Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Ein wenig Leben by Hanya Yanagihara

3462 reviews

celery's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Body shaming, Car accident, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Grief, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

nnoammoa's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Child abuse, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, Rape, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Self harm, Death, Mental illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Car accident

quinnlindell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Suicide, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual assault

sachisoutham's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

The most disastrously beautiful book I've ever read. 
Tackling major issues and confronting the reader with heartbreaking and painful trauma as the book follows decades of adulthood for four male friends in New York.  This book made me sob until I couldn't breathe and I would let it do it to me again.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Car accident, Blood, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Homophobia, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Rape, Sexual assault, Self harm, and Panic attacks/disorders

psychedelic_koala's review against another edition

I genuinely don't know how I feel about this book. In some ways, I thought it was amazing. It was just so, so dark. 

It got too much for me while struggling with suicidal thoughts myself. I'd never recommend it, but not because it's bad. It's just as close to being emotionally traumatic as a book can get

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Self harm

syonkerstalz's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Ableism, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Violence, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Suicide, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Blood, Mental illness, and Sexual violence

nuka_zip's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

1.5

After struggling through this book for about 2 months (normally, I'm a fast reader) I finally finished it today. I've been wanting to stop reading this book after about 60 pages but I forced myself through because I wanted to understand why so many people seemed to love this book.
Now I finished reading and while at times, I couldn't put it down (it's like a car crash, you just can't look away), I still don't understand the hype at all. If someone who loves this book dearly, could please tell me why, I'd be really grateful.
I have a few thoughts about it though...
First of all:
The chapters are way too long for my liking. I know this is subjective, but I personally think it would have been good to break up those immensely long chapters into smaller sections. Especially, since there are perspective shifts or recountings of the past in the chapters. Why not split those up into separate chapters? But again, this is subjective.
Secondly:
It is perfectly fine to show a realistic depiction of self-harm and sexual abuse and all the things Jude struggles with and suffers through. Trigger warnings would have been nice though.
Another thing that bothers me is that apparently, the author didn't research anything about living with disabilities or the mental health issues that someone with Jude's background might have. That is not to say that she can't write about themes and topics outside of her lived experience. But if you are going to write about these topics, I feel it is your due diligence to educate yourself on them. I myself am able-bodied and cannot speak on behalf of the disabled community, but I feel that the message of the book, that some people are just too broken to "fix" (and in general the use of the words repaired or fixed in regards to Jude's disabilities) is really gross.
A thing I have read several times as well, is that the characters feel super real and fleshed out and I also take issue with that. On the first 100 pages or so, we get a bit of a sense of the other characters, like Malcolm and JB, but very soon they take a step back and at some point just feel sprinkled in to advance the plot. We read of Malcolm anytime Jude moves apartments or builds a house and then that's it. Any of the other times he is mentioned, you might as well strike out his name and it wouldn't make a difference. JB is a little more fleshed out but he too feels very reduced to his profession, apart from

the arc about his addiction

. I have nothing to say about Willem, as he is a pretty fleshed-out character, even though I can't wrap my head around his behavior sometimes.
In general, I can't wrap my head around how these characters navigate Jude's mental illness at all. Especially in contrast with how they handled

JB's addiction and how they quickly started an intervention and forced him to get the help he needed

. The fact that they didn't do that with Jude in the earlier parts of the story, where he already is very ill and in need of professional help, is beyond me.
To conclude this review rant, I think the overall message of the book is very gross. The notion that some people are just beyond help and that there's nothing you can do about it is disgusting to me . I've seen people compare mental and physical health a lot in this regard, and while in many ways it is a fitting comparison, it doesn't apply here. Your body healing/not healing has nothing to do with how you feel about it. Your mind healing has everything to do with how you feel about it. If I had read this book when I was a little younger and at the peak of my depression, I don't think I would be alive today. When you are in that depressed mindset, nothing feels like it will get better again, even though it might and there are people who love you, and actually confirming that in the way this story did could be really dangerous. Especially since a lot of young people are currently reading this because of Tiktok. Accepting help is not selfish. You are never truly alone, even when it feels like you are. There are people who love you and want to help and see you happy. Don't listen to what your brain is trying to make you believe. Listen to the people you love and who love you.
It does get better. It will be different, but it will be okay.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Violence

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

3.75

Beautifully written and heartbreaking. Trigger warning for everything you can think of. I will never read this book again 👍

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Pedophilia, Grief, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Body shaming, Addiction, Sexual assault, Ableism, Sexual violence, Rape, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

megshughes_13's review against another edition

emotional slow-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

just too long. the repetitiveness got a bit much, nothing ever changed or got better. i understand it’s meant to be realistic so. the writing was great. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide attempt, Death, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Sexual assault, Grief, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Physical abuse, and Medical content

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

5.0

This book is beautiful and the relationships between characters is so great, especially between Jude and William. The book is beautifully written. However this book is extremely sad, traumatic, and hard to read. It truly broke me over and over again. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death and Eating disorder