Best audiobook I’ve ever heard

An amazing book and amazing speech performances.

Do yourself a favor and stick with it through the first 40ish minutes of character introduction. I came to love the characters more than I would’ve ever imagined, and it would’ve been such a shame, had I let the intricacies of the initial story telling scare me off.

Also: Be ready to get emotional in public on multiple occasions. People on my morning train must think I’m the saddest person ever, but still I would listen to it all over again.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

Soul shattering

Incredible story with unbelievable emotional depths. Needs to be read/consumed when oneself is in a stable mindset for sure, otherwise couldn’t openly recommend as the story includes very detailed depictions of abuse and selfharm.
As a mother, I personally was most distraught by the narrations of younger Jude, imagining so much pain and neglect of a child is unfathomable for me.

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beautiful and painful

the most beautiful book I have ever read. while it is devastating, the friendship and love and family you see is so touching, it leaves you heartbroken and whole.

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Lifechanging

This book has fundamentally changed who I am a a person and not a week goes by where I don‘t think about Jude. The narrator did a fantastic job conveying the complex emotions of this book.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

Slow-motion story of Love and Pain of Humans

This book touched me a lot. From my perspective, it is a story of deep non-romantic Love (as a friend, as a parent, as a child) told from a male perspective. While the main character Jude has extreme life experiences and reasons to be who he is, the experience of avoidance of emotions, of living by not looking at certain things, and then overcoming that avoidance is very relatable to many people, I believe. A story of a human who is only true to what he deeply believes he is, while ignoring what others tell him. A tortured human being thinking of being deeply flawed and broken, while the world thinks this is one of the most beautiful creatures the Earth carried. I guess this contrast and its minute details described in the book is what makes this story so prized. The story is slow and winds through a lifetime. Almost no action happens and when it does, it also is in slow motion. And yet, the tension and thrill is all around the story. Told in subtle hints of the tense used in the narrative, in an adjective thrown into an otherwise unimportant sentence, which tell the reader what will eventually happen, while not knowing when and how. Excellent writing, excellent storytelling, but I guess not for everyone. The pain of living described here is excruciating and at times almost unbearable, very hard to read/listen to, but that is what makes this story so compelling.

The story was great, the narrator has an almost crying voice which makes listening to this extremely immersive. Great book, great audiobook.

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get ready for a long heartbreak

I was warned this book would be a hard read. I still wasn't prepared. every page was filled with beauty and heartbreak

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Trigger warning more than necessary!

Wow! How much can one person suffer before he breaks?
Jude hasn’t had a happy life. After a horrible childhood leading to major emotional, deeply psychological and life altering physical trauma he manages to find a group of friends from all different kinds of backgrounds with different aspirations.
The story follows the four boys, focusing majorly on Jude, through huge parts of their life including many ups and even more downs easing the question when does he break again and again.
I am not sure whether I liked the story. In some parts I thought it was way too long and detailed, in others I thought what else do you want to put it in. I felt lots of empathy for most of the boys and their life story and was really sad in the end but it was too much drama for me.
AND I think the book should come with major trigger warnings because it deals with everything - sexual abuse, suicide, drug addiction, …

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The most tragic thing I've ever read

The imagery in this book is incredible. You feel like you personally know Jude and his friends. You feel the sadness and fear. I have never read anything so profoundly tragic, unfair, and at the same time beautiful in the many aspects that Jude did end up being loved in the end by so many people.

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TW: selfharm, suicide, sexual abuse, disordered eating

Loved the story, but would have much appreciated a trigger warning, since there are a lot of explicit depictions of selfharm, suicide/suicidal ideation, sexual abuse and disordered eating. For people who struggle with any of those topics this might be good to know.

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3 Leute fanden das hilfreich

hopeful, devastating, close to life, heart breaking

This book is at times hopeful, devastating, close to life as most people will know it, delving into horrors that are impossible to picture while reading it and mostly, deeply moving and I am convinced this story will stay with me.

Trigger warnings: Child-abuse, sexual abuse, forced prostitution, physical abuse, trauma, death, self-injury, suicide, loss, addiction — Do not take any of the trigger-warnings lightly. You should be in a stable place when you read this, this is not for people who are struggling right now. Please do return once you feel better.

Also, this review will be filled with spoilers, so beware!

As someone with social anxiety I found myself relating to Judes feeling of unworthyness and the convictions that all good things and kind people will in the end leave him. I found that really emotional and at the same time I understood his friends’ and family’s reaction to these thoughts. Both parties unable to take the other’s POV.

Also, the worry and the fights between Jude’s loved ones (Andy, Willem and Harrold mainly) are hearbreaking at times, the way they blame themselves and eachother, how their emotions overcome them at times because they do not know how to help someone who does not want to help himself and who is unable to tell them what his world looks like. At times, I got tired of Jude’s POV, because it was emotionally draining or I just wanted to shake him so he can see how the other support him. And then, there is another chapter that unveils his past and I want to take it all back.

Another reviewer used the phrase “Torture P*rn” and while I think it is a little crass, I understand why they said it. At times I felt like putting away the book because I could not believe, there was another horrific encounter, another hurt, another failed attempt to get better while all I wanted was for Jude to be happy.

On the other hand, there are people like Caleb, Jackson and, at times, JB who are simply horrific and whom I disliked with a passion. When I listened to the audiobook and JB imitates Jude, I had to stop running for a second because I was so shocked and angry. Seeing their redemption, come-uppance or at least how other characters you love react to them in the same way you would has something cathartic or at lease relieving.

The Good Years was a turning point, a time of happiness and yet, one of the most painful parts of the book. Willems death left me in disbelief and anger and could not understand why all the progress and all the good stuff would be taken away. The final chapter from Harrolds POV are the most gut-wrenching. Because you now understand the letter-like chapters to Willem, you feel his pain and you hear how he deals with Jude’s death and how horrific life is at times and how unfair and how he is still pressing on and finding hopeful images to help him.

I loved this book and I inhaled it over a couple of days. I don’t think I will leave it behind too soon, but I will think of it here and there.

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2 Leute fanden das hilfreich