Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Małe życie by Hanya Yanagihara

51 reviews

alisonannk's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

5.0


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stitchbooks22's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

This book was heartbreaking with beautiful writing.

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denisescoffeebreak's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

This book broke me, but I knew what I was going to get from the get go and I think that’s where many people have trouble with this book.
I think it was written beautifully, at some point it wasn’t reading but almost like watching the scenes of a movie right before my eyes.
We know from the start of the book that Jude is such a troubled character and that really does make you affectionate to his character - he isn’t against recovery, he just can’t excuse it for himself, he grew up learning to only allow pain in his life and that itself it’s such a difficult thing to unlearn. 
There wasn’t any need for William to do a proper coming out, even his relationship with Jude didn’t really revolve around their sexuality but the respect and trust in each-other, so why is there a need to specify their sexuality? who cares. 
The book was indeed very very heavy on the subjects but in my opinion it was expected - I think it’s not a reason to bash the book, that’s low key what it is known for, it is not an easy read, which is why I (like many others) suggest you check the trigger warnings before reading. 
I sometimes had to put down the book to take a big breath but that’s what made me like it even more, it touched me enough to have a physical reaction lol.
One thing I didn’t like it’s yet another representation of a toxic gay love story, although again (sorry) expected in this book (that I know it’s not known for it’s”love story” though, which is good). 
Anyways five starts because it really touched me and I couldn’t put it down. :)

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aliceelizabethb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25


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grboph's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

Wow. I think it's going to take me a while to process this one. It was, without a doubt, one of the best-written books I've ever read, and I hardly ever feel emotions about stories and their characters as acutely and strongly as I did here. The characters were also incredibly well-thought-out and memorable. However, I do feel that most of its plot was just eight hundred pages of the most horrible, trauma-porn-y things imaginable happening to absolutely everybody involved. I definitely did not enjoy reading this book in the traditional sense - I finished it because I wanted it to be over, and knew the bad things were coming but couldn't stand not knowing exactly what they were. Even with this, the last hundred or so pages were the hardest to get through of the entire book because I knew exactly what was coming, and I almost wish it had stopped at the end of the "Dear Comrade" section because then things would have been a bit more ambiguous and I could have feasibly imagined that the book would end happily. In short, I'm not mad I read this book, and I know I'll be thinking about its characters for a long time to come. I'm also definitely going to read more of Yanagihara's books in the future because the strong emotions I felt while reading this book are really a testament to how amazing of a writer she is. However, I don't think I'll ever read this book again or recommend it to anyone else, just because I don't think I could put myself or anyone else through that degree of emotional pain again.

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luciiee's review against another edition

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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


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gigireadswithkiki's review against another edition

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

1.0

This book is absolutely wretched (derogatory), for a plethora of reasons. In no particular order and to varying degrees of fucking awfulness: 

  • The fatphobia: this book constantly ridicules fat persons, both in the language that is used to craft their existence, or in the way that these characters are treated by others (see: JB). 
  • The transphobia: in one scene, a side character is having, what is presumed to be, a transitioning party. At no point within the text does the author nor the characters switch their use of pronouns after learning this. 
  • The friendships: I've heard people talk MANY times about how this book is such a good marker of friendship. It is not. The friendships in this book are unhealthy, borderline abusive. The characters hold their friends on pedestals, refusing to see any flaws from their friends. The OTHER OPTION is that the characters view their friends suffering and flat out, selfishly refuse to see past it, as if nothing is wrong.
  • The depiction of queer relationships: Yanagihara disgusts me. The constant depiction of MLM relationships as something "wrong", as something "disgusting" eventually culminating to Queer tragedy felt so utterly wrong. She did not handle Queer issues with any grace, instead choosing to force trauma upon trauma upon Queer characters
  • The trauma: at a certain point in the book, I started to roll my eyes at the amount that Jude suffered. Not because he deserved it, but because each time the reader thinks things might get to a place that is okay, Yanagihara thrusts something in the readers faces, as if to say "NO! LOOK! LOOK! ACTUALLY IT"S JUST BAD!" I don't fucking care that she intended this book to be a reflection of cherishing life's happy moments. What came across was horrendous. 
  • The self harm: after a number of repetitions, the self harm in the book felt so fucking blasè. Yes we know this character is harming themselves. why the fuck did you feel the need to detail every single tiny detail of it. every. single. time. To what purpose does this serve but to the author's disgusting twisted sense of shock value. 

I don't know why i finished this book. I truly don't. I'm reevaluating the last couple days of my life and the use of my free time. Don't read this book. If you're looking for depictions of trauma on a similar scale but with ACTUAL meaning and purpose within a story, just read The Poppy War for christssake. 

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emmahansen's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

5.0


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melisayasilem's review against another edition

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dark sad 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

4.25

You could say that none of the characters -who you become very much attached to by the way- deserve what happens to them. You feel what they feel, go through what they go through. I knew what I was getting myself into before I began reading this book, but it still hits you hard. I didn't find myself as affected as others whom I've seen their reviews saying nobody should read this book because it is f'ed up- and this could be because I read this over a period of months instead of a couple days or even weeks. Regardless, it still succeeded to leave a deep impact.

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introverted_reads's review against another edition

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

5.0


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