Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

1983 reviews

acgarci2's review against another edition

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

iveyrenee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I lost track of how many times I cried reading this book so many emotions so sad so frustrated just so much only not 5 starts because I have to reread multiple parts because the random pov shifts caught me off guard sometimes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

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 

---

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

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.

---

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

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

---

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

or_angie's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

alleywolf's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

The story of Jude and his friends tore me to shreds. It was beautiful and tragic. But the love from your chosen family is what saves us and I believe Yanagihara captured that perfectly in this story. I think about it on a daily basis, not kidding.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

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.

---

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

---

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

anto_03's review against another edition

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and Car accident