Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

203 reviews

hvokey's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Hate crime, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, and Vomit

fabycamurugy's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

frootymeli's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

what the fuck was that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

litah'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

read if you want to cry

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sxrxh_lenx's review against another edition

challenging 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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia and Suicide

ladybergart's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

5.0

This book broke my heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

jadenlmhaynes's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense 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

3.25

This is a good book, really beautifully written and with some loveable characters. But, it definitely does not need to be this long. Some passages are so drawn out, it seems only to hit a particular word count, at times. Also, as many people rightly say, this book covers just about every trigger warning I can think of. But the combination of horrific scenes and drawn out passages makes trauma almost sensationalised in this book. Similarly to hitting a word count, it is as if Hanya Yanagihara was trying to hit every possible traumatic incident possible, for some kind of sensationalism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

sw317's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

melisayasilem's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

You could say that none of the characters -who you become very much attached to by the way- deserve what happens to them. You feel what they feel, go through what they go through. I knew what I was getting myself into before I began reading this book, but it still hits you hard. I didn't find myself as affected as others whom I've seen their reviews saying nobody should read this book because it is f'ed up- and this could be because I read this over a period of months instead of a couple days or even weeks. Regardless, it still succeeded to leave a deep impact.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Dementia, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Excrement, Car accident, Outing, and Classism

This book is not for the weak, it gets very graphic in some chapters and you might have to put it down for a bit. But it also makes you want to continue reading because you get very attached to the characters. Sexual assault and suicidal thoughts are very much present, to the point where you sometimes have to think hard to understand why the character thinks that way.

amelieks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Okay I have a lot to say about A Little Life. (Review may be a little graphic) 

First, let’s address the elephant in the room; read this at your own emotional risk. The list-no-pages of trigger warnings are not for nothing. Yanagihara takes you through the ringer in A Little Life. She leaves you raw- She’ll slowly peel pieces of your skin away until you’re fully freaking raw and then she’ll start throwing the punches. One after the other. Now there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the shocking elements in this book, stating that it’s torture-porn, shock value and all that stuff and, you know what? I would have thought so too, had I not read an article about how her publisher asked her to tone it down and she declined, stating that this was the point of the book. 
Yes it’s over the top and yes some of it might be overplayed but that IS the point. It drives the message home; trauma is ugly. It’s ugly and sometimes you don’t get to heal. This book will NOT romanticize these things, they will be presented at face value for what they truly are. 

Now with that aside; this book is one of the most beautiful pieces of fiction/media I have ever consumed. It’s in my top three favourite books (Top two, even, side by side with Starless Sea. I know, I see the contrast.) The characters, you just fall in love with them warts and all. You root for them, cry for them, sometimes you want to gives them a punch in the face but at the end of it all you freaking love them. 
The timeline of this book is all over the place but in the best of ways. Hanya Yanagihara weaves through time with her characters so smoothly you don’t even realize she’s doing it. 

I can’t recommend this book to anyone with a good conscience. I read this book to challenge myself and it was painful to read. Very painful and, well, yeah; triggering. Do I regret it, though? No. I’ll likely never read this book again, but it will always have a place on my favourites shelf. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia