daniel Mendelsohn described it perfectly: “the abuse that Yanagihara heaps on her protagonist is neither just from a human point of view nor necessary from an artistic one (…) Yanagihara’s novel has duped many into confusing anguish and ecstasy, pleasure and pain”.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Vomit