Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

Een klein leven by Hanya Yanagihara

87 reviews

jillianalice's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

I will be thinking about this book for the rest of my life. Definitely don’t read this if you are not doing well mentally, like I did. 

WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THE TITLE???

The only time “a little life” is said in the book is when Brother Luke tells Jude to have a “a little life” while being raped.

So many layers to that…. I’m a bit too disgusted to analyze it but maybe it’s a metaphor for how Jude is constantly trying to have a bit more life left in him. That phrase alone also had a ginormous impact on his approach to sex. The air of those words followed him into the bedroom and into his romantic relationship to Willem. He could never be truly authentic or vulnerable after that. 


It’s been a week since I finished it and it’s still too raw to review. The author is incredible because I fell so in love with Jude, Willem, Harold, and Andy that I felt sad for days following the ending. I cried too many times that it is embarrassing to admit. 

I have a complicated opinion on whether or not this book is trauama-porn. In the first 3/4 of the book I saw her vision, of showing how trauma follows you into every crevice of your life. And sometimes people don’t recover, no matter how well their life turns out or how many people love them. And their stories deserve to be told…. BUT I think she could have gotten her point across without Dr. Traylor… or the abhorrent severity of Caleb’s actions. At first I thought she approached the events in a respectful manner, but it was not necessary to describe the Caleb event so graphically. Or the self-harm scenes in such vivid detail. So I understand why this book is criticized as being trauma porn, she went a bit overboard. 

I do wish that Malcom and JB’s stories were told more. She depicted JB’s addiction so well, I think she could have explored it further. Malcom’s struggle with his sexuality and racial identity was also very intriguing, but not expanded on. 

I did love how deliberate her use of words is and lyrical that it is so easy to immersive yourself in their world. She described the complicated psyche and emotions of human beings so well. As someone who loves character driven novels, this was perfect. I highly doubt I will ever read a book that pierces me so deeply. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

tmickey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Biphobia, Bullying, Homophobia, and Infidelity

clevelandbookgirl's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Alcohol

gigireadswithkiki's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.0

This book is absolutely wretched (derogatory), for a plethora of reasons. In no particular order and to varying degrees of fucking awfulness: 

• The fatphobia: this book constantly ridicules fat persons, both in the language that is used to craft their existence, or in the way that these characters are treated by others (see: JB). 
• The transphobia: in one scene, a side character is having, what is presumed to be, a transitioning party. At no point within the text does the author nor the characters switch their use of pronouns after learning this. 
• The friendships: I've heard people talk MANY times about how this book is such a good marker of friendship. It is not. The friendships in this book are unhealthy, borderline abusive. The characters hold their friends on pedestals, refusing to see any flaws from their friends. The OTHER OPTION is that the characters view their friends suffering and flat out, selfishly refuse to see past it, as if nothing is wrong.
• The depiction of queer relationships: Yanagihara disgusts me. The constant depiction of MLM relationships as something "wrong", as something "disgusting" eventually culminating to Queer tragedy felt so utterly wrong. She did not handle Queer issues with any grace, instead choosing to force trauma upon trauma upon Queer characters
• The trauma: at a certain point in the book, I started to roll my eyes at the amount that Jude suffered. Not because he deserved it, but because each time the reader thinks things might get to a place that is okay, Yanagihara thrusts something in the readers faces, as if to say "NO! LOOK! LOOK! ACTUALLY IT"S JUST BAD!" I don't fucking care that she intended this book to be a reflection of cherishing life's happy moments. What came across was horrendous. 
• The self harm: after a number of repetitions, the self harm in the book felt so fucking blasè. Yes we know this character is harming themselves. why the fuck did you feel the need to detail every single tiny detail of it. every. single. time. To what purpose does this serve but to the author's disgusting twisted sense of shock value. 

I don't know why i finished this book. I truly don't. I'm reevaluating the last couple days of my life and the use of my free time. Don't read this book. If you're looking for depictions of trauma on a similar scale but with ACTUAL meaning and purpose within a story, just read The Poppy War for christssake. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

beccabookworm'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

3.0

This is the most tragic and emotionally draining book I've ever read. I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing or as something that counts against my rating of the book. In a Vulture article the author wrote about the book, she basically says that she sought to write a tragic novel that gets darker and sadder and more "sick" (her word) as the narrative progresses. I think she succeeded in that. In fact, although I found myself getting frustrated with and fatigued by all the constant tragedy, knowing that that was the author's intentions actually raises the book in my estimation because it shows the skill of the writer to create exactly what she set out to create.

Of course, there's no way to know - unless you read interviews and reviews before reading the book - the extent of the tragedy and darkness, or that it progresses the way it does. That said, while I understand the "tragedy porn" comments, I don't agree with the sentiment behind them. Maybe it is tragedy porn, but so what? It's supposed to be. While this novel is a portrait of a life and set in the real world, I don't think it's meant to be true and authentic to life and a conceivably real person's story. Some positive reviewers have held this novel up as a beautiful and honest portrait of queer men's lives. Maybe I don't have a right to say this because I'm not a queer man, but I don't agree with that either. I think the goal of writing a book wherein everything gets darker and more tragic as it progresses and never really gets light again save for brief sparks of fading light is contradictory to writing an honest portrait of life. Yes, people live tragic lives and it doesn't always get better, but life ebbs and flows and there's usually some hope to latch onto. Whether or not you believe that hope is futile, there is still hope.

That is not the case in this story. It is almost a complete downward trajectory with tiny blips of peace or semblances of happiness. The longest section is called "The Happy Years" and most of that section is not happy. You feel that happiness towards the end of the section, but then the section ends with a terrible, last straw, throw-the-book-across-the-room-in-anger thing happening. The very existence of Jude as a character (though not to discount anyone who's lived through horrible experiences) presents a kind of over-the-top tragedy when applied to a single person. Almost every extreme violent trauma he could be subjected to, he was. For those reasons, this book is not, to me, reflective of real life big picture. So, it should not be read/reviewed that way. From my understanding, it's just supposed to be a sad book for the sake of being sad. The fact that it succeeds in that is, to me, commendable.

There were some elements I really didn't like, particularly some of Yanagihara's treatment of race and sexuality. This includes the early insinuation that "real Haitians" in New York were so perpetually poor that they would and could never rent out an art studio space separate from their living space; Malcom lamenting not being Black enough because he didn't see himself as a wounded, perpetually angry victim; Harold's assertion that the 13th amendment is the remains of politics past and, therefore, not sexy enough to write about (which I admittedly don't even know what that means); Harold enjoying provoking JB to make "outrageous and borderline racist statements," which means JB was all too ready to make such statements; and presenting no counter to characters insisting that Willem is gay when he starts dating Jude, completely ignoring his decades of dating and sexual history with all the women he's loved and slept with in long-term relationship and casual hookups. Yes, Yanagihara is a brilliant writer for writing this story the way she wanted to, but she also wrote characters who are really crappy people. They're not even crappy in an entertaining and redeemable way - they just suck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Terminal illness, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Biphobia, Infidelity, and Dementia

sw317'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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

leakaroo's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

0.5

People who recommend this book casually are INSANE!! Rated 0.5 because while I constantly switch between loving and hating this book, I think ultimately it is misinformed and does more harm than good. 

1. Hanya is a straight woman. She is writing in the perspective of gay (?) men and this is not the only book of hers where she is writing about sexual abuse in male relationships. Frankly comes off as fetishising as she is exploring this plot more than once. She could well have made Jude a woman, but I think the reason this book is so popular is due to the very fact that Jude is a man and that somehow the abuse can be seen as "poetic" or "heart-wrenchingly sad" instead of plain disturbing due to the gender. In my opinion, if EVERY SINGLE thing in this book stayed the same EXCEPT that Jude was a woman, this book would be 100% hated on- change my mind!
 
2. The view on therapy that this book takes is highly questionable!!! It's very obvious that no research was done and there is no background in psychology or actual understanding of therapy and human psyche etc. The message we are left with at the end of this book is 'it doesn't matter if you're a good person, it doesn't matter if you find support, some people's only choice is suicide'. 

2.5. As a result of this underlying message, two of the beloved characters (who I also personally loved) actually end up being lowkey villains

Andy and Harold are constantly threatening to get Jude admitted into a psych ward, but never doing it. Like... why not?! They were enabling Jude if anything omg. This made Andy and Harold seem very neglectful and actually bringing more harm to Jude when they could have easily helped him.

3. Willem is problematic

Willem & Jude's relationship is highly toxic and I would NOT call them "soulmates" or "lovers". Willem has sex with Jude KNOWING Jude probably suffered SA/trauma in the past (Idk which page it was, but theres a part where Willem acknowledges he knows that Jude doesn't want to have sex with him, however the desires in him override that concern. This goes back to my issue with the 'fetishisation' of gay relationships. I can't understand how some people see Willem and Jude as soul mates- they have a very harmful relationship.

Anyways, I would never recommend this book (please stop recommending this book so casually i'm BEGGING). BUT I admit I still think this is really well-written and emotionally impactful. It's torturous on another level, and yet sparks interesting conversations. Honestly would be a great book club book just for the fact that this is so discussable.  But yeah, you see how this book is such a conundrum.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism

__thalia__'s review against another edition

challenging dark 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

not for everyone

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, 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, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

melisayasilem's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

You could say that none of the characters -who you become very much attached to by the way- deserve what happens to them. You feel what they feel, go through what they go through. I knew what I was getting myself into before I began reading this book, but it still hits you hard. I didn't find myself as affected as others whom I've seen their reviews saying nobody should read this book because it is f'ed up- and this could be because I read this over a period of months instead of a couple days or even weeks. Regardless, it still succeeded to leave a deep impact.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Dementia, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Excrement, Car accident, Outing, and Classism

This book is not for the weak, it gets very graphic in some chapters and you might have to put it down for a bit. But it also makes you want to continue reading because you get very attached to the characters. Sexual assault and suicidal thoughts are very much present, to the point where you sometimes have to think hard to understand why the character thinks that way.

amelieks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Okay I have a lot to say about A Little Life. (Review may be a little graphic) 

First, let’s address the elephant in the room; read this at your own emotional risk. The list-no-pages of trigger warnings are not for nothing. Yanagihara takes you through the ringer in A Little Life. She leaves you raw- She’ll slowly peel pieces of your skin away until you’re fully freaking raw and then she’ll start throwing the punches. One after the other. Now there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the shocking elements in this book, stating that it’s torture-porn, shock value and all that stuff and, you know what? I would have thought so too, had I not read an article about how her publisher asked her to tone it down and she declined, stating that this was the point of the book. 
Yes it’s over the top and yes some of it might be overplayed but that IS the point. It drives the message home; trauma is ugly. It’s ugly and sometimes you don’t get to heal. This book will NOT romanticize these things, they will be presented at face value for what they truly are. 

Now with that aside; this book is one of the most beautiful pieces of fiction/media I have ever consumed. It’s in my top three favourite books (Top two, even, side by side with Starless Sea. I know, I see the contrast.) The characters, you just fall in love with them warts and all. You root for them, cry for them, sometimes you want to gives them a punch in the face but at the end of it all you freaking love them. 
The timeline of this book is all over the place but in the best of ways. Hanya Yanagihara weaves through time with her characters so smoothly you don’t even realize she’s doing it. 

I can’t recommend this book to anyone with a good conscience. I read this book to challenge myself and it was painful to read. Very painful and, well, yeah; triggering. Do I regret it, though? No. I’ll likely never read this book again, but it will always have a place on my favourites shelf. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia