Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

4006 reviews

word_slinger's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

This book is difficult to get into, but once you do all bets are off. It took me 50 pages to get caught up in the characters, and then I couldn’t put it down. There are hundreds of trigger warnings and some have called this book “trauma porn,” but I think that does it an injustice. Are there a lot of really difficult moments? Yes. But those moments all show the connections between people and the way in which life, death, love and everything else are part of the human experience. The writing devastatingly beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, and Sexual assault

ophi_dprt's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

Where do I start?
I feel overwhelmed with emotions. I feel like I went through four, five, six different lifetimes. Jude’s, Willem’s, JB’s, Malcom’s, Harold’s, Andy’s…
I never felt as strong emotions as I felt while reading. And I felt everything. Happiness, sadness, exhaustion, despair, anxiety. Yanagihara managed to put the reader in the shoes of the characters and we FEEL for them, with them, as them.
Beautiful doesn’t begin to describe this book. It’s a metaphor of life. If it’s cruel sides but the beautiful ones as well. Of love, it’s complexities, but its greater beauty. Of loss, the pain far greater than anyone could imagine, no matter how they prepare for it. Of happiness, which blinds you and tricks you until life strikes again and you find yourself stranded, lost, back to a place you foolishly forgot.
This book taught me of the beauty of life, of love. It will stay with me, for a very, very, very long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

laurelgarver's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

A deep and haunting story of four college buddies that eventually narrows in focus to the most troubled of them, disabled orphan Jude. 

It does at times seem to lean toward trauma porn, this guy’s life story is just that over-the-top horrible at nearly every turn. The way folks rally around him is inspiring but equally troubling (his physician friend Andy in particular). 

The length alone makes this one a big commitment to read, and it covers emotionally difficult subjects. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

wyabook234's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

When it comes to A Little Life by Hanya Yangihara, some people called this book a masterpiece, while others have been giving it a reputation as being "trauma porn". While I rated this book to be about four stars, it almost came to three because, at the late beginning, I was considering my thoughts about this book.

The book meanders initially with a simple plot other than snippets of Jude's troubled past at the monastery and the gang's interactions with each other. It was when the book got to the aftermath of a dangerously abusive relationship within the Axiom of Equality that Jude finally finds a semblance of romance and comfort with a romantic partner who is willing to share his life with him. That is when the narrative got me invested in the lives of these New Yorkers, how Jude's coping mechanisms are affecting all of them, and how they bring emotional destruction instead of peace within their relationships. Speaking of trauma, it does give a depressive insight into how trauma can last with a person and pertain them with wrong ideas on how to deal with that trauma when they get older. Even if it feels like the traumatic experiences that happened to Jude throughout the narrative are overdone, it can be argued that they further played up the emotional manipulation. This type of manipulative enticing for the reader's sentiments is one of the accusations that the book is accused of pushing within it's writing, even when the literary execution is well-written and enriched. When looking at these strong male bonds and how they, unfortunately, deteriorate when traversing from young adulthood to late fifties, it will be tough to see how they all disintegrate when you feel like the feelings of love and friendship have dried up by the end. 

A Little Life has issues concerning its pacing, and the inclusion of the more disturbing abusive and medical events makes it feel like they are doing too much with detail in expressing how much a person can take. However, the book can be applauded for showing how a person can be so "broken" by their past and how it can take a toll on other people's emotional states, especially William, who's constantly pushed to his breaking point through the later half of the book. Whether you believe the story itself or Jude is enveloping or scheming to trigger you into tears, it's still a novel that unfolds much effort to let you see the enormity of their anguished lives. 

A Little Life is good but it's not better in my eyes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, and Self harm

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Car accident

Minor: Child death and Vomit

breekehler's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.5

Took me a year and a half to finish this book. An Incredibly heart breaking read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

dadabondoc's review against another edition

sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Violence

miapecnik's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

i started reading this book expecting the worst. people called it boring, trauma-p*rn, said the main character was insufferable etc.
i couldn't disagree more. the writing is gorgeous, i struggled to put the book down, i fell in love with the characters and wept like a baby by the end of it. i cannot give the book any less than 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

mjrawls418's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

First off, this book needs to come with some serious trigger warnings, and by some i mean all of them. Honestly, reading this book was exhausting and had me irritated consistently. I can completely empathize and understand where the MC struggled but I find it difficult to feel connected to a story when the character doesn’t want
To help themselves in the slightest. Glad to be done with this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

linzygetslit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Car accident

epatten's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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