Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

139 reviews

hamletslover's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0


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liliandra's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Trigger Warnings:
Abuse
Drug Use
Harassment
Child Abuse
Suicide
Self Harm
Racial Slurs
Racism
Homophobia
Misscommunication
Forced Prostitution
Rape
Beating
Pedophilia

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cstein's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

A Little Life was difficult to put down, difficult to dream about, difficult not to dwell on for hours in the middle of the night. Yanagihara's respectful, relatively sparse depictions of a laundry list of traumas made this book tolerable, while her depictions of human goodness and joy made this book hopeful and beautiful. Particularly impressive were the author's careful detailing of fictional artworks, fictional movies, fictional law cases, fictional renovations, etc. An engrossing and extraordinary feat.

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mal__ori's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5


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alomie's review against another edition

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

5.0

This book is a really rough read, it took me a long time to read and I needed to take lots of breaks as it was relentlessly emotional, a kick to the gut, as bad as things are they just get worse.

I can't really recommend this book to anyone and I think this is a super dangerous book to be all over booktube/booktok. Before you read this please do check the trigger warnings as the descriptions are graphic, slow and detailed. 

I found this harrowing to read, and deeply upsetting. 

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jocedonahue's review against another edition

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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

5.0


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annabunce's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is so sad and so well written and 1800 pages is ridiculous but I don't think anything less than 1400 would have sufficed to actually tell the story in a way that would have been respectful. But I would only recommend this book in RARE occasions. Those occasions being (but not limited to):

1) Someone you know and love is refusing to seek help for trauma and you don't understand

2) If you are a therapist trying to understand trauma (I'd actually strongly recommend this book if that was the case)

3) If you need to have a good cry and think it'll take you 1800 pages to do it

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edm's review against another edition

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

1.0


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jacks_beloved's review against another edition

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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

4.75

This book was a long, long journey (1st April- 18th May, 2022), the degrees of pain it made me experience was incomparable, but in the end, it was worth it. I can clearly see why 'A Little Life' is called a modern classic because goddamnit. In the beginning, it seemed to drag on forever, the writing was absolutely meh, the only notable aspects were the characters of Jude and Willem, but Hanya Yanagihara took the inital ordinariness and created something so incredibly extraordinary in the latter half. (*SPOILER-  Their romance sent butterflies flying through my stomach and Willem's death shattered my heart to the extent that it can never be whole again. The worst part about that was the details, like I genuinely did NOT want to learn how the only thing that made me believe in humanity was crushed from existence. I had to read the part following that at midnight, when I'm practically completely numb otherwise, but I cried twice then too. Now, it's a constant thorn in my side. I'll be going about my day and the sheer reality of Jude and Willem's story comes to mind and it kills me a little every time. I don't know how Jude survived those three years because I wanted to follow after Willem. *) 
This book became a sort of unconventional home for me, naturally, since I spent so long with it. The familiarity of Jude and Willem became my comfort and I can't understand how I'm expected to live normally henceforth. I connect with them on a level it's impossible for even me to comprehend. They are integrated into my very soul. I would sacrifice myself to save them. 
I don't think I'll ever, in my life, pick up this book again because it'll break everything in me forever. This was raw, real, memorable, too damn traumatic to be out on the loose in this world. I've said a lot and still the second-out sufferage this book handed to me is explicable. I could never recommend this to someone because I would never want anyone to go through what I did, but it was definitely a masterpiece I'll always cherish. 

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ginadapooh's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

4.0


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