Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

8 reviews

orlagal's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Animal death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Excrement, Fatphobia, Suicide, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Gaslighting, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

sber8121's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Rape

demeryg's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

4.0

4/5 
Hanya Yanahigara is a wonderful poetic writer and their world building is top notch.
That said, I hated Norton from the very beginning 😡 so if the intention was to have some contrast between the beautiful island world and history of Ivu’ivu and the mysognist, racist, colonizing, selfish opinions of Norton Perina- then Yanahigara nailed it.
Trigger warning: sexual assault against children.
Interested in reading more of their work, but I think I’ll need something a little lighter after this.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Colonisation, Fatphobia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Misogyny

jennifercrowe's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

This is the worst book I've ever read.  This book would get negative stars from me if that was possible.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Fatphobia, and Rape

readerinthedale's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.75

This was an impressive book from a critical perspective- Hanya Yanagihara created an immersive alternate universe through this fictional biography. It is  realistically arranged and structured to appear as a nonfiction book, which is amazing especially for a debut novel. Unfortunately our main character is awful. He is intentionally a bad person, but reading his autobiographical account of his crimes, actions, and opinions is at times overwhelmingly off-putting. I often had to put the book down and struggled to pick it back up because his thoughts were so disgusting. I am glad to have finished and was impressed by this work overall, but at the same time I hated it because I hated Norton. In this case it is a sign of a successful work by the author, but also an unpleasant feeling as a reader.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Colonisation, Dementia, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Body horror, Excrement, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

burnt_amber89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It is hard to say that I loved this book, but I think I did, in a twisted kind of way. At least, I loved to hate it. It took a while to get into the story and even when it gets really good, the book feels long. The first 100 or so pages failed to impress me, but it gets much better later on so hang tight ! At the beginning, we get to follow the main character in his youth. He is particularly unlikable, most situations are rather dull and don't seem to bring anything. Be prepared for some graphic and disturbing descriptions of animal abuse and death, several times throughout the book. 
When the character starts his adventure on the island, however, even through I still found him insufferable (and misogynistic), I thought that the prose and the world-building were absolutely gorgeous, albeit still sprinkled with some graphic details here and there, that sometimes seem a little gratuitous. I loved following their adventures, had gotten really attached to the "dreamers", and could really visualize every plant, flower, creature, character... that the author imagined.
The last part of the novel is enthralling, I really felt strongly simultaneously for and against Vi, and continued to detest Perina, while also understanding, somehow, where he comes from. 
Hanya Yanagihara really has a knack for describing the most dreadful things in a beautiful way that brings out so much emotion in the reader.
I initially thought that the numerous footnotes would be a hassle to read and I thought I would skip them, but I ended up usually really enjoying them. It turned out to be an effective way of adding content and context, even though skipping then probably wouldn't alter the experience either. 
Overall, this is a very unique experience that I would not recommend to anybody, but if you like being challenged, if you want something both unpleasant and gorgeous and if you are ready to tackle the numerous, numerous trigger warnings, then you should probably give it a try. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, and Suicide

Minor: Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder, Stalking, and Trafficking

booksbyjazz's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Excrement, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Ableism

shukriabdullah's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Rape

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Fatphobia