Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
And the award for greatest disappointment in 2022 goes to.... this book!
I was so excited to read To Paradise. I loved A Little Life, and so when this book came out I ran downtown to buy it on my lunch break the day it came out. I once dressed up in costume and waited in line with a group of friends for a new Harry Potter book, but this was even more exciting for me. New Hanya Yanagihara!
It started out well, I thought. I was really taken with the first few chapters, but then it just kept going at the same pace, the same intensity, the same droning page after page. There was nothing exciting about the plot, the characters, the ideas, nor especially about the writing. By the end of part one I was supremely underwhelmed, and honestly quite bored. Part two picked up with the same energy - yawn. So I read a few reviews to see if things get better, and they mostly indicated that they don't.
I can't recall the last time I didn't finish a book, and yet, here we are.
I was so excited to read To Paradise. I loved A Little Life, and so when this book came out I ran downtown to buy it on my lunch break the day it came out. I once dressed up in costume and waited in line with a group of friends for a new Harry Potter book, but this was even more exciting for me. New Hanya Yanagihara!
It started out well, I thought. I was really taken with the first few chapters, but then it just kept going at the same pace, the same intensity, the same droning page after page. There was nothing exciting about the plot, the characters, the ideas, nor especially about the writing. By the end of part one I was supremely underwhelmed, and honestly quite bored. Part two picked up with the same energy - yawn. So I read a few reviews to see if things get better, and they mostly indicated that they don't.
I can't recall the last time I didn't finish a book, and yet, here we are.
Just finished this book, maybe I should wait to review, but I won’t.
Book 1: It read like a classic novel, which may be why I found myself underlining the most lines in this Book. Often slow and about nothing, but interesting in its own ways. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a page turner by far.
Book 2: This was an easier read. It had me intrigued. It was split into two parts that I wish circled back more at the end, but oh well. (Spoiler: Are you telling me that he fell asleep reading a 100 page letter and then his bf had time to read that letter before he woke up..?)
Book 3: This was just… an incredible, apocalyptic, pandemic ridden experience that kept me up far past my bed time on multiple occasions. I agree with most reviews I’ve seen, that this book is the best, and had it been a standalone novel it would be a 5 star review.
Overall, I found the relation between the books to be confusing. I didn’t need a map of the country on the cover, I needed a family tree. And the repetition of names got to be too much for me. Maybe that is something I can come to appreciate, but right now I’m still trying to work it all out. After finishing, it’s hard to understand how she wrote these 3 books with different narratives, formatting, and genres, and felt inclined to put them side by side.
I wish the books had been tied together more, but it also really got me thinking. Older generations had lived just as vivid lives as ours, but truly have nothing to do with us. We aren’t the same, and their ambitions don’t really mean anything to us. I try to relate book 3’s characters to book 1’s and their problems and interests are so different — and they will never live how the other lived. It’s crazy and insane and I’m still thinking about it.
I’m so torn on how I feel about books in general with endings that aren’t wrapped up — I don’t want an ending all laid out for me, but I would like to know some answers. In To Paradise, everything was left open ended—which is of course the point of the novel—I’m just trying to decide if I like that or not.
The way Yanagihara talks about the relationship between a parent and a child felt so in-depth and unique to me, and is something I will be thinking about for long after this review. This book explores romance, marriage, death, youth, health, morality, corruption… truly everything, and it didn’t feel spread thin. Every piece had it’s moment.
It feels almost rudely unnecessary to say that this did not live up to A Little Life, obviously. Nothing ever could, I wouldn’t want it to!
Quotes:
“He felt at times as if his life were something he was only waiting to use up.”
“I would never have considered my parents’ lives a part of mine.”
“—and realize too that he had given his last years of youth to a man who made him old before he needed to be.”
“We went to funerals and to hospitals, but we also went to work and to parties and to gallery shows and ran errands and had sex and dated and we’re young and stupid. We helped each other, it’s true, we loved each other, but we also gossiped about people and made fun of them and got into fights and were shitty friends and boyfriends, sometimes. We did both—we did it all.”
Book 1: It read like a classic novel, which may be why I found myself underlining the most lines in this Book. Often slow and about nothing, but interesting in its own ways. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a page turner by far.
Book 2: This was an easier read. It had me intrigued. It was split into two parts that I wish circled back more at the end, but oh well. (Spoiler: Are you telling me that he fell asleep reading a 100 page letter and then his bf had time to read that letter before he woke up..?)
Book 3: This was just… an incredible, apocalyptic, pandemic ridden experience that kept me up far past my bed time on multiple occasions. I agree with most reviews I’ve seen, that this book is the best, and had it been a standalone novel it would be a 5 star review.
Overall, I found the relation between the books to be confusing. I didn’t need a map of the country on the cover, I needed a family tree. And the repetition of names got to be too much for me. Maybe that is something I can come to appreciate, but right now I’m still trying to work it all out. After finishing, it’s hard to understand how she wrote these 3 books with different narratives, formatting, and genres, and felt inclined to put them side by side.
I wish the books had been tied together more, but it also really got me thinking. Older generations had lived just as vivid lives as ours, but truly have nothing to do with us. We aren’t the same, and their ambitions don’t really mean anything to us. I try to relate book 3’s characters to book 1’s and their problems and interests are so different — and they will never live how the other lived. It’s crazy and insane and I’m still thinking about it.
I’m so torn on how I feel about books in general with endings that aren’t wrapped up — I don’t want an ending all laid out for me, but I would like to know some answers. In To Paradise, everything was left open ended—which is of course the point of the novel—I’m just trying to decide if I like that or not.
The way Yanagihara talks about the relationship between a parent and a child felt so in-depth and unique to me, and is something I will be thinking about for long after this review. This book explores romance, marriage, death, youth, health, morality, corruption… truly everything, and it didn’t feel spread thin. Every piece had it’s moment.
It feels almost rudely unnecessary to say that this did not live up to A Little Life, obviously. Nothing ever could, I wouldn’t want it to!
Quotes:
“He felt at times as if his life were something he was only waiting to use up.”
“I would never have considered my parents’ lives a part of mine.”
“—and realize too that he had given his last years of youth to a man who made him old before he needed to be.”
“We went to funerals and to hospitals, but we also went to work and to parties and to gallery shows and ran errands and had sex and dated and we’re young and stupid. We helped each other, it’s true, we loved each other, but we also gossiped about people and made fun of them and got into fights and were shitty friends and boyfriends, sometimes. We did both—we did it all.”
so i have many thoughts on this book. first of all i had mixed opinions about it throughout the story, but for being a 700 page long book i was invested for most of it. the topic of different types of father son relationships is executed really well. i would recommend readers to go into this book with no recollection of little life because they are extremely different. also if you are a person who needs closure on characters and their plot lines; this is not the book for you. overall i thought this was a great book, the story was there it’s just so dense. i could talk about this book way longer than i need too, but that would just be annoying.
This started out promising, lulled in the middle, and ended up mildly intriguing…but ultimately it was disappointing. Especially considering it was 700 pages and from the author of one of my favorite books, A Little Life. 3 stars only because it kept me just engaged enough to finish it. Otherwise, I’d say 2.5 stars.
A phenomenal novel. Spanning three different timelines, three different iterations of David, Edward and Charles work their way through an eras difficulty, often boiling down to a loved one, the figure who wants to keep them safe, and the figure who promises something else, something more, that poses a risk to that stability. Will you be satisfied at the end of this novel? No. Will it stay with you, nonetheless? Yes. Like the characters on this novel, the reader is left yearning, halfway to paradise and resolution. And isn’t that something special? To be enthralled and frozen, just one step away from paradise, wondering if you will ever make it?
slow-paced
Took a bit to get into each story but by the end each one was super good. She certainly has a way with words
i have a lot of thoughts and most of them are not positive
edit: ok sorry my thoughts are a little scrambled but i had time to think and here they are
i loved a little life and i hated the people in the trees. i put off reading this for a year because i was afraid that i was going to put all this energy into reading a 700+ page book without any payoff.
my major (initial) issue with this book is the structuring. three separate stories that have no relation to one another besides the names of the characters and the home in washington square park. it's a cool concept, yes, but ultimately did not do.. what yanagihara wanted it to do, IMO. it felt like she had three different novel ideas that could have been individual books that she never fully fleshed out, and instead centered the story on this one home to create some kind of link between the stories? i hate that each story is left on such a cliffhanger and we get no clarity or any kind of explanation of the characters lives or stories
in the first story, the rewriting of america's history felt... uncomfortable to say the least? in this 1890's version of america, the south succeeded from the US bc of gay marriage; which, interesting, though yanagihara doesn't rly touch on the subject of race in any meaningful way, which feels... weird. we follow a character who is boring, a gay man who wants to leave the safety of the free states that his family fought (and paid $$$) for, to follow a mysterious, poor (and possibly evil) man out west, where homosexuality is illegal. just when his story finally starts to get interesting, we finally reach the conflict in the story, the narrative is cut. we never return to this story. just when it's starting to get good!!!
the second part of the story takes place in 1990's, aids epidemic in NYC. the story is split in two; the first about a relationship between a young gay hawaiian man dating an older white lawyer (again living in the same washington square apartment. also all the characters throughout each book have the SAME NAME when they're completely different characters which was incredibly confusing and weird. like why not just change the names i don't understand why she chose to do this) the second part of the story is a .. letter? the mind of? the hawaiian man's father who is about to die. his story is so pointless; him lamenting about the life he lived in which he does absolutely nothing in terms of making his own choices. he's manipulated by this other man to live off the land /essentially become homeless for no apparent reason? and instead of leaving (he's given MANY opportunities TO LEAVE and expresses multiple times he WANTS TO LEAVE he continues to stay because he can't make any decision) this was my least favorite story out of the three
the final story takes up at least half of the book, and at the longest story, takes place in a dystopian 209o's version of america. i actually really liked this story and kind of wish we just had this one because with some editing i think this could've been really good. at the same time, i'm so over reading about pandemics 'post-covid'; especially a facist police state created out of necessity after 4 or 5 pandemics throughout the 21st century. (ALSO the main character, who at one point was a lively little girl, becomes sick during one of those pandemics and she gets a vaccine that completely alters her personality and also sterilizes her and i was like ok.. it's giving anti-vax???) i did like the story line and the switching between timeslines/the letters but like, i don't understand why this alone couldn't have been a book. PLUS, at the central conflict, THE STORY ENDS! we don't get any clarity, no closure!
i am sad that i disliked this book so much because i do think hanya yanagihara is a great novelist, and i do like her writing and the emotional depth she builds for her characters. but this... was incredibly disappointing to me
edit: ok sorry my thoughts are a little scrambled but i had time to think and here they are
i loved a little life and i hated the people in the trees. i put off reading this for a year because i was afraid that i was going to put all this energy into reading a 700+ page book without any payoff.
my major (initial) issue with this book is the structuring. three separate stories that have no relation to one another besides the names of the characters and the home in washington square park. it's a cool concept, yes, but ultimately did not do.. what yanagihara wanted it to do, IMO. it felt like she had three different novel ideas that could have been individual books that she never fully fleshed out, and instead centered the story on this one home to create some kind of link between the stories? i hate that each story is left on such a cliffhanger and we get no clarity or any kind of explanation of the characters lives or stories
in the first story, the rewriting of america's history felt... uncomfortable to say the least? in this 1890's version of america, the south succeeded from the US bc of gay marriage; which, interesting, though yanagihara doesn't rly touch on the subject of race in any meaningful way, which feels... weird. we follow a character who is boring, a gay man who wants to leave the safety of the free states that his family fought (and paid $$$) for, to follow a mysterious, poor (and possibly evil) man out west, where homosexuality is illegal. just when his story finally starts to get interesting, we finally reach the conflict in the story, the narrative is cut. we never return to this story. just when it's starting to get good!!!
the second part of the story takes place in 1990's, aids epidemic in NYC. the story is split in two; the first about a relationship between a young gay hawaiian man dating an older white lawyer (again living in the same washington square apartment. also all the characters throughout each book have the SAME NAME when they're completely different characters which was incredibly confusing and weird. like why not just change the names i don't understand why she chose to do this) the second part of the story is a .. letter? the mind of? the hawaiian man's father who is about to die. his story is so pointless; him lamenting about the life he lived in which he does absolutely nothing in terms of making his own choices. he's manipulated by this other man to live off the land /essentially become homeless for no apparent reason? and instead of leaving (he's given MANY opportunities TO LEAVE and expresses multiple times he WANTS TO LEAVE he continues to stay because he can't make any decision) this was my least favorite story out of the three
the final story takes up at least half of the book, and at the longest story, takes place in a dystopian 209o's version of america. i actually really liked this story and kind of wish we just had this one because with some editing i think this could've been really good. at the same time, i'm so over reading about pandemics 'post-covid'; especially a facist police state created out of necessity after 4 or 5 pandemics throughout the 21st century. (ALSO the main character, who at one point was a lively little girl, becomes sick during one of those pandemics and she gets a vaccine that completely alters her personality and also sterilizes her and i was like ok.. it's giving anti-vax???) i did like the story line and the switching between timeslines/the letters but like, i don't understand why this alone couldn't have been a book. PLUS, at the central conflict, THE STORY ENDS! we don't get any clarity, no closure!
i am sad that i disliked this book so much because i do think hanya yanagihara is a great novelist, and i do like her writing and the emotional depth she builds for her characters. but this... was incredibly disappointing to me
I should get credit for three books after reading this one . . .I can’t say Yanagihara is an enjoyable author to read, but she gives you plenty to think about.