Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

333 reviews

lillianareads'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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Dysphoria, Confinement, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Sexual violence, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Addiction, Grief, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Self harm, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Rape, Drug use, Cursing, Chronic illness, and Body horror

impossibleprobable's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Vomit, Death, Rape, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Abandonment, Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug use, Confinement, Suicide attempt, and Grief

mrlsdevos's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Drug use, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Ableism, Addiction, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual violence, Rape, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Medical content, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

coxmagee's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-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

3.5

Well written & incredibly dark.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Body horror, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Rape, and Self harm

literary_waffle's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

A narrativa gira em torno de Jude, um dos 4 amigos cujas vidas acompanhamos ao longo do livro. Jude é-nos apresentado como alguém extremamente frágil e traumatizado, com um passado chocante, repleto de abusos de todo o tipo. A sua história é revelada aos poucos, ficando cada vez pior, dando ao leitor um sentimento de "desconfortabilidade" crescente. Além de Jude, acomapanhamos Willem, o seu melhor amigo de décadas e futuro companheiro romântico, que se torna um ator de grande sucesso e é sempre o apoio de Jude, até à sua morte.

É um livro de suscitou empatia da minha parte e conseguiu, de certa forma, abordar a questão de breviedade da vida e da importância das relações com os outros, sendo, desta forma, uma narrativa que força a reflexão sobre nós mesmos e consegue com que olhemos para a nossa própria forma de viver e reavaliemos o que temos e o que podemos fazer melhor, nomeadamente, em relação aos outros. No entanto, tem determinados pontos negativos que não consigo ignorar:

1. A vida de Jude, repleta de tortura, torna-se, a certo ponto, algo irreal, que dificilmente aconteceria. Claro que sendo uma obra de ficção é natural que possa ser exagerada de alguma forma mas esse não é de todo o teor do livro. Na minha perspetiva, a narrativa tenta sempre fazer tudo parecer real e visceral. No entanto, é altamente improvável que alguém sofra continuamente abusos, em locais diferentes, com pessoas diferentes e tenha uma vida de sofrimento constante, como Jude teve. Pesoalmente comecei a ficar com a sensação, a determinado ponto, que a autora tentou induzir empatia ao leitor forçosamente, escrevendo constantemente sobre episódios de tortura e auto-mutilação de forma gráfica e desnecessariamente longa, quase como se tentasse criar uma empatia "fabricada".

2.

Quando Jude e Willem se tornam um casal, o comportamento de Willem é totalmente fora do que seria de esperar do personagem. Willem sempre protegeu Jude e quis o melhor para ele, sempre estiveram juntos e tinham uma amizade especial que era apenas entre eles os dois, completamente diferente da amizade com Malcolm e JB. Willem nunca teve nenhuma atitude de mau caráter para com Jude antes de serem um casal mas, quando ficam juntos, Willem subitamente começa a ignorar os problemas de Jude com as relações sexuais  e não parece querer saber se Jude está desconfortável ou não. Certo que Jude sempre disse que não estava desconfortável mas Willem sabe, ele próprio o diz, que Jude se auto-mutila porque ter relações sexuais para ele é um sacrifício que tem que fazer para o bem da relação. E, mesmo tendo consciência disto, Willem não põe fim à vida sexual dos dois, apenas ignora porque Jude não o disse explicitamente (mais uma vez, Willem sabe que Jude dificilmente fala sobre o seu passado ou as suas dores de forma explícita).

Apesar destes pontos negativos, é um livro muito bem escrito, de leitura fluida e relativamente fácil. É importante mencionar que aborda questões muito sensíveis que podem ser um gatilho e que o próprio Jude e a forma como ele se vê e vê a sua vida (cap. Axioma da Igualdade, isto é, acreditar que porque tenho um mau passado e  fui determinada pessoa, o vou ser para sempre e é algo que não posso mudar porque é uma lei da vida) podem também fazer surgir sentimentos menos bons se o leitor não estiver bem psicologicamente ou se não tiver um pensamento crítico o suficiente para perceber que Jude apenas pensava dessa forma porque era uma pessoa traumatizada e fragilizada..  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Medical content, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Confinement, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Death, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

literary_luminary18's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Honestly I don’t really recommend this to anyone because it was purely a disturbing amalgamation of anything sick and twisted the author could think of:
Plot - non-existent 
Insufferable characters - yes
Demonisation of minorities - yes 
Any horrible thing a child/person shouldn’t experience was just crammed into a singular one-dimensional character and at the end of this book (if you even make it that far) you are left with a sense of horror and left with the burning question of ‘what the actual fuck did I just read?’ 

Content/trigger warnings:
-Basically anything that you could possibly think of

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Car accident, Ableism, Rape, Chronic illness, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

marmorienkeli's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

horrifying, sad, interesting, boring, annoying, hopeful, disturbing,

and please check trigger warnings before reading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Child abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug use, Car accident, and Child death

kiymariah's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I will not remember this as a good book at all. #Alittlelife  6/10 at best. Repetitive, cartoonish trauma porn , main characters turned to caricatures to fill plot holes and move the story along to a predictable end. I think I might actually hate this book despite a strong start . JB and Malcom had such potential. But thus is the fate of black characters written by non-black or single minded authors. It's almost cartoonishly wicked how jb becomes the black never do well of the group and Malcolm the half black lackey.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Addiction, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Abandonment, Grief, Car accident, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

bpina92's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

1.75

Don't read this book, unless you want to be incredibly sad and at times a bit bored. There are also so many triggering events that if you are not in the right headspace, then you'll really hate this book. Honestly, it could have been way way shorter if she had condensed some chapters or even left out some of the descriptions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Confinement, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Body horror, Bullying, Kidnapping, Rape, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Drug use, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Torture, Eating disorder, Suicide, Violence, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, and Dysphoria

18ksmith's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Violence, Mental illness, Rape, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Dementia, Ableism, and Drug abuse

Minor: Homophobia