Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Una vita come tante by Hanya Yanagihara

74 reviews

erikaleilani's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Ableism, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Addiction, Blood, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Trafficking

jodierose14's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

emmacrooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

ale_roselyn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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: Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

kyrab's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

lukas_schwaab's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

docrobreads's review against another edition

dark 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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

posey_norgaard'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Heart wrenching tragic and painfully sad, this book is very hard to read at times. However, It is written in a way that makes you invested in the characters relationship to each other and you genuinely feel like they’re palpable people, it never feels forced in that way. It gives beautiful descriptions of everyday interactions and makes you appreciate, and feel for the found family it depicts. The times that made me emotional in this book was the love and care that these people show for each other.

You get submerged into these characters world view, and understand their decision, even when you were in opposition to them. I felt like you could tell who’s  head you were in when the POV changed. I also found the life analogies to stay with me after closing the book.

It contains a lot of horrific and graphic trauma, and I would highly recommend to read trigger warnings before going into this book. I don’t think it romanticizes the trauma and it’s denseness to me, shows the thought that went into this book. It is not a book written for entertainment. I believe it is meant to convey the importance of human connection, through immense trauma, and how they shape us as humans, for better and for worse.

For being such a long book, I never found it to drag, it flowed very easily. The usage of language in this book is what really stood out to me and that is probably what I like the most. There were parts that I didn’t enjoy that are mostly all spoilers, and some of the ways that the book is building, felt a tad too much like trying to inflict as much pain as it could muster, where I would maybe have liked some more character arch instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

badspringbye's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

2.0

 I've been putting this on hold for four days now because I still can't decide whether to give it a 3 or 4 stars. now I'm giving it a 2. 

it's hard given the fact that the writing style left a great impression on me, simple use of language yet sophisticated that it even raised my standards for books (not until I was tired of Jude's role). however, the whole point of the story is to make the readers experience the characters' torments and sufferings in their little lives, but it didn't work for me. the only moment that made me sob was

Harold's adaption of Jude

because I was touched, that one I could say is remarkable. everything before up to that part was a mess. I was agitated most of the time. and I read it for three weeks.

it started out so good that I thought I was going to see more of their journey as four but it was all jude jude willem jude jude with some andy and unfortunately jb and malcolm as extras. it's also too unbelievable to have all of those people around him who "love" him only to serve as enablers all throughout his life since they met him. man it took them decades.

some that are already mentioned in other reviews (just stating it again for no reason) that I think are Factual:
- all those miseries are way too impossible to happen in one person. on top of that, the perfect one, straight As in school, successful litigator and excellent at work but unable to decide things outside of his career.
- all of them turning a blind eye to the evidence of self abuse
- everyone is always saying "im sorry" repeatedly, thus, sorrow loses all meaning. too overused praised that the title could even be changed from A Little Life to I'm Sorry
- misery porn; jude being broken to fix; no character development; no help from others no finding ways to cope up with his illness just pain for the sake of pain;
- etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Drug use

sofiesreadingworld's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? N/A

5.0

*English review below*

Jude St.Francis is het meest mysterieuze lid van zijn beste vriendengroep die bestaat uit JB, Willem, Malcolm en zichzelf. Hij vertelt nooit veel over zijn eigen leven en weet het gesprek als een expert zo te laten lopen, dat het zeker niet om hem draait. We zien deze vier jongemannen opgroeien vanuit hun studententijd, waar ze elkaar in dezelfde kotenblok hebben leren kennen.

We leren al snel de achtergronden van de 3 vrienden kennen; JB groeit als jongen vaderloos op tussen de succesvolle vrouwen, Willem verliest op jonge leeftijd zijn hersendode broer en even later ook zijn norse ouders en Malcolm groeit op tussen het geld, wat hem op jongere leeftijd nog geen problemen oplevert, maar later misschien wel... Maar Judes verleden? Dat blijft lang, heel lang, voor zijn vrienden en naasten verzwegen. Als lezer krijgen we wel eerder een inkijk via de Judes eigen gedachten en dromen, of eerder nachtmerries.

Doorheen het boek groeien deze jonge mannen, met de nodige tegenslagen en obstakels, uit tot hun volwassen versies die nog steeds onverwoestbaar met elkaar verbonden zijn.
Beetje bij beetje komt de lezer Judes (traumatische) verleden te weten, samen met het heden van Jude en zijn vrienden. Per hoofdstuk en deel verandert de protagonist (en vaak ook de periode), wat een interessante wending geeft aan het lezen. Zo moet de lezer in de eerste zinnen of pagina's te weten komen over welke van de vier vrienden het nu juist gaat. Niet altijd gemakkelijk omdat er constant over 'hij' of 'hem' gesproken wordt.

Bovenal is dit boek een echte rollercoaster van emoties, maar kortom kan ik meegeven dat het gaat over het LEVEN. Wat de auteur waarschijnlijk in zijn reinste vorm wil afbeelden, want het leven zit vol tegenslagen, maar heeft zeker ook zijn positieve kanten en wordt aan elkaar gebonden door de mensen die we leren kennen en welke relatie we met ze aangaan. Niet te overzien zijn ook de verschillende trigger waarschuwingen voor dit boek. Deze zijn op vele plaatsen terug te vinden voor mensen die er persoonlijk vatbaar voor zijn. Maar laat deze waarschuwingen je zeker niet afschrikken als je toch dit vaak besproken en geprezen boek zou willen lezen, het is zeker de moeite waard.

Ik heb de dwarsligger versie gelezen, vandaar het pagina-aantal. Het was de eerste dwarsligger die ik las, en vond het wel een leuke ervaring, zeker omdat ik pijlsnel doorheen de kleine paginaatjes vloog. Ook een superhandig formaat ten opzichte van de standaard A5. Het paste gewoon in m'n broekzak en dat tijdens mijn 2e coronavaccinatie ;). Ik ga dit boek ook zeker eens in het Engels herlezen omdat ik geen fan ben van vertaalde werken naar het Nederlands.

Jude St.Francis is the most mysterious member of his group of closest friends. Besides him, there are Willem, JB and Malcolm. He never talks about his life as a child and knows how to turn and twist the conversation in a way that it's never about him. In this novel, these four young men grow up starting mainly in their time as students where they met each other in their dorm.

Fairly quickly, we get to know the backgrounds of Jude's best friends; JB lived as a fatherless child amongst the successful women in his life, Willem loses his braindead brother at a young age and not much later, also his grumpy parents while Malcolm enjoys the benefits of a wealthy family, for now... But Jude's history? Is being kept concealed for a very long time from his friends and loved ones. Luckily, the reader gets an insight into Jude's past earlier on through his own thoughts and dreams, or nightmares I should say.

Throughout the book, these young men grow up, with the necessary obstacles and pitfalls, to be their adult versions of themselves which remain indestructibly woven together.
Little by little, the reader learns about Jude's (traumatic) past, and at the same time also his and his friends' present. Each chapter and part has its own protagonist (and often also period in time), which really gives an interesting twist to reading this novel. This way, the reader has to read the first few sentences or pages to find out who is speaking. Not always easy to do because 'him' and 'his' are used very frequently.

Most importantly, this book is a pretty heavy emotional rollercoaster, but in short I can say that this book really is about LIFE. Which I think the author really wanted to depict in this novel. Simply because life is often filled with hardship, but also has its positives and it's being woven together by the people we meet and what relationships we have with them. Not to mention the various trigger warnings for this book. These can be found in many places for people who are personally sensitive to them. But don't let these warnings put you off if you still want to read this often discussed and praised book, it is definitely worth reading.

I'm definitely going to reread this book in English because I am not a fan of works translated into Dutch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Slavery, and Abandonment