Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

2100 reviews

black_swan_3000's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Suicide attempt

evefinn06's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

chr_car's review against another edition

Yes, I DNFed "A Little Life"! And for one reason in particular: the impact it had on my mental health. I thought I was prepared going into this book. But OMG did I underestimate the effect the story could have on my mental health. Before delving into this a bit more, I'd like to say that the book itself is beautifully written and contains characters felshed out in a way that I haven't seen/ read anywhere else. However, as you spend more and more time in Jude's head, it can have a tremendous (!) effect on your own mental health as well as your reading experience of the book. I read approximately 70% of the book, so I'd gotten relatively far into the story and read some of the most gut- and heart-wrenching scenes of my entire life. I felt especially repulsed (yes, repulsed!) when the meaning of the book title was revealed. I also found some of the relatively detailed self-harm scenes hard to digest. What I also found frustrating after a while was the fact that there was no improvement of Jude's mental health, even when he was in his happy years. Yes, I know that this is supposed to show that even if you have a strong and loving support system around that you and your mental health won't necessarily get better, as this has to come from within. But because of this, your reading experience feels more like an incessant downward spiral than (finally) coming up for fresh air to release some of those negative emotions. And those few moments of levity provide very little comic relief. Maybe I'll pick up this book some time in the future. But for now, I have to put it down and start the new year with something more light-hearted.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

rnallory's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

I love crying so this book was a great pick for me

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

kaseyalmo's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

aimyob's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

anh_read'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

4.25

Although I enjoyed reading this novel, I couldn’t recommend this book to anyone. So please check out the trigger warnings as there graphic and explicit description of many very traumatic events. 

I wish this book would have explored more on the friendship between Jude, Willem, JB and Malcom. But as the story progressed, the latter two characters vanished to the background, and the focus was very much on Jude, his traumatic past and its effects/consequences. Furthermore, the end was predictable, and due to all the sheer number of traumatic events and their very graphic descriptions, I felt rather numb about everything towards the end.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Physical abuse, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Car accident, and Abandonment

djenkin96's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.25

I loved this writing however there were stretches where I struggled. A very heavy devastating book. Some inconsistencies and over explaining. The author teased devastating things and gradually explained them and it just got worse, I thought when will this stop ! 

I Enjoyed pages  1-450, struggled 450-600, enjoyed 600-650 cried 650 to end. Interesting to compare to others who were contradictory. 

I loved Willems character right until the end. This part broke me

Overall i feel like this was a good book to end the year on and start fresh with something a bit more cheerful and different.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

williamchenjun's review against another edition

dark sad tense 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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

kayleighdawnlarsen's review against another edition

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail