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A review by toyin_
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
challenging
dark
reflective
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
3.0
book 1 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Beautiful slowburn with playing with storytelling. We get glimpses into the past through memory and letters. I really liked the premise of new york as a state of its own home to well-to-do queers and the not so much. I liked the political elements in this world as well. My favourite part was david. How his isolation was built through how he relates to his siblings, to his grandad, his illness and how he sees his lack of (productive) value as a failing and a major cause for his middling life. There's something clever about capitalism and ableism there. His "illness" being directly affected by others when he lives such a lonely life. delicious. How he felt he just spends time alone encouraging time to pass until he meets Edward. Then it feeling too good to be true. The way that then his grandfather tries to speak to an infatuated David about what he found. All too good. I wish there was more.
Beautiful slowburn with playing with storytelling. We get glimpses into the past through memory and letters. I really liked the premise of new york as a state of its own home to well-to-do queers and the not so much. I liked the political elements in this world as well. My favourite part was david. How his isolation was built through how he relates to his siblings, to his grandad, his illness and how he sees his lack of (productive) value as a failing and a major cause for his middling life. There's something clever about capitalism and ableism there. His "illness" being directly affected by others when he lives such a lonely life. delicious. How he felt he just spends time alone encouraging time to pass until he meets Edward. Then it feeling too good to be true. The way that then his grandfather tries to speak to an infatuated David about what he found. All too good. I wish there was more.
book 2 ⭐️⭐️
Dragged so much. Both the dad and son were really grating. The dad I could not begin to care. Although it was about how Hawaii was held back by America and class. All of these things interesting. The way it was presented was not to my taste. Too much winding around topics and retelling. There was something interesting about the developmental delay and how he was purposeless but doing that to your son. No wonder David wanted to leave him. Passivity was apparent in this one. But I think because I, not only did not like those characters but I was uninterested - It was a drag.
book 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Engaging. Much more than both previous books combined. It being based around a pandemic and an authoritarian state, which one of our protagonists has a hand in developing and creating. This started with a choice of a particular job over his family's joy. to leaving Hawaii for America. and ended with that family becoming a casualty to that job, those choices. the other protagonist, Charlie, being sterile, cognitively changed by the drugs that cured the illness. Making her incredibly vulnerable and literal. unable to see the nuances of things (similar to the father in the 2nd part of book 2). Her unimaginative way of seeing the word making her unreliable as a narrator. And vulnerable to easily falling in line with the ruling of the state. That her grandfather's valuing his intelligence and ego has lead to the diminishing of hers. The regret and horror charles had watching as he realised how he had not only destroyed his family but all other families like him. Something interesting how queerness becomes recriminalised and how charles' experience in the book mirrors that of David with Charles in book 2. How charlie being the way (overly obedient, with blinders around her granddad) she is is why she can love Charles fully. It could have been a touch shorter.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, and Racism
Moderate: Rape