Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Een klein leven by Hanya Yanagihara

988 reviews

rea_195's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.75

There is a lot to say about this book, so I'll start with the things that i didn't like and end with the things that I did.

Didn't like: 
1) First thing that I disliked was how much trauma Jude has gone throught and how it ruined the realism of the book.

When Jude escaped the home and we find out everything that has happened to him, it just made me sad, confused and pissed. Hasn't he been through enough, what was the point and why did the author decide to do that, because as much as it hurt me, it took me out od the story those parts just felt too unrealistic. It is impossible that in 16 years of his life he hasn't ran into someone decent enough to help him, someone who is not a pedophile and a rapist.

2) Repetitiveness. I know that is the whole point, but some Judes thoughts felt a little too repetitive in the end. It was okay at first, but coming close to the end of the book it was too much for me. We already know Jude, we know how much his work means to him and the way he feels like a whole person there, so I think that those thoughts were a bit unnecessery and the only reason i put this here was because I feel like it would be better to remove some of those parts and replace them with a story of another character.

3) And here is the last part that I didn't like and it's connected with part 2) which is lack of another charachters stories. When the book started, we were immediately introduced to JB, Malcolm and Willem. And through the book that gets lost, we do get more of Willem though, but what about JB and Malcom!!!

I was really invested in JBs addiction story and when that part ended he wasn't mentioned anymore that deeply, also we get a brief moments for Malcom and him not being sure about his sexuality and him deciding if he wants to get married, but that's all.

Liked:
I really liked the characters and how complex they were. From the very beginning it feels like they are real people and that you are indeed reading about someones life, someones thoughts, beliefs, dreams and doubts. Because of that, the book feels so raw and real(if you ignore the happy years, chapter 2). 

And in the end I was so devastated, because of the way it ended and that it ended, meaning that I won't get to read more about the people, characters I fell in love with and just for that reason I know that I'll hold a lot of them near to my heart. 

Another thing that stood out to me was the pacing and the unknowns of the time. Time wasn't determined by days, years but with events, seasons and holidays. The writing was immaculate, I loved the way the author explained emotions and explored characters. There were a lot of parts that hit very hard and you feel it deeply, but there are also funny moments that make you laugh and some parts that you can relate to.

Considering that the book is so long I never felt bored reading it or not wanting to pick it up, I don't know how that's possible, but somehow it is.

For me the title represents all lives, because after sometime no one will remember you and it will be like you have never existed at all, but that is not the point, to be remembered, the point is that you got through the bad times and lived your life to the fullest, it was indeed little, but its yours and you should cherish it.

Overall I loved the book and I will never forget it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Kidnapping

selimhannah's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

mereldnr's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

fenny94's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense 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

One of my favourite books of all time. Would caution others to only start this when you are in a healthy place emotionally and psychologically because of the seriousness of the subject material.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

ka_cam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.75

This book is a lot. Strongly encourage reviewing content warnings. Well written and at times moving exploration of the impacts of trauma and love, especially friendship and chosen family, through the years. However many parts of the story felt excessive and flat-

The trauma Jude experienced was… gratuitous and frankly unrealistic. It felt like the author wanted a childhood as horrific as possible set 100 years before the young adulthood- what Catholic monastery (not orphanage or school) would be allowed by superiors and the state to raise a child? What child would, multiple times, be taken to many doctors and later attend public school with clear, visible, severe injuries known to be due to ‘breaking the rules’ and not encounter state intervention, however ineffective, at any point? Would a child in state care with a history of sex trafficking and abuse not be assigned a social worker or monitored for continued sexual abuse in any way? Never forced to sit through group or individual therapy, however ineffective? Just cut loose from foster care well before their 18th birthday without an emancipation or other process to attend college out of state? It just got harder and harder to believe and it took me out of the story a lot. Likewise while the love and devotion of his adult friends, doctor, and adoptive parents was heartwarming it was sometimes pure to the point of flatness, only Willem really reacted to J’s serious mental health issues with mental health issues of his own/poor reactions. They at times read like martyrs to the concept of healing trauma more than full characters

 All to say, the character development and research into the systems (Catholic, social service, medical, etc) involved felt lacking to a distracting degree. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Cancer, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Dementia

avibrantmind's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

I’m in a BYOB Book Club and sent the group a text warning the psychologist in the group to skip this one as they read to help balance their heavy work. At times I needed the book to end, and then I’d read a sentence… and go back to re read it. Beautifully written, yet a massive trigger warning at the same time. Not a book I’d recommend for everyone, and also a book that made me cry for the peeks it gave into the inner lives of people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, and Suicide attempt

alenaul's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense 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

This book is emotionally so challenging! Nothing short of destructive. I have seen many reaction videos to the book before reading it and even though I have not shed a single tear while reading it, the book still broke me and tore my heart in half in the last third. 
The book begins rather slow and has a lot of descriptive parts in the beginning and middle but that makes the book in total that much better!
I had the feeling, that the book is just like life itself. In the beginneng, in ones youthful years, one thinks that one has all the time in the world. But as one gets older, time begins picking up speed and its over before you even realise it. 

I will definitely reread!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Kidnapping, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

straykat1206's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Dysphoria

Minor: Vomit

thestarsaresad's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.75

I don't even know what to say. Admittedly, this book was slow. I could barely get myself to read each day because of how long the chapters are; it's like because I knew each chapter would take me an hour minimum to read, I didn't want to. However, looking back on this after finishing, I think it's incredible how Yanagihara has managed to condense decades of life into this story. At times, I was jolted back to reality realizing that decades have gone by in Jude's, Willem's, everyone's lives. To be honest, it kind of reminds me of Bitlife a little bit, how you can see every moment of someone's life, both big and small.

Even though the first 600 pages are brutal to get through, I fully believe that they're necessary for the ending to hit as hard. I spent the last 100 pages of this book ugly-crying, to the point where I didn't even understand how I was able to continue reading. It's not even that Willem's (and Malcolm's and Sophie's) death are that gruesome, it's just the utter SHOCK that it happened. The whole book, we slowly learn about Jude's backstory, about his cutting, and about his constant medical issues -- we're given so much time to prepare for his death. It's because there's no indication at all that it will be Willem who dies first that's so shocking. Even more depressingly, it's life. But what makes the loss hit hard for the reader as well is that we've followed Jude and Willem and everyone in their lives for decades. It feels like we've been by their sides as they've grown up from children to adults. And because we've seen all the little moments, at the end, we too know just how much they have lost. Truly, why would someone want to write this? The saddest part of these last 100 pages -- what made me really cry -- is how it just follows Jude through his grief. It has all the little details of handling grief; there are the little moments, the ups and downs, and the people who are there for you. It feels like you're experiencing the grief of losing someone in your life that you love; it's the little moments that just make you break down. It's just so unfortunate that Jude had finally gotten to this place in his life where he has almost everything he ever wanted, and had to lose the one thing that is most important to him.

I think what truly makes this book great is that it has ALL the moments of life: the good, the bad, the ugly. Good people do good things, good people do bad things, bad people do good things, bad people do bad things. Good people have good things happen to them, good people also have bad things happen to them. Bad people have good things happen to them, bad people also have bad things happen to them. Yanagihara writes life as it actually is, without glossing over the ugly or playing up the good. But mostly, what I loved about this whole journey was seeing just how loved and loving people can be. That's the truest underlying theme.

After taking over a month to read this book, I will say that the amount of time I took to read A Little Life does not equate to how good I found it. Even though I took forever to get into this book and to really enjoy it, it is written so so well. I will say, however, that I don't think I'll be able to read this book again, at least not in the near future. Maybe when it's been years and years and I've completely forgotten what this book is about, then I'll reread it. However, I truly feel that this book is meant to be a one-time read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Car accident

Minor: Infidelity, Blood, Dementia, and Abandonment

PLEASE make sure you look over the content warnings before you start. I'm not someone who normally looks at content warnings, and while I don't think it was necessary for me after finishing this book, this was definitely a book full of heavy content. Almost every content warning possible is checked off of the list for this book. What sets it apart for me is that Yanagihara goes into detail for the parts of the book that concern MANY of these content warnings. Even though I know the content warnings here are tiered, I'll provide a list of the content warnings that are most brought up and recurring in this book.

1. Self harm, suicidal thoughts, suicide, suicide attempt 2. Adult/minor relationship, pedophilia 3. Physical abuse, rape 4. Medical content, injury/injury detail

Please, I'm telling you! Yanagihara does not hold back on the details, so know what you're getting yourself into. <3

tarikalily's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was an incredible read. Broke my heart over and over, and I couldn't stop reading. Such a powerful story of friendship and love. Jude's story opened my eyes to the pain of lifelong suffering, the scars left by childhood abuse, and the true power of self-esteem in relationships. The pure love shown by Jude's friends was deeply human and hopeful. I want to read it again, and miss the characters deeply. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Suicide attempt