vganesh's reviews
29 reviews

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

dark sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

i dont even know how to word my thoughts but this book was not what i thought it would be

mild spoilers 

the amount of detailed descriptions of self harm and horrific trauma felt unreasonable/unnecessary, and in some ways, i felt decieved by the book supposedly being about 4 friends - it is about a number of people and how they feel they are so responsible for this one person and that they are right to be responsible FOR him. i felt like the moral of the story was "things don't ever get better"

that being said i genuinely don't know how i will be able to stop thinking about this fucking book the final 200 or so pages were the best in my opinion. life changing in many ways some good some bad.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, and Sexual violence

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

4.0

wow

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

3.25

so it goes


i think i must give this a reread eventually. i think 

Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

heavily disliked

the way lee died

because it felt so much more rushed than any of the less important ones but otherwise pretty good and interesting 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

dark tense slow-paced

3.5

absolutely nothing happens in 90% of the book but i think the setting is somewhat interesting. almost painful how slow it was though 

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.5

this book made me physically nauseous at a certain point and im going to need to think about the ending for a week before starting something new

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Murder

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.

the fact that. idk ill come back to it i couldnt do the stream of consciousness the whole book though its challenging for sure

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

really really insightful