Honest opinions on pic related? My parents asked me what I wanted

>>8881263
I have it in my stack and have yet to read it but 800 pages of friends going through life in NY with child abuse flashbacks that horrify the normie booktuber crowd

>>8881263
Literary fujoshit

>>8881263
I cried a couple times reading this, I think. I finished it at the beginning of this year, absolutely stormed through it.
I'm 21 and it made me think a lot about my friends, and still teaches me a lot about empathy.

It suffers from a really shit twist at the very end, for lack of a better term - you can predict it from a mile away, which was definitely intended by the author, but it's a bit of a worn trope. An unfortunate setback in what was otherwise one of my most powerful literary experiences, I'd like to return to it again.

>>8881439
Just to clarify this, it isn't a twist as much as it is a trope-y disaster, it jarred with every single other slow burning tragedy and felt cheap as opposed to every other sad bit which felt deep, important and lasting in your memory.
Perhaps there's a point to it, though. Perhaps the point is that tragedy isn't always beautiful.


Either way, this is a book that may well warm your heart and make you text your friends that you love them at 2am like it did with me.

>>8881263
Reading this was an incredibly overwhelming and despairing experience, something unlike anything I've experienced so far with reading. It made me reflect on the impact of trauma, and the ways we deal with it by suppressing and/or distorting our memories, but most importantly, the ways in which our relationships with others can and cannot help with our own individual trauma. It has definitely left a lasting impression on me and I still think about it from time to time.

>>8881451
I cannot have imagined it ending in any other way. For me it felt like an inevitable outcome that was interwoven into every traumatic experience, and it illuminated the fact that only we as individuals can ease our own suffering, despite the love we may give and receive from others.

It's definitely a book about male friendship, empathy and the limits of that in the face of an unbearable tragedy that is slowly unraveling and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. It gets hysterical at times, eg the evil boyfriend. But you should read it, the response to the 'last twist', is probably some of the most effecting writing, a parent's grief and attempt at understanding a life that was bound to end in one way or another. There's something very Greek about this book, and not just its gayness, but its approach to suffering, tragedy and life.

>>8881970
>>8881903
Agree on both ends here--strangely enough, I felt the novel was attacking modern-society, and all the conventions we feel safe within. The staleness of the style, and the way the whole world is condensed into titles and very brief, cold descriptions, made me literally nauseas at time, and like other anons have said, despairing of not just life, but the entire 'modern condition' (of NY-living, colleges, sexuality, and unquestioned diversity of the entire cast).
It truly is a horrifying book, though others will criticize it for its triteness or gratuitous violence. The ending is so filled with grief I partially assumed a very depressed and nihilistic outlook on life for a few weeks.

It's a worthwhile read. Losers on /lit/ will disagree, only because they are contrarian. I got chills several times while reading and got genuinely upset when the title of the book dropped and I realised what it actually meant.

Judging from the replies here it seems to share some similarities with Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun with the sense of impending tragedy. Looks like it's worth a read since it makes you guys think about your own friendships.