Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Ein wenig Leben by Hanya Yanagihara

2548 reviews

abby_grace04's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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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mvdd1's review against another edition

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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

5.0


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edencho's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense 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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tazch1701's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-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

3.0

The prose of this book is exquisite. Adored the writing of the friendship dynamic. Especially appreciated Willem's thoughts regarding Jude, his career, his parents etc. It felt very real and really grounded the character.
With regards to Jude, I wish there was more of an exploration of his thoughts and how his adverse childhood shaped his self worth as an adult. It was easy to extrapolate the fact that what happened to him as a child is what makes him act the way he does as an adult, but I specifically would have liked to have seen an explanation of that in his own words/ inner monologue.
I have a major issue with the end. It could have been a brilliant way to explore how choosing to take the steps to recover doesn't always mean you will recover. Or the fact that recovery is not linear, that normal is different or almost has no meaning at all when your childhood has been so wrought with strife. An aspect of mental health I think is ill explored is the very real risk of actually not seeing improvement despite leaning on a support system and taking steps to get better, if the book explored that it would have felt complete. Instead, it ended in a way that makes the book seem like its only purpose was to make Jude suffer physical abuse from either other or himself.  Not to say Jude's ending didnt make sense, given what happened to Willem I fully understand why he did what he did. But it robbed readers of an ending that would have left us a little more enlightened and equally as heartbroken.
I still have to rate the book fairly highly despite how much I hated the ending because its taken up so much space in my mind and its taken me almost a year to properly articulate my thoughts on it.

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janhac28's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring 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

3.25


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eikaia's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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


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chiawo's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5


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isis_wm's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Incredibly well written. Usually I’d consider an 800-page book quite a challenge, but reading this went so easily. There were moments where I couldn’t put the book down, but there were also times it felt like I wasn’t progressing. I don’t deny the fact that it’s a great book, but I do think that the author kept on stacking trauma upon trauma to make the main character’s suffering even more intense even though just a singular traumatic event would have defined him already. I don’t see the need for so much suffering here, not because it hurt me to read that but because it was simply not necessary. The severity of trauma is not necessarily measured by the amount of times it has been inflicted upon someone. The traumatic events were also quite random in a way they happened in a sequence defined by too much coincidences regarding time and people if that makes sense. Besides all of this I do admire the diversity of the characters, the way the story is connected from beginning to ending and how well the author describes emotions

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queenpashon's review against another edition

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

3.75

As someone who has suffered from lifelong augment with depression and social ideation,  I would NOT recommend if you deal with those issues 

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littletoopalta's review against another edition

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challenging 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

5.0


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