Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

995 reviews

victaphone's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

0.25

Every accusation of this being unnecessary trauma porn is true. It claims to be about the lives and friendships of 4 men, but not even half way through the book it's made very clear that this is all about Jude and all the awful situations the authour revels in putting him through. The heavy-handedness when it comes to Judes suffering takes away a lot of whatever impact the authour thought she was making. The few moments Jude *isn't* being abused are way more interesting, as we actually get a hint of his actual personality (what little there is of it), rather than being Yanagiharas punching bag. Jude is clearly written to be the main character, but the author doesn't give him much character to begin with, so all talk about him being "post racial" just feels like lack of commitment, rather than whatever radical thing the authour thought she was doing with that. Don't even get me started on the horrible representation of gay men, this is *not* "the great gay novel" and whoever said that needs their head checked (although they'd probably share Yanagiharas views on how therapy doesn't work). Overall, this was a waste of over 700 pages. Even though queer representation in books could be better, a book written by a straight woman where most if not all of the gay sex is rape and most of the "gay men" are just pedos should not be met with this much acclaim.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Dementia, Car accident, and Acephobia/Arophobia

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

kemia's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.25

This is a HARD read. I feel like the author’s sole intent was to create the saddest book every chance they could get. Nothing could ever go right. There was everything you can think of within this book to make you not want to continue reading. This book was not made to make you feel happy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Every abuse you can think. Every harmful thing to one person to themselves or another you can think of was in this book.

silly_dragon's review against another edition

3.0

This is difficult to rate. When I was reading it, aspects of the mc's internal narrative were so incredibly meaningful to me for how it articulated living your adult life with deep childhood trauma that is just a core part of you and will never not be. With more distance from the text, I kinda hate it. Most of the characters in this book exist to live, but the disabled poc trauma survivor mc exists to die. That's baked into the plot in a way that reads as a bit eugenecist in how it values different lives. Also, there's a whole thing that is presented as past trauma being part of a present relationship but is actually just sexual assault (and kinda acephobic) between two characters that we're supposed to love and root for. The parts of the book relating to physical disability very much appear to be written by an able bodied person. Also, I don't want to police the way a woman of color writes about race but it is weird for an Asian American woman to write so much about what it means to be a black man in america.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Acephobia/Arophobia

re acephobia and partner assault: in the relationship between two main characters, one character is unable to enjoy sex but does it anyway because they sort of think they have to, while the other knows the first person doesn’t want to have sex but pretends not to know out of a sense that not having sex in their relationship wouls be something horrible. The text does not challenge this beliefe. Re eugenics vibes: the main character, a queer poc disabled trauma survivor, dealing with chronic pain and ptsd, who is sexually assaulted many times in this book, exists to die. This death is in service of the story that goes on to center this character's (white, non disabled) fiance. It's not a good look

q_nel's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

malin11's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

tellatrix's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.75

𝐀 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 

𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐚 𝐘𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚

Disclaimer: Please note that this review may contain spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.

I just finished the book, and my vision is still a bit blurry from crying. Please excuse any errors in spelling.

This book taught me so much about life and made me realize how fortunate and ungrateful I can be at times. My problems seem so minor compared to what others endure. But then I think about Jude, who tried to convince himself that his past experiences weren’t that bad, that he deserved what happened to him. How could anyone, any human being, go through such trauma and believe they deserved it?

It was heartbreaking to see Jude blame himself. He trusted Brother Luke and went with him, thinking he cared. At that age, after everything he'd been through, wasn't it natural to cling to someone who seemed to care? Someone who saw him as a human being, not an object for gratification?

I loved the book's portrayal of each character. By the end, I felt like I knew them all, as if we were friends. I appreciated the development of each character, and I particularly enjoyed Harold, Andy, and Richard. I found them even more compelling than JB and Malcolm.

However, while the book was deeply moving, some parts felt repetitive. I understand the author's intent to portray Jude's cyclical existence, but it sometimes felt like there was little respite. I found myself feeling trapped and unable to continue reading, dreading what might happen next.

I was also disappointed by the deaths of Willem, Malcolm, and Sophia. These felt unnecessary and forced, particularly Willem's death in a car accident. It would have been more impactful if he had died of natural causes.

Despite these minor criticisms, my favorite quote from the book perfectly encapsulates its themes:

"And so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

machete0s's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail