Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

167 reviews

delisouseyelids's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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

3.75

WHY IS IT SO SAD

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Car accident, Drug use, Sexual content, Sexism, Racism, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Self harm, Rape, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Classism, Homophobia, Gore, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Ableism, Death of parent, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Addiction, Bullying, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Medical content

dkrawec's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

3.75

I'm torn over what to rate this so I will separate it between the writing style and the actual subject matter.

Writing style: Wow! I have not read such a captivating style of writing in a long time. This book is over 800 pages and I found myself speeding through it due to how well it's written. In a given chapter, a scene would begin, move into a flashback, switch to a future moment, toss in a vignette, and then return to the original scene all while being easy to follow and not lose the plot. It almost felt cinematic and it was clearly well thought out. It never felt circuitous. 

The subject matter: Someone on Goodreads said this book was misery porn and I'd have to agree. Jude's life is gratuitously unfortunate to such an extent that it becomes frustrating (at times I literally was rolling my eyes, which feels inappropriate given the subject matter but it was just so much I was like, bro...🙄). It's almost as if all the events that keep happening to him are just for the sake of misery writing and less about what it builds for his character. The only thing that kept me reading was how eloquent and compelling the author's wordsmithing is. I definitely can say I've never read abuse, self harm or depression in this style of writing (which is kind of bizarre to say, but I do think it's a testament to Hanya's talents). However, again, much of it was excessive to say the least.

Fortunately, a lot of the material chronicles the main group and they're complex relationships amongst one another. Reading about how their friendships evolved over the course of their lives from college to late adulthood had me looking forward to the next chapter. I would say about 30% of it could have been cut out due to the excessive misery writing but the remaining portion was awesome. If some of it had been cut, this review would have been five stars without a doubt.

With that in mind, I would recommend it for the style of writing but avoid it if you do not want to read about highly triggering events surrounding self harm, abuse and depression. I'm definitely going to check out Hanya's other works because the style of writing was truly immaculate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Child death, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Body shaming, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Hate crime

samburkhouse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Death, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Confinement, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Addiction, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Suicide, Chronic illness, Self harm, Child abuse, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

armygdala'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? Yes

5.0

I should have never started this book, but now that I've finished it, my life feels incomplete without this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Confinement, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Abandonment, Car accident, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Blood, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Rape, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Chronic illness, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Sexual harassment

mhjmojo'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holy. F*ck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Chronic illness, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Homophobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Physical abuse, Self harm, Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Violence, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical content, Alcohol, Blood, Suicide, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Hate crime, and Suicidal thoughts

birdghosting's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

This is a book that will stay with you for a very long time, for better or for worse. It seems you either love or hate this book, and I came out loving it (even though I ugly cried through over 20% of it—and it's a long book).

As someone who usually reads fantasy and not much set in the real world, I could not put this book down once I got past the introductory section. It was very easy for me to get attached to Jude, who the entire book revolves around (I didn't even realize when starting that this is mainly his story). I was rooting for him the entire way through, desperately wanting to know more about him at each turn as it would offer me something new as a treat.

The characters all felt like they lived real and true lives, and written to perfectly match how you're meant to feel about them in that moment. Even certain characters who I loved the whole way through made errors that I hated reading about, thought to myself that I wouldn't forgive someone doing that to me—and that's life. The relationships everyone has with each other, not just with Jude, are the strongest part of the book.

I'm not used to reading such long prose, but it was very enjoyable. I did have several moments where I would start reading one sentence and get lost among the different branching off thoughts and ideas the single sentence goes through, and I'd have to return to the beginning of the sentence to remember what it was meant to be about. This would also happen with chapters, which would sometimes go into a completely different topic than where we first started before finally circling back around. There was also a lot of academic and legal talk that made me wish I were going back to university, and I didn't have a good mind map of the locations and geography talked about, which makes me curious if someone who knows New York well would be able to picture it clearly.

I think about this story at least once a day.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Stalking, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Grief, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Terminal illness, Drug abuse, Torture, Drug use, Gaslighting, Blood, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Transphobia, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Classism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

catkin_'s review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Violence, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Vomit, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Torture, Pedophilia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, and Abandonment

cfdurham's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

You deeply feel for the characters, even in their worst moments. Many, many, many trigger warnings — the pain endured by one of the characters was more vile than I could even imagine before reading this. This is some of the most beautiful writing I’ve encountered. Even so, I don’t think I would recommend this book to anyone. You’ll experience characters in a way you have never before, and you will feel everything: good and (very) bad. Read if you are able to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Torture, Blood, Ableism, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, and Body horror

arihana's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Child abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Ableism, Car accident, Chronic illness, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Death, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abandonment, Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

lhaen's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Grief, Child abuse, Alcohol, Abandonment, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Drug use, Addiction, Car accident, Body shaming, Blood, Violence, Torture, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Death, Sexual violence, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Eating disorder