The People in the Trees
Ratings40
Average rating3.5
What a book! OMG - The writing, the imagery, the story, the characters - just exquisite. I never wanted this book to end.
Loved the writing and the disturbing, multifaceted story told in this book. It pulled me in from the beginning and held my interest through to the last page.
Contains spoilers
Why was I incapable of stopping? ...What was it that I wanted?
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy. How do I even rate this book.
TWs: child abuse, sexual assault, rape, animal abuse, suicide
Like A Little Life, it is certainly not an easy read, and it makes you really question ethics, morality, human life... Yanagihara sucked me in with her writing again, but the content.. the content is so disturbing. Taking place mostly on a fictional island of Micronesia, Norton finds a discovery that earns him a Nobel prize. But at what cost? Endangerment of the tribe and people who lived there, the turtles they, Norton and the ones that come after him, hunted for their experiments, and harming the lives of the children he adopted. And for what? The warm feeling he felt with a child that 'comforted' him. attempt to kill an adopted child because he's an animal. Calling his adopted children "creatures" and his "extravagant collection".Another thing that disturbs me is the ending. The editor for Norton, Ronald, has also disappeared with him. For him to say he needs to prove Norton's innocence, or at least his commitment in science and providing his research, then run away with him? Guilty, guilty, guilty.
Rating: 1.5 leaves out of 5-Characters: 1/5 -Story: 1/5-Writing: 2.5/5Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy, HisFic, Magical RealismType: EbookWorth?: NoHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedYou know I thought A Little Life was bad but I would happily take that over this any day of the week. I DNFed it but got close to 50% in and so I am doing a review.This is the second book by Hanya and it is concerning what her subject is about... especially with children (boys) and men. I am not going to get deep into it, because it become more rant than anything.The book in itself was boring as hell. I don't care about a horrible man and what he has to say. The only thing that had me going was the stories from the islands but everything else that takes place on that island with the people... hell no. I don't care. Just hell no.
Precise rating: 3.5 ⭐️
The whole book feels like setup for the very last scene, which makes it all seem pointless. I'm also sure that was intentional by Yanagihara. Perina wrote his memoires to defend himself, so one could think he wrote all that setup to deflect from what ultimately happened. Or to get the reader on his side—which would've been a pretty lousy attempt anyway since Perina seemed unlikeable from the start. Yanagihara did manage to shock me with the ending, though. And, knowing her other two books, I feel like she knew exactly what she was doing at every point in the story, and from that perspective I really appreciate it.In the end, this book didn't even come close to A Little Life and To Paradise (apart from the writing, which was very beautiful as usual), but that has mostly to do with my personal preferences and not the obejctive quality of the book (as far as I can judge the latter anyway
(Read this book years ago in high school, recommended by my cousin)
I absolutely loved this book, the topics of anthropology and sociology fascinate me. It was interesting to see how the researcher viewed the world prior to the visit (ethnocentrism) and this slow uncovering of the magic through the lens of cultural relativism, the studying of their culture, it was all so fascinating to me.
I was perplexed by the ending, I forgot some key points but I'd read this again!
Luister naar mijn review van het boek in de podcast Team Boek Toe:
https://team-boek-toe.simplecast.com/episodes/notities-uit-de-jungle-en-een-plek-waar-eenzaamheid-niet-bestaat
A beautifully written fictional memoir of a scientist who explores an island culture wound around a story of accusations of abuse and rape by the children from that culture who he adopted. Eery, odd, but told in a matter-of-fact scientist voice. I've stopped giving stars to novels. It seems an odd way to judge a book. I'm not sure if I'd recommend this to friends or not. I'll have to mull over it for a while but perhaps that its a good indication to some that its worth reading.
Nope. This was not for me.
I am far from the intended audience of this book. I acknowledge the author is an extremely talented writer, but the writing style is not for me.
My classmate said it best so here's a quote from them: “This is just a tour guide through the eyes of a pedophile”
It is not worth the time for me but I see why some enjoy it. I just could not stand the narrator or the authors lack of development for any of the female characters.