Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

1564 reviews

snigd_ha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Chronic illness, Car accident, and Death of parent

carlotta25's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Infidelity, Torture, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

felixik's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book destroyed me from the inside out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

cannesi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Honestly I debated 5 stars because some of it was so tough to get through. My main point of issue was how it didn’t ever explicitly say whose pov it was. I liked that you could tell the characters were successful but not in an obnoxious way. It really gave the story life so see these friends from 20-50 and the different paths people take. I find it much more believable with how things turned out because Jude stayed true to his character the entire time. Even when people tried to tell him how much he mattered, it was never enough. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

jani_mcgonagall's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

klaratoll'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

5.0

I don't even know what to say. It's currently 4.30 in the morning and I just spent the last six or so hours finishing this book and most of the last four in a state ranging from slightly sniffling to outright sobbing. I'm not sure I can rate this book, certainly not at the moment, but I might have a hard time doing it later too. There were many things I loved about it, the characters, the writing, and most of all the exploration of all the different relationships between the characters. But then there are also some things that I'm not certain how to feel about just yet. I think I need to sit with it for a while to be able to collect my thoughts properly. I wouldn't say it's a book I would ever feel comfortable recommending to anyone lightly, but it is a book that will probably stay with me for a long time. 

Update: 
Okay, it's been a few days since I finished it and I think I've collected my thoughts enough to discuss some of my feelings about this novel. To say it shortly: I think I love it. Some of my thoughts below this point will probably contain spoilers so do read ahead with caution. 

The first thing I was unsure about as I finished the book was the message it potentially sends. I've seen a lot of the more negative-leaning reviews saying that the message is that some people are too broken to be helped and we should basically just give up on them and let them die. I think it's quite difficult to write a book that deals with suicide and not make it potentially carry the this message, but I don't think that books containing suicide should not be written. I hate to bring the argument of realism into this, but I will anyway. Saying that the message is that some people are too broken to help kind of ignores that people do commit suicide. Even people who are deeply, deeply loved. Even people who have recieved help and treatment. Representing this in fiction does not equate that we should give up on people. I have to say that right after finishing the book a part of me thought: "So what was the point then? Did nothing of it matter in the end?" But after having thought about it for a while I refuse to define the point of a life by how it ends, and I refuse to say that kind acts, love and friendship do not matter even if they might not be enough. Are love and moments of happiness not of any consequence just because they do not last? 

There was so much about the novel that I found hard-hitting and thought-provoking. Something that really stood out to me was how the characters were constantly wondering if they were making the right choices in relation to Jude and his traumas. Do I push this? Will I break something if i do? What happens if I don't? If I had done something differently, would things have been different? Better? I think this is quite a realistic depiction of being close to someone who is suffering in some kind of way. 

I also need to say something more elaborate on the book as a whole. It's a slow read, at times perhaps a bit too slow I thought. But in the end I think the slowness adds to the impact of it all, I don't think I would have cared as much about the character had it not been so in depth. The relationships that are explored and the the understanding and attachment I felt for all the characters is extraordinary. 

As I mentioned the novel was truly devastating, throughout to be honest, but especially the last hundred pages or so were a sob-fest for me. The excruciating thing was that I thought I had worked out what was going to happen, at least the broad strokes of it, and when I was fundamentally wrong about one thing that I had been absolutely certain of it pulled the rug right out from under me. However painful this was, it was masterfully done.

I understood that Jude was going to be dead by the end of the novel. I understood this quite early on as Harolds chapters spoke of him in past tense. I was also assured that as I understood that the letters were addressed to Willem, he was going to out-live Jude. When this was not the case I was absolutely shocked and distraught, both becuase it was a character that I loved and because of the implications Willems death had for Jude and the remainder of the story. The reason why I think this was brilliantly done is because is puts us as readers in Judes position. Jude never thought there would be even the slightest possibility of him out-living Willem, and neither did we. We experience the same shock as Jude does. This is what makes it so heartbreaking.

I do not argue with anyone who finds this book exploitative or harmful, I think it can be if read in the wrong state of mind. But I do think that there are many other things to take away from this read and a lot of them are hauntingly beautiful and reflect the many facets, ugly and beautiful, of what it is to be human. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Vomit, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

fictional_meg's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

bengami's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad 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

5.0

I really don't understand people who dislike this book, but then again, I'm someone who had very similar life experiences to Jude St Francis. This book did not feel horribly dark to me, it felt honest, some people go through life holding the kind of secrets others can't even stand to read about. The love and grief in this book is palpable. You grieve for Jude's past and are sometimes overwhelmed and in awe by the love his friends have for him. There is love wrapped in every domestic moment, and honesty in all the roughest and darkest parts of this book. If you read this book, and find yourself irritated or disgusted by its darker themes. Just know that some people, like me, read this book, and saw their real life experiences reflected in it. This book and the people in it felt so alive, I'm so sad it's over. with all that said, please read the content warnings before reading this book.

Edit: I recently listened to some interviews of the author, and something she said really made this book click into place for me & made me love it more. She called it a fantasy, in that Jude’s childhood is cartoonishly horrific, his circumstances unimaginable, and yet he gets into an Ivy League college, becomes filthy rich & lives in unimaginable comfort with people who love him. Like an old storybook when the child in grim circumstances gets everything they’ve ever dreamed of. Yet, he can never accept it, because he never gets better & never truly escapes his childhood. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Abandonment

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia

this book is EXTREMELY DETAILED in its descriptions of child sexual abuse.

it describes grooming in detail, from the eye and viewpoint of a child. I would say the most graphic descriptions are the ones of self-harm and of child sexual abuse, it is constant. there is also an extremely disturbing rape scene between two adults. The main character is asexual seemingly from his traumatic experiences, he doesn't really experience ace phobia from others but internally degrades himself for being asexual & forces himself to have sex at multiple points in the book when he does not want to.

andulkaw6's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

evasimonyi's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

2.0

This was a hard read, I should have put it down, multiple times, but I hate to DNF books, so I continued, but I have never read anything like this, so horrifying, very sad and traumatic. It still haunts me. How come there were no trigger warnings in the beginning? I honestly had no idea what this book was about. It was nicely written, but so disturbing, I wish I haven't read it. Too much for me to handle.

Here are the trigger warnings
https://www.booktriggerwarnings.com/A_Little_Life_by_Hanya_Yanagihara

Very graphic and in-detail description of these topics. Haunting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment