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Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Ein wenig Leben by Hanya Yanagihara

278 reviews

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-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

ouch. thanks

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challenging dark tense slow-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

Let me start off by listing what's wrong with this book, because nothing will ever be able to excuse its mistakes.

- it's racist (not just according to the characters or to set the tone for the time period... it's weird writing about the black vs. white struggle as an Asian woman who has done no research on the subject....)
- they measure success by very classist metrics
-  All it seems to protray is that life=suffering and then you die (hopefully sooner rather than later)
- its portrayal of gay men is so, so bad that they should've just not
- there is no point. Authors purpose?? Certainly not for pleasure. Or education or enjoyment or advertisement. 
- it romanticizes abuse and trauma and self harm and suffering. This book is just one love letter to suffering. It even teaches you how to do it, and goes into excessively gruesome detail for far too long for it to just be inform a reader by utilizing shock value... it often fetishizes it, interlacing these scenes with sexual desire and/or eroticism 
- it's repetitive. Like Jesus christ 400 pages is just recounting of Jude's past. This book didn't need to be 814 pages. 
- because of how long and repetitive it is i was bored for a little. Like I'd never thought I'd get so bored reading incredibly detailed and gross accounts of abuse. But I did. I strolled through it, barely batting an eye, yawning.

infuriating, pointless, abusive, disrespectful, abhorrent, divisive, weaponized, trash

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Beautiful writing, could’ve been half as long. Excessive in my opinion. 

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I haven’t read anything that has floored me as much as this did. All of the other reviews you have read will be right, it is traumatic and heavy and graphic, but I wasn’t prepared for the emotional journey i would be taken on alongside the shockingly graphic parts of the book. Spanning decades Yanagihara manages to weave and craft characters more complex than any other I have read, all the while maintaining a somehow humorous streak alongside everything else. What struck me and will stick with me most deeply from this book though were not the traumatic scenes, but the scenes of tender love, kindness and care shown between the friends and the other characters. These truly moved me and for that reason I can’t give it anything other than 5 stars! Definitely read, but yes, make sure you’re in a good space before you do!

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

A book that I thoroughly enjoyed but at the same time reading about the protagonists history was just too intense/too much

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challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Really difficult but really really entrenching and hard to put down. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

so fucking sad and wouldn’t recommend it to even my worst enemy. But did I love it? Hell yeah

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