Reviews with content warning for Medical content - The People in the Trees

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

22 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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writingcaia's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This is a weird ass book, shocking, awe inspiring and grotesque.
The writing is conjuring and sublime, which is the reason I don’t give a lower score, because although the plot has its interest, colonisation, climate change, scientific hubris, sexual abuse, but then the MC, the scientist, is a sociopathic, hubris-filled, egomaniac, pedophile, and although during part of the story he mostly acts as a semi-decent human being with scientific views and actions, the exposing of the details of his exploration of the “immortal” people in the trees is way too long, if brilliantly detailed, and soon degenerates into something abhorrent.
I almost DNFed but it’s not in me to do so, and the writing is so amazing and I was curious still, to see what really had happened, which I found out about only on the last few pages…
It was very twisted and not at all something I wanted or was interested in reading, still great accomplishment in writing, imagination and originality.

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aykdanroyd's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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anningana's review against another edition

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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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daisylady's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No

4.0

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belleb0y's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.25

This was a hard read it is dark and you don’t want to like it but it sticks with you. It’s been awhile and I still think about this book often. But overall it was way too long and yanagihara knows how to make people uncomfortable just for the sake of it. Major major tw for this book.

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burnt_amber89's review against another edition

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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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