Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Een klein leven by Hanya Yanagihara

59 reviews

birdghosting's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

This is a book that will stay with you for a very long time, for better or for worse. It seems you either love or hate this book, and I came out loving it (even though I ugly cried through over 20% of it—and it's a long book).

As someone who usually reads fantasy and not much set in the real world, I could not put this book down once I got past the introductory section. It was very easy for me to get attached to Jude, who the entire book revolves around (I didn't even realize when starting that this is mainly his story). I was rooting for him the entire way through, desperately wanting to know more about him at each turn as it would offer me something new as a treat.

The characters all felt like they lived real and true lives, and written to perfectly match how you're meant to feel about them in that moment. Even certain characters who I loved the whole way through made errors that I hated reading about, thought to myself that I wouldn't forgive someone doing that to me—and that's life. The relationships everyone has with each other, not just with Jude, are the strongest part of the book.

I'm not used to reading such long prose, but it was very enjoyable. I did have several moments where I would start reading one sentence and get lost among the different branching off thoughts and ideas the single sentence goes through, and I'd have to return to the beginning of the sentence to remember what it was meant to be about. This would also happen with chapters, which would sometimes go into a completely different topic than where we first started before finally circling back around. There was also a lot of academic and legal talk that made me wish I were going back to university, and I didn't have a good mind map of the locations and geography talked about, which makes me curious if someone who knows New York well would be able to picture it clearly.

I think about this story at least once a day.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Dysphoria

Minor: Fatphobia, Transphobia, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

malace0's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Eating disorder and Racism

Minor: Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Abandonment

sarahdr_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

The only reason why I'm not giving the book 5 stars is because it's such a heavy read— but the writing is deeply compelling, the characters are painfully raw and real and their internal monologues are beautifully (and depressingly) reflective of one's loveliest and most grotesque thoughts.

I'm glad and proud of myself, even, that I read this, but I will never pick this book up again nor will I recommend it to the people I love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

howlchemy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

EDITED: it's been however long after reading this and i have new opinions.
i'm not taking back my 5* rating, because i (unfortunately?) really enjoyed this book and there are certain aspects to which i relate to but, after months of pondering, i cannot recommend this book anymore. and i am very sorry to the people i have recommended this to.

a really good way to start this is by letting you guys read this article by andrea long chu for the vulture: https://www.vulture.com/article/hanya-yanagihara-review.html.
or also, a youtube video:
https://youtu.be/JpZF7O0jezg?si=pWTZBw6LiELRv7Tz

it took so long, but i finally opened up my eyes to the writing style, plot and to the author herself. for a really long time, i did not believe that were people were saying that hanya loves to write gay characters suffering but oh my god, she really does. it's some weird, f*cked up fetishising view on gay people, specially men who seem to be the focus of her books. she's always writing about the most stereotypical things about gay man (like having aids, being victims of SA and/or physical abuse, etc) and some of us have fallen the tiktok rabbit hole of eating this sh*t up.
in a lot of ways, i relate to jude, hence why i have loved this book and i always backed up my opinion by saying jude is the personification of so many people (as if he's the bearer of all the possibly bad things that can happen to a human being), but i simply CAN'T agree with myself. hanya yanagihara just loves writing about weak, sickly young gay men being tortured beyond comprehension. there's never a happy ending, and i know it doesn't have to, but yanagihara probably gets off on seeing miserable people.
not to mention that she is so uncultured, to an extent that made ME feel uncultured. the things that went over my head because she, quite literally, triggered me so much to the point of sobbing on my couch at 10 am finishing this godforsaken book. i think it gave me trauma. this woman has done zero research about the queer community, about therapy, about mental health - all topics she has mentioned over and over and over again in her book(s). she quite literally believes that, if you're so miserable, just k*ll yourself! .... anyway, bold of her to think that way when she coddles her characters so badly, she makes them suffer, nurses them back to health, to put them again at the brink of death, just to repeat the process all over again, until it's time to push them off the edge.
another note i'd like to make, related to my last point, is that "a little life" is just your average ikea manual instructions on how to self-harm. this was brought to my attention in the video i have linked above, and i think it's absolutely mental the amount of times yanagihara writes detailed, gore filed, vomit inducing passages of self-harm. as someone who struggles with that, at first, i felt seen but it came to a point that i couldn't fathom why the depictions had to become more and more disturbing as time went on.

to finish my thoughts, i leave you with my favourite quote from the article by andrea:
"The first time he cuts himself, you are horrified; the 600th time, you wish he would aim."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Moderate: Eating disorder, Racism, Vomit, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

prawdziwki's review against another edition

challenging tense slow-paced

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

0.5

o tym też nie chcę rozmawiać, bo mnie nie przekonacie // this is fucking awful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Racism, Medical content, Grief, Outing, and Classism

gredi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Transphobia, and Suicide attempt

skyleetux's review against another edition

dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

macpreeper's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is amazing but devastating. The characters are like real fleshed out 3D people. 10/10 would read again but beware of the trigger warnings.  

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Classism

besotted's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Deadnaming, Vomit, and Classism

mafuyusato's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

3rd read:
i love this book. this book is my baby. if this book was a person i don't think i'd marry it but i'd give it a big hug though. i love everything about this book and yanagihara's writing style in general, her books are so so long don't get me wrong but everything builds up and in my opinion every last page was worth reading. but please for the love of god read the trigger warnings before reading lol this shit is literally THE challenging book

4th read:
this book got me fucked up tbh. teared up at several parts on the book. i love everything about it, the writing, the characters. genuinely my favorite book of all time, its so dear to me for so many reasons

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug abuse, Rape, Suicide, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia