Reviews tagging 'Classism'

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

11 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Another sadly beautiful book, it is it a beautifully sad book?, by Hanya Yanagihara. Haunting. It’ll start with me a long time, just like A little Life. Grateful to have read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Deportation, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racism, and Terminal illness

becksusername's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

I'm crying in a coffeeshop.

I want to know if they made it to paradise - all of them. Even the first David, who was a spoiled brat. But especially Charlie

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Classism, Infidelity, Infertility, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Murder, Sexual assault, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Chronic illness, Toxic friendship, Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Bullying

bell4trixx's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.75

This is one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful books I’ve ever read. It’s not an easy read, but it’s beautifully written and really makes you think. Also it’s so jarring in a way because it’s dystopian but in such a realistic way that it’s really quite disturbing. Really makes you think but definitely a heavy read. Also my biggest complaint is a I hate  the cliffhanger it was left on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Death

Minor: Classism, Genocide, Mental illness, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Violence

aseel_reads's review

reflective slow-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? It's complicated

2.75

This book was way too long for what it tried to deliver. I did like the message/the whole point of the future pov but I do think there were some messy mental health rep, that bordered on problematic. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Death, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

CW: pandemic, lab testing on animals, armed police, dystopia, military law, radicalisation/terrorism, chronic illness, seizures, environmental destruction, arranged marriage, internment camps etc.

Spanning roughly 200 hundred years this is a book about a world similar to our own but subtly different. It starts in the 1890s in an America which has some areas where it is legal to marry anyone you wish. It discusses 1990s in the same place only with a backdrop of the looming spectre of HIV. The final part is in the 2090s after waves of pandemics have changed the face of the First World into a dystopian vision of strict controls and segregation.

The book discusses health and frailty, chronic illness, being gay, the idea of inheritance and Legacy, life and treatment of migrants of ethnic minority, and love, feud, vulnerability, and .. people being people.

When I got the audiobook I had no idea it was such a long read (over 900 pages or 28+hours in the Audiobook) but the story wasn't really slow.. it just had a LOT in it. It seemed a poetic decision to have a recurring set of names and places. Partly this was to reinforce the continuity of lineage, inheritance and flow of time. Looking at things from different cultural perspectives over time highlights the changes caused by the passage of time, but also the similarities.

This book is artful and tells the stories within it through letters, memories, and stories told to others. It leans hard into the Hawaiian / Pacific Islands' oral tradition, and also highlights the place of those shared stories we tell each other, and how they cement families and communities. It also shows how that knowledge can be so fragile and be lost to time when ideas are not shared or if they cannot be passed on well.

This story starts as a piece of historical speculative fiction, but the latter parts of the book are set in a police state. Published in 2022, this book clearly channels a lot of the common ground we have experienced in the face of global pandemic. Freedom of information, and the radicalisation of rebels and conspiracy theorists against government control, are sympathetically highlighted by the use of main characters on both sides of the fence, one working for the government to limit the casualties of disease, and one fighting against government misinformation and lack of social freedoms.

For all the big ideas, the thing that really sells this whole book to me is the solid characters. The feelings expressed and the stuff they are going through really resonate with me. A number of the characters over the span of the book deal with anxiety, trauma and  chronic physical illness. The relationships formed are often oddly unbalanced, either due to finances, physical/emotional frailty, or even just charisma, and the problems those couples have feel very real to me.

I could go on, but it would be too much. The characters were believable and human, and representation of disability and mental illness was relatable. The discussion of migrants and ethnic minority was an element I valued, and I loved that with the use of Hawaiian language I could still pick up one word in three due to its similarity with te reo Māori (which I  only have a very basic familiarity with).  This was a really good book, and I should have read it last year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Homophobia, Ableism, Cannibalism, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Violence, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Grief, Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Bullying, and Rape

Minor: Alcohol

rachaelwho's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Could've used a firmer editor. Lots of unnecessary repetition, and a dickensian tendency to over-describe everything. Would've been more impactful, I think, at about a third shorter.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Police brutality, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Deportation, Hate crime, Sexual content, Slavery, Colonisation, Medical content, Sexism, Ableism, Death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Animal death, Chronic illness, Infertility, Rape, Religious bigotry, Genocide, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and War

qqjj's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Classism, Death, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Infertility, and Infidelity

franklola's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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: Grief and Death

Moderate: Child death, Rape, Terminal illness, Classism, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

Minor: Cancer

catesm's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Classism, Cursing, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Police brutality, and War

sabotheking's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This book does not need to be as big as it is. I found it incredibly overly descriptive, info-dumping that did not drive the plot forward in any way shape or form, and it made it hard to figure out what was actually important to know. Author does have a way of writing that makes the story stick with you, and I did find the relationship between Grandfather and Grandaughter in book 3 really emotional and well fleshed out. Did NOT like the random commentary on black, asian and indigenous people that were downright offensive and served no purpose other than to piss off the reader (me). The 3 stories had no relation to each other. The theme of paradise felt really messily and hastily put in towards the conclusion of each story. There really was no conclusion to book 1 and 3, they were left very open ended and they felt as if the author did not know what to do with the story anymore and just hastily said "THE END BYE". Enjoyed the twist in the conclusion of Book 2 of the father, but the conclusion of the son was lacklustre at best. The conversations around the struggles of Kanaka Mauli in Hawai'i felt more like a criticism on them rather than the US and that felt off. However I am not Kanaka Mauli so I cannot speak for them, I would love to see and hear about opinions that they have of this book. There were so many valid conversations that this book raised but they were brought up and then led to nothing. It tried to do so much, while if it only focused on the characters it would be a far more enjoyable read. The characters had barely any development themselves, however I do think it was pretty interesting how all the main characters, while being in their 20's, all felt like I was reading about children. I had a lot of sympathy for the main characters, except for David jr. In Book 2. What kept me reading was the relationships. I thought they were interesting to read about, I would've loved more from that because there so much that could be talked about but it also felt very surface level which was disappointing. I wouldn't recommend reading this book, but I don't necessarily think I wasted my time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Body shaming, Gore, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault