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lucyblackbirdreads 's review for:
To Paradise
by Hanya Yanagihara
This is not A Little Life.
This will not wreck your soul like A Little Life did.
I feel like I needed to say that first because I went into this fully prepared to feel the same emotions that I did when I read that book, and I did not.
I wavered between two and three stars, settling on three because goodreads doesn't know what half stars are. It was almost painful to rate it so low, because my expectations were so high, but here I am.
I loved the writing. Yanagihara is an amazing writer who constructs such vivid images.
I loved the discomfort I felt in reading about situations where it felt so close to what could be our future if things keep going the way they are.
I didn't love the story. Okay, strike that, because I even loved the story..... Except when I didn't.
I am sitting here, having finished it, trying to figure out why the three stories are together. Yes, themes are the same, but what was the point? Character names are the same, but didn't seem related in any way - unless I completely missed something, which is possible. I just didn't get why it was set up the way it was, and am very frustrated over it. I was given snippets of three stories with no real conclusions to them. The third one had more meat to it than the other two, but was still unsatisfying.
The unsatisfactory feeling is what made me rate it the way I did. I'll still read her work, I'll still get excited when I see a new novel is coming, but this is not one I'd easily recommend to others.
This will not wreck your soul like A Little Life did.
I feel like I needed to say that first because I went into this fully prepared to feel the same emotions that I did when I read that book, and I did not.
I wavered between two and three stars, settling on three because goodreads doesn't know what half stars are. It was almost painful to rate it so low, because my expectations were so high, but here I am.
I loved the writing. Yanagihara is an amazing writer who constructs such vivid images.
I loved the discomfort I felt in reading about situations where it felt so close to what could be our future if things keep going the way they are.
I didn't love the story. Okay, strike that, because I even loved the story..... Except when I didn't.
I am sitting here, having finished it, trying to figure out why the three stories are together. Yes, themes are the same, but what was the point? Character names are the same, but didn't seem related in any way - unless I completely missed something, which is possible. I just didn't get why it was set up the way it was, and am very frustrated over it. I was given snippets of three stories with no real conclusions to them. The third one had more meat to it than the other two, but was still unsatisfying.
The unsatisfactory feeling is what made me rate it the way I did. I'll still read her work, I'll still get excited when I see a new novel is coming, but this is not one I'd easily recommend to others.