Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

1463 reviews

fictional_meg'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

4.5


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kylajaynebooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0


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andulkaw6's review against another edition

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

5.0


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aedod's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.75

This book is an absolute heartwrencher. Think of just about any trigger warning, and you’ll need it for this book. If you want a good cry I recommend this; not for the faint of heart.

What makes this a 5 star book for me was not the (admittedly perhaps overdone) tragic plot, but the prose and the characters. I enjoyed the writing style and its focus: friendship, and love. The untraditional format of writing that spanned several decades makes for an appropriate stage for the scale of the emotional content contained within. The ins and outs of living and the way we internalize and share our past. The way we bring past traumas into our relationships. The way we drive ourselves and determine what life is for, and why it’s worth it. It’s philosophical in many senses; practical in others. The way that the characters consider each other rings so true. 

I ugly cried twice during this read. 

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elanorh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-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

5.0

No spoilers here: I was told that this book was amazingly well-written, beautiful, and that I would love it. Also, the person who recommended it told me they had cried for the last fifty or more pages of the book. So, fortunately, I knew not to read it in public. I was crying off and on within the first 100 pages, but was a fountain for the entire last section. Don't read it in public. 

I was also told that while it was a beloved book, she didn't think she'd be able to read it again. And I feel similarly. I loved the characters so much, I wanted so much good for them, and I grieved with/for them, I felt like I knew them. 

Pay attention to the content warnings. This book should not be read by someone who has struggled with suicidal ideation.

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kmyles12's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

Prepare to have your heart ripped to pieces, and instead of being put back together, ripped into tinnier pieces. Absolutely phenomenal. The writing style feels like a good friend is telling you a story. There is profound hurt and sadness, but also even more profound love and care. Top 3 favorite book.

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addythebookbat's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75


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saritachr's review against another edition

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

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megmahoney1's review against another edition

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

4.0

My heart is in a million tiny pieces.

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sapphoxes's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.0

As sad and traumatic as everyone says it is. Can ramble on at times, but not in a way that’s detrimental to the book. The kind of story where you’ll have to put it down and take breaks. It was described to me as an essential gay read, but I didn’t see it that way. 

The story, to me, was largely about abuse and how it can bleed out from what happens to one person throughout their life and into the lives of the people around them; how it can spread. Yes, I believe abuse to be a part of the queer community in a way that historically it is not in the straight community (speaking as a queer woman), but I do not think of abuse as the sole most important aspect of queerness or even queer history. This is all to say that yes, the characters are queer, and yes, abuse is prevalent,  but a story about queer people being abused does not automatically define it as a book about queerness. If anything, I found it to be more about the abuse of the disabled, be that mentally or physically, and how abuse in childhood will inevitably follow a person into not just their adult life but the lives of everyone they keep close. 

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