The Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

BATB score: 7.3/10 🏝

BATB level: extreme advance 🔥

art appreciation in novel literature > an enjoyable read

Best to: I truly appreciate Hanya, especially the thought-process behind writing the 3-novel combo; let's talk about the time structure of writing (chronological, nostalgia thinking back, parallel universe), the using of the same names for different characters across the 3 novels (though it did confuse me a hell lot), the same place different centuries of events, the letter format of storytelling, the cliffhanger endings to paradise - like who writes like this?

BATB lingering thought: only Hanya can writes like Hanya and that's an NFT

Best for: only Hanya Yanagihara would be able to write 700+ pages where readers would give their 💯 best effort to try to follow through and finish the book; yet, not that many readers are capable for such a challenge - it's okay, you don't have to try

Best as: it was a difficult read - by the last 100 pages I did want it to be over but it is beautiful writings, it is ART and in the spirit of ART appreciation you give it your best effort

Best quotes: “No matter what happen, this was the end of my life. Perhaps it was the actual end. Perhaps it was just the end of the one I had known. But either way, my life mattered less to me, because the person to whom it had mattered most was gone.”

"I'm scared because I know my last thoughts are going to be about how much time I wasted - how much life I wasted. I'm scared because I'm going to die not being proud of how I lived."

"The problem with doing something the second time is that, while you know what you can correct, you also know what's beyond the scope of your powers - and I have never wished more for ignorance than I do now."

"There were two types of people: those who wept for the world, and those who wept for themselves."