Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

1573 reviews

natalialg236's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

annapus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, and Blood

libraryoflolabelle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Dysphoria

paris_nicole's review against another edition

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

I really loved this book. It is dark, deep and heavy. There is criticism over the amount of trauma portrayed and that the author is profiting off of tragedy, but I never had that sense. She sought out to write a book about how damaged people can be, sometimes to the point of no return.

The book is loooong (my version was over 800 pages), but it never felt like it was dragging. It is a very drawn out story, but the author's writing keeps you captivated. 

There are many, many trigger warnings. For that reason, I will be cautious when recommending this to others. 

I'm giving it 5 stars because I know I will never forget these characters and their stories, especially Jude. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

kati_'s review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Car accident

srkennedy1218's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

b00ksb4ppl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.0

I read this bc TikTok told me to. I love a devastating story but this was just unnecessary. 

Everyone (me included) crying and having intense emotional responses to the story- like yeah I’d hope so. That does not make it a good book. Creating a character and having horrific things happen to him to illicit an emotional response is not impressive IMO. 

3 stars still bc I was invested in Willem and Harold, sometimes Andy. 

I would not recommend this book though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

wheelylauren's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

zalesbian's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

Heartbreaking and unpredictable 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

vulcajes's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Oh my god do not read this book. It is 700 pages of shitty trauma porn and I hated every second. Jude isn't a likeable character (pity ≠ liked), Willem sucks, and I WISH Malcolm and J.B. had more time to shine. Malcolm is entirely ignored for the plot to revolve solely around Jude's continuous trauma and J.B. only comes up to traumatise Jude more. It's good to write about complex traumatic experiences but holy shit the entire book is just one trauma after the other. The whole moral of the story is that some people should just kill themselves after EVERYTHING Jude's adoptive parents did for him. Justice for J.B. and Malcolm, we never got a satisfying story for them, let alone an ending. Fuck this book royally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail