Reviews tagging 'Death'

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

20 reviews

neliaa's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

Gruesome, grotesque, fascinating and eye-opening

Mini spoiler -> when I whrite eye-opening, I am referring to the consequences of the western takeover of U’ivu. 

Another mini spoiler -> I really wanna know what happened to Tallent

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Dementia, and Medical content

anningana's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Racism, Child abuse, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, Medical content, Pedophilia, Sexism, Colonisation, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Suicide, Death, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

charlottefmason's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death of parent, Rape, Cultural appropriation, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Pedophilia, Deadnaming, Cannibalism, Colonisation, and Death

nosey667's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.75

This book gives an important representation of cultural colonisation and is beautifully written. during the preface its immediately clear that this is a very unreliable narration, and this is emphasised in the eprologue.

if Kubodera witheld such a vital part of Nortons experience with Victor, what else could he be hiding from the reader, again, to protect Nortons reputation?

A little slow at times, but phenomenally written and a great first read of 2022.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Death, Cultural appropriation, and Child abuse

aruallal's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Excrement, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Rape, Terminal illness, and Sexual assault

burnt_amber89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It is hard to say that I loved this book, but I think I did, in a twisted kind of way. At least, I loved to hate it. It took a while to get into the story and even when it gets really good, the book feels long. The first 100 or so pages failed to impress me, but it gets much better later on so hang tight ! At the beginning, we get to follow the main character in his youth. He is particularly unlikable, most situations are rather dull and don't seem to bring anything. Be prepared for some graphic and disturbing descriptions of animal abuse and death, several times throughout the book. 
When the character starts his adventure on the island, however, even through I still found him insufferable (and misogynistic), I thought that the prose and the world-building were absolutely gorgeous, albeit still sprinkled with some graphic details here and there, that sometimes seem a little gratuitous. I loved following their adventures, had gotten really attached to the "dreamers", and could really visualize every plant, flower, creature, character... that the author imagined.
The last part of the novel is enthralling, I really felt strongly simultaneously for and against Vi, and continued to detest Perina, while also understanding, somehow, where he comes from. 
Hanya Yanagihara really has a knack for describing the most dreadful things in a beautiful way that brings out so much emotion in the reader.
I initially thought that the numerous footnotes would be a hassle to read and I thought I would skip them, but I ended up usually really enjoying them. It turned out to be an effective way of adding content and context, even though skipping then probably wouldn't alter the experience either. 
Overall, this is a very unique experience that I would not recommend to anybody, but if you like being challenged, if you want something both unpleasant and gorgeous and if you are ready to tackle the numerous, numerous trigger warnings, then you should probably give it a try. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, and Suicide

Minor: Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder, Stalking, and Trafficking

sydneysghost's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

i do not know how to rate or think or talk about this book. its 5 stars as an experience though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Medical content, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual violence

mmatti300's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I definitely didn’t expect to give this a five star, even though a little life was one of the easiest five stars I’ve ever given out. But, this book blew me away. Hanya Yanagihara knows how to screw with a persons emotions in such a gentle, disturbing way. While a little life had me sobbing every 40 pages, this one had me feeling sick and confused. This is not the sad, gay, literary fiction trauma porn that a little life is. This is sad, science heavy, Lolita esque in parts, and an interesting pondering on humanity and the lengths we will go to to satiate or inner demons. It covered so much and while I am not a huge fan of memoirs (and the beginning sections read like my least favorite parts of memoirs) that was the perfect way to include this unreliable, twisted character. Like a little life, this book is not for everyone and maybe not even for most but I really enjoyed it (but it’s for a whole different subsection of people than a little life). If I had to describe it as a mixture of different classics written by white men id say it’s like Joseph Conrad’s the heart of darkness meets Lolita. So, if that’s the type of weird and sad and dark you like this book is perfect for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Dementia, Death, and Genocide

Moderate: Suicide, Trafficking, Colonisation, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Forced institutionalization

amberinbookland's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow. Wow. WOW. This book was not what I expected at all. I thought that the majority of the novel was going to be what was actually discussed in the last 50 pages are so but this made it all the more compelling and unique.

The parallels between scientific research, colonialism and parenthood to look at discussions surrounding intent versus consequence were really well done and I would love to read more books with these themes and similar settings!

SO GOOD

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Pedophilia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

fridabystrom's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

Minor: Death and Alcoholism