Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Een klein leven by Hanya Yanagihara

1072 reviews

yeldah_reedz's review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.5

I want to start by saying that I would genuinely never recommend this book to anyone. Since everyone reacts to trauma in different ways I don’t want to be responsible for the way someone reacts while reading this book. A Little Life is a beautifully told story following a group of four best friends and their lives after college. I don’t want to say much more about the story since I believe it would be better to just jump in with little to no expectations. However, if you are planning to dive into this long story (over 800 pages), I will ask that you look up and read all the trigger warnings before opening the cover to the first page. 
I can fully say that some parts of this book were the most disturbing and disgusting things I have ever read and made me feel physically ill. There were points in the book where I had to set it down for a bit and take a break before continuing. Even though so much of this book is deeply tragic, it keeps the reader hoping for more and wishing for all the pain and suffering to end for some of the characters. There were happier parts and I did end up laughing while my eyes scanned through some of my favorite parts. The end of the book was bittersweet, tender and felt gratifying despite everything else that happened. The title means more after you read the whole book and the axiom of equality lives in my heart now. Sometimes you expect x from a book, but end up getting x. This book shows how x=x outside of mathematics. Hanya Yanagihara has written an exquisite story that tugs on the readers heartstrings in many more ways than expected. I see this story in the world around me and it feels like I have a fresh brain but in an older and wiser way. I’m not sure what else to say about this book since it left me nearly speechless the moment it ended.
I would just say, read it with caution and don’t read it when you’re in any kind of bad mood since the subjects it contains are quite dark/heavy. 
Woop! Woop! Tragic books for the win, am I right?

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ryoung23's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

I think this is going to hold the title for my favorite book of 2024. It was heartbreaking and all so beautiful. It ended in the way I expected, but had some shocking things happen from beginning to end that I didn't expect. Jude deserved all the love he ever received in a life full of hate. I am so thankful that I finally read this book. I don't know if I'll ever read another book like it. 

There are A LOT of trigger warnings in the book.

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anemosise's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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
oh my i am conflicted. understand the criticism deeply, have yet to watch interviews with the author and tbh we'll see if i do! but! my oh my! what effortlessly beautiful writing and what beautiful explorations of human relationships. the dynamics of the (mostly) loveable main characters are so fascinating to me. the beauty of jude slowly learning to stop self-sabotaging his relationships with harold and willem and andy. beautiful. however. i wanted a lot more from jb and especially malcom, and some side characters deserved better development (richard, people at the law firm, caleb, maybe even ana? though I didn't mind some being less developed and simply reappearing names!)
oh and how powerful the ending would have been. if despite everything, despite all the trauma, jude still decided to live. what is the book saying by having him kill himself at the end? some experienced trauma is too unrecoverable for people? i guess I just find that level of pessimism disappointing. gotta think on it more.
i think simply reducing this novel to trauma porn is incredibly reductive of a lot of the work it puts into exploring.. well.. the little moments in life. the people who make the days worth living. yea idk. i think i liked a lot of this, but it left a really uncomfortable distaste in my mouth. man.

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emily_p1's review against another edition

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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

5.0


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kgronniger's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

5.0


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clarard's review against another edition

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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

3.5

This book has left me crying and with my heart broken both times I've read it.
A Little Life starts with four friends who just moved to New York City after finishing college and are trying to achieve their respective dreams. Sounds like a fun, coming of age novel, right? Truth is, it can't be more different.

Spoiler!
Throughout the book, we'll slowly learn all these characters' story, especially Willem's, and, obviously, Jude's. The book will revolve aroud his past, the effects trauma has on him, and, why not, his present day struggles, as if he hadn't suffered enough as a child.
Now, don't get me wrong, the depiction of abuse and horror is excellent, as well as Yanagihara's understanding on how pedophiles manipulate kids.
I also enjoyed the difficulties people around Jude go through, since it is very difficult to trust and love a person who is so secretive and who refuses to share anything about his past or ask for professional help.
However, it lacks reality. For example: Andy, despite knowing Jude's problem with self-harm, does not warn anyone around him or forces him to go see a therapist. I don't think doctors are legally allowed to ignore over and over again their patient's need for psychological help.
We know the characters in their 20's and the book ends when they're in their 50's, yet there's no mention of any historical event. I understand that Hanya wants us to focus on the characters, and I get that mentioning every single thing that happens is impossible and -let's be honest- boring. But how can there be no mention of 9/11, when they live in New York City? Not a single person they know is affected by it? Or the Vietnam War? Or even the Year 2000 Problem? Not a single conversation about any of that?
Also, please stop considering it the "great gay novel". I don't even know where did that come from, but I feel thinking of this book like that is like laughing on Jude's face or ignoring everything that has happened to him.
Last but not least, the characters except maybe JB (sometimes), are all good or bad. Either they are the kindest, purest souls to ever exist, lovable and who don't deserve any bad thing; or they belong to hell, you hope they die suffering and in pain.

End of spoiler!

So
I didn't like this book (who can like 1000 pages of abuse, violence, pain, more violence, more pain?). The writing is brilliant, I loved the characters - there's the secret recipe for it to be such a devastating story. But, even knowing it was Hanya's intention to show us happiness is not promised to any of us and that we shouldn't always expect a happy ending (I agree with both things), reading the torture Jude goes through is sometimes unbereable. I'm usually not disgusted or in need to have a break when reading a book, but with this one I had to stop more than once, go have a drink or go for a walk to analyse what I had just read. It's complicated to give a rating. I feel like a person could give it 5 stars or 1, and I'd agree with them.

Warning and my advice
Do not read it if you're going through a hard time! I waited some months to read the book after receiving this advice, and honestly, I think it's my duty to share it.
Read all its trigger warnings, please, and if you're sensible with some of them, especially the first ones you'll see (there are VERY explicit scenes that are repeated several times), I'd recommend you to wait or to not read it. It's not worth it.

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pinkfloydtwisted's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.25


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fledermausii's review against another edition

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challenging 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

wtf

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cjbuys's review against another edition

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dejanira's review against another edition

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

2.0

Go the therapy or draw 25

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