Review by saint_eleanor - To Paradise

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saint_eleanor 's review for:

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

4.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Once again i am so blown away by Hanya Yanagihara's writing. I think this is a must read for everyone. I feel like she understands soft power better than any philosopher or marxist, especially this in combination with her amazing (and more disturbing) book 'The People in the Trees' . This book is like a triptych kind of with a bunch of different converging timelines and people in different stages of societal collapse. It's as much about love and relationships as it is about the downfall of society and human rights. I feel like so much of her writing can be traced back to the phrase 'it starts with an idea', and the like micro-aggression pyramid. I also can't understand how her writing is so slow-paced, but I cannot physically put it down. There is an underlying disturbing, upsetting feeling told through minor details that aren't even really integral to the story (the drowning, the rocking, the death of the twins), Hawaiian history, and the re-use of names for different characters gave everything a very Lynchian vibe. That two people are the same but they are in different times and spaces, the wormhole thing. Also the fact that this is truly a science fiction novel, idk I could go on and on. I think Hanya Yanagihara is an actual genius.

The only reason I took one star off was because I felt like the ending was building to something a bit more intense than what happened, although it did make me cry.

Content Warnings