Reviews with content warning for Medical content - To Paradise

from the first book of this story, I drew upon a story of the sad side of arranging one’s life for the betterment of others and the desperation that comes with escaping expectations, as David seems wont to do. I enjoyed this part thoroughly. along with Yanagihara’s trademark wistfulness, the excitement of a fascinating yet tragic love triangle grabbed me from the get-go. over and over, I panicked at the prospect of everything falling apart under David’s feet, unable to stop reading before finding out what happens next. and while the cliffhanger left me a little disappointed, I resolved not to judge the story before all of it had ended, and that leads me on to Book Two. in the second part of this novel, an interesting choice manifests that promises to connect each story viscerally: the protagonist, whom I expected to be a completely different person, is also named David. not only that, but each important character is also named after a predecessor from Book One: Charles, David’s lover, Edward, David’s father’s friend, even Eden, David’s old, spirited roommate. I was taken aback at the obvious connection, but it worked well to the effect of bringing the stories together and suggesting an unfortunate repetition of history to a yet unknown end. on the sour note of David's father's mental decline and institutionalisation, David's own life can be summed up neatly in one of my favourite quotes from this part:

“no-one was ever free[...] to know someone and to love them was to assume the task of remembering them [...] your life was inextricable from another’s, that a person marked their existence in part by their association with you.” (231)

I connected with this strongly. lives get entangled no matter how hard you try to keep them apart, but that is not a curse, but a blessing. people create hellish nightmares of the lives of everyone around them, or they make lives worth their salt. the difference comes in realising that people are inescapable and that we really don’t have as much control over life as we think we should. and in Book Three, a new Charles tragically crafts the state in which nobody is free and everyone is a suspect, pushing his radical son and exhausted husband from his life in the process. this David's announcement that he will help Charlie escape their dystopia is thrilling and terrifying; is he honest? this is all carried on a silent prayer to close the book that I could not put down or stop thinking about.

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katiemack's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was prepared to be as emotionally devastated as I was by A Little Life, but I was relieved that this time I wasn't crying while reading this in public. To be clear, that doesn't mean this book isn't affecting--its dystopian themes and allusions to the COVID pandemic will bring up some intense emotions for today's readers--but it is not relentless.

By writing three novels smashed into one, all of which recycle and connect names, relationships, and character attributes, Hanya Yanagihara demonstrates her superb writing prowess. The first, which takes place at the end of the nineteenth century, grabbed my attention from the beginning with an exciting sense of alternative history within the traditional fin de siècle storyline. There's a sense of romantic drama that really resonated with me, a messy human who devours romance novels whenever she can. The second didn't work quite as well. The storyline of David living during the AIDS crisis drew me in, but the more ethereal epistolary part really took me out of the story. The third is by far the most ambitious and strongest of the novels-within-the-novel. By taking place in the 2040s-2090s, Yanagihara portrays a dystopian future that feels more realistic given our current circumstances and, therefore, makes the plot all the more terrifying.

I won't give more away; suffice it to say, this is worth the time commitment should you choose to read it

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pollyflorence's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

It’s very difficult to put my thoughts into proper sentences, something coherent and something like a review, but I wanted to try and get across just how much I loved this book.

I know that there will be a lot of comparisons made to Yanagihara’s previous work but it fully deserves, I hope it gets, the chance, the space to stand on it’s own because it’s so beautifully written and heartbreakingly crafted to a point that the last 100 pages or so left me breathless. I know that it’s a book that will stay with me for a very long time— which is something that I often say after reading a good book, which I said after reading A Little Life and The People in the Trees— but in this case the stories that Yanagihara told in the book, the characters she created, the worlds she built are so compelling and beautifully vivid that I’m sure I’ll keep revisiting them in my mind and be very glad to do so.

That’s all that I can put into words at the moment— there are reviewers out there that explore the complex themes and connections that this book has— but all I can say is that I highly recommend giving this novel the chance it deserves.

Thank you to Picador Books for the review copy.

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