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jorgechachas's reviews
37 reviews
A Little Life: A Novel by Hanya Yanagihara
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.5
A Little Life has minimal (if any) plot, and focuses on character development by unfurling the lives of 4 friends, but mostly the life of Jude St. Francis. Every character is well developed, but Jude holds you on edge while you're dying to find something, anything, about his past. When you do, everything starts making more sense.
The chapters are huge, and no matter how meaningless you think a section might be, Yanagihara always proves you wrong by throwing a single paragraph, sentence, or a couple of words that tear into you. Quite often I'd put the book down at a mundane section only to pick it up and read something debilitatingly tragic in the following page. But unfortunately, there were plenty of stints in this 800+ page book where I wished the author would've been more concise or even selective with her writing.
The story is violently depressing. So much so that it lost it's pungency in some sections and regained it in others. I'd be surprised if anyone could finish this book without crying, but it's surprising which moments elicited this response from me.
Many reviewers complain about the book as being nothing more than "trauma-porn" which, I think I wildly unfair and maybe even extremely naïve. Don't get me wrong, you could fill out an entire page of content warnings with everything that happens in this book, but we as readers should consider this: Although A Little Life is a work of fiction, not a single section in this book is unbelievable. In fact, the life described here is a life that someone (or just a small group of people grouped together) has closely experienced.
I'm unsure whether the few issues I have about this book are from a dissatisfaction of the story, or some of it's elements, but there are reasons holding this back from being a 5 star masterpiece in my eyes. These being (SPOILERS):
- An odd depiction of sexuality, but more so - the initially shoe-horned feeling romantic relationship between Willem and Jude that should've been condemned by all that care about either of them from the start, but was only supported. (By the end, the relationship seemed more positive, but this had the potential to ruin the story for me).
- Many of the most important people in Jude's life ultimately being spineless enablers, who couldn't as much as broach a subject.
- The insurmountable amount of money being collected and used, and everyone in the friend group and beyond being violently rich, successful, unrelatable, to the point that anything and everything was always possible without questions. Everyone (sorry to say, this includes Jude) ended up having a level of privilege that makes me roll my eyes; i.e. Jude spending months sick/recovering and finances never being any kind of issues or consideration.
- The aforementioned length of the book, which did in fact have some sections that would've benefited from brevity.
- (Nitpicky) Yanagihara overusing this specific sentence structure in a way that demanded re-reading: "They were friends - well, as much friends as they could've been given the circumstances handed to them by their lives - until then."
But a specific thing I loved about the book was it's progression of time. It was natural in the same way that aging feels as it is happening right now. You don't realize that you've gone from reading about them as 20 year old's to 30, 40, 50. It was extremely well executed.
This is a STRONG 9 out of 10.
The chapters are huge, and no matter how meaningless you think a section might be, Yanagihara always proves you wrong by throwing a single paragraph, sentence, or a couple of words that tear into you. Quite often I'd put the book down at a mundane section only to pick it up and read something debilitatingly tragic in the following page. But unfortunately, there were plenty of stints in this 800+ page book where I wished the author would've been more concise or even selective with her writing.
The story is violently depressing. So much so that it lost it's pungency in some sections and regained it in others. I'd be surprised if anyone could finish this book without crying, but it's surprising which moments elicited this response from me.
Many reviewers complain about the book as being nothing more than "trauma-porn" which, I think I wildly unfair and maybe even extremely naïve. Don't get me wrong, you could fill out an entire page of content warnings with everything that happens in this book, but we as readers should consider this: Although A Little Life is a work of fiction, not a single section in this book is unbelievable. In fact, the life described here is a life that someone (or just a small group of people grouped together) has closely experienced.
I'm unsure whether the few issues I have about this book are from a dissatisfaction of the story, or some of it's elements, but there are reasons holding this back from being a 5 star masterpiece in my eyes. These being (SPOILERS):
- An odd depiction of sexuality, but more so - the initially shoe-horned feeling romantic relationship between Willem and Jude that should've been condemned by all that care about either of them from the start, but was only supported. (By the end, the relationship seemed more positive, but this had the potential to ruin the story for me).
- Many of the most important people in Jude's life ultimately being spineless enablers, who couldn't as much as broach a subject.
- The insurmountable amount of money being collected and used, and everyone in the friend group and beyond being violently rich, successful, unrelatable, to the point that anything and everything was always possible without questions. Everyone (sorry to say, this includes Jude) ended up having a level of privilege that makes me roll my eyes; i.e. Jude spending months sick/recovering and finances never being any kind of issues or consideration.
- The aforementioned length of the book, which did in fact have some sections that would've benefited from brevity.
- (Nitpicky) Yanagihara overusing this specific sentence structure in a way that demanded re-reading: "They were friends - well, as much friends as they could've been given the circumstances handed to them by their lives - until then."
But a specific thing I loved about the book was it's progression of time. It was natural in the same way that aging feels as it is happening right now. You don't realize that you've gone from reading about them as 20 year old's to 30, 40, 50. It was extremely well executed.
This is a STRONG 9 out of 10.
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
adventurous
emotional
reflective
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
3.5
A fantastic idea that tells a story all-too common and soberingly believable (to an extent).
Cosby's writing is entertaining and to the point. The book wasn't filled with fluff and didn't leave much time to be bored, but my issues more so came with the voice/dialogue of the book.
I understand this tells a story of two men learning about queer love and acceptance, as well as sprinkling some lessons about race, but the way these lessons were verbalized by the characters felt shoehorned. So often these conversations left me absolutely cringing. They're something I would expect from an instructional video, not from a novel. From the abrupt introduction of "allyship" to utilizing "white privilege" as some kind of battlecry, I just couldn't handle the odd conversations these people had as they felt so unnatural and sterile.
The ending of the book also suffered from spontaneous discovery, which I find very annoying.
Action was top notch and amazingly written though. I enjoyed the story being told and think it's a book worthy of being picked up!
I'm feeling a 7 out of 10.
Cosby's writing is entertaining and to the point. The book wasn't filled with fluff and didn't leave much time to be bored, but my issues more so came with the voice/dialogue of the book.
I understand this tells a story of two men learning about queer love and acceptance, as well as sprinkling some lessons about race, but the way these lessons were verbalized by the characters felt shoehorned. So often these conversations left me absolutely cringing. They're something I would expect from an instructional video, not from a novel. From the abrupt introduction of "allyship" to utilizing "white privilege" as some kind of battlecry, I just couldn't handle the odd conversations these people had as they felt so unnatural and sterile.
The ending of the book also suffered from spontaneous discovery, which I find very annoying.
Action was top notch and amazingly written though. I enjoyed the story being told and think it's a book worthy of being picked up!
I'm feeling a 7 out of 10.
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
5.0
Amazing, quick read from start to finish. The small cast is enjoyable to learn about. You share the suspense and worries that the characters have. The author does an amazing job of placing you in the midst of all the horror.
Too bad the film managed to change everything that made this novel iconic.
Too bad the film managed to change everything that made this novel iconic.
It by Stephen King
4.0
Some of the best character development that has even been written. Extremely easy to make connections to every protagonist in the novel. The backstories and idiosyncrasies will keep you glued.
Weighed down by unnecessary sections that take a huge portion of the book. The horror aspect was not scary at all to me (sometimes silly), but the people and storyline itself make it an overall enjoyable read.
King unfortunately went off the deep end during the ending parts too.
Weighed down by unnecessary sections that take a huge portion of the book. The horror aspect was not scary at all to me (sometimes silly), but the people and storyline itself make it an overall enjoyable read.
King unfortunately went off the deep end during the ending parts too.
The Shining by Stephen King
5.0
This novel is infinitely better than the Kubrick adaptation. The best I've read from King yet.