Video summary
In this book review, the narrator discusses Hanya Yanagihara's debut novel, *The People in the Trees*, which he read immediately after finishing her more famous work, *A Little Life*. The story follows a scientist named Norman Parena who travels to a remote island called Ivu Ivu with a group of researchers seeking a mythical turtle known as an "ovule ova iva eke." Legend holds that consuming this creature can extend human life indefinitely, though the process comes with severe scientific and ethical consequences. The narrative explores themes of colonialism, cultural intrusion, and the exploitation of indigenous peoples, as Parena's presence inevitably leads to the modernization and destruction of the local community they sought to study.
The reviewer notes that while the book contains disturbing content similar to *A Little Life*, including scenes involving sexual assault and animal cruelty, it is not a horror novel but rather a heavy character drama with an underlying ray of hope that is difficult to find. A significant portion of the plot focuses on the tragic fate of those who eat the turtles; they live for centuries but suffer from a steady mental decline until they can barely communicate or feed themselves. The reviewer highlights a particularly impactful scene where a character reacts with horror upon discovering Parena killed one of the turtles, which forces Parena to confront his own moral failings and realize that he is not a good person, despite understanding his motivations.
Although the audiobook narration by BD Wong and another voice was praised for its quality, the reviewer did notice a noticeable lisp in Wong's performance during this specific recording. The book itself runs about 17 hours long, making it significantly shorter than *A Little Life*, which allows readers to experience Yanagihara's rich thematic depth without the overwhelming length of her previous work. The reviewer argues that while *A Little Life* has overshadowed this earlier novel in public perception, *The People in the Trees* is an extremely good book that tackles tough subjects like the cyclical nature of abuse and toxic relationships with poignant realism.
Ultimately, the reviewer recommends *The People in the Trees* for readers who found *A Little Life* too heavy or traumatic but still appreciate Yanagihara's writing style and thematic richness. He suggests that this novel serves as an excellent entry point into her bibliography before moving on to her upcoming fantasy-tinged book, *To Paradise*. The review concludes by emphasizing the importance of acknowledging real-world cycles of abuse depicted in fiction, arguing that these stories are necessary for understanding how trauma can manifest even when characters are not based on specific real-life events. Despite the graphic nature of the content, the reviewer maintains that Yanagihara handles these difficult subjects with skill and integrity, urging readers to explore her work beyond just her most famous title.
Read the full video transcript
Hello everybody. E here. Welcome back to
another book review. Today we are
talking about Hanya Yanagihara's book
The People in the Trees.
Uh this was one that I picked up
directly after finishing A Little Life.
The first time I read it. I did reread
it recently and I did a review here on
the channel.
But I picked this one up because it is
uh I believe her first book and uh it it
I wasn't expecting anything that I got,
which is a which is a high point for me.
Uh to give you a brief synopsis, uh
description of the movie, this is about
a a guy named uh I believe it's Norman
uh Perina and uh
a a group of other people
going out to this uh remote island
location called Ivu Ivu. And uh this
place is supposedly uh
it
they supposedly have a a turtle there or
an ovule ova iva eke. Um that's what
they call turtles. Um and that this
turtle is supposed to extend the life of
anyone who eats it. But there are
certain rules behind it. Um it's not
really supernatural. Um it is more along
the lines of like it's it's more
scientific. The whole the whole book has
a lot of stuff um with the
efficacy of uh
of science, basically. Um about
intruding on other cultures, about
colonialism, all that stuff. There's
pretty heavy themes throughout the book.
Also, um there's trigger warnings for um
assault of the uh SEX version,
especially uh underage people. Um just
like uh A Little Life, it does care it
does have some of those
scenes, especially at the end, man.
There's a really really rough one right
at the end. So, if you are it it you
have any triggers like that, you're
going to want to stay away from this. Um
but yeah, it it opens up very
confusingly. It opens up with you
hearing about uh the this uh trial and a
scientist getting in trouble for certain
things. And then basically the whole
rest of the book is how everything
unfolds with this uh with Perena going
to uh Ivu Ivu, meeting the uh the
indigenous people there and how he ends
up basically what whether or not you you
want to look at it a certain way, you
can.
Um was he responsible for it uh for
their not really their destruction, but
them being modernized? It that that that
kind of thing. It's colonialism. I mean,
there's nothing else to call it.
Um but yeah, there's he does it for
science. And yeah, things things do not
go well. Um
there's also the people in the trees um
who are people
who
have kind of declined mentally um after
consuming the the turtle.
Uh and it it's basically like you can
live a long life. Um and all this stuff
is in the description of the book. You
you can you live like a 100, 200 years,
300 years even.
But most of that time after your normal
life span, you are in steady mental
decline to the point where all you can
really do is make sounds. Um you can
barely feed yourself. That kind of
stuff. Um I was expecting more along the
lines and he sets it well, not he, but
uh Hanya Yanagihara sets it up to where
uh
you kind of think that there's going to
be some horror vibes. And there's some
creepy scenes, but this is not a horror
novel. Like A Little Life, I would call
it a horror story only in that there's
some very upsetting content in here. Is
it as heavy as A Little Life? No. Um but
also A Little Life has overshadowed
everything else that Yanagihara has
done, including this book. And I really
want to get the word out there because
this one is extremely good. Is it better
than A Little Life?
I don't know, man. It's It's close.
Um I would say that if it's not full of
like people call it tra- uh trauma
you know, the P word for adult movies.
People call it that stuff that that but
I I don't I don't agree with that
because there is an underlying ray of
hope in A Little Life. It's It's hard to
find. I only found it on my second time
through. But it's hard to find. But if
this one is nowhere near as heavy. So if
you dug her writing but you were like
that is way A Little Life was way too
much for me, this is where you want to
go next. I have not read To Paradise,
which is her most recent novel.
Um but I'm I'm I'm super stoked for it.
And I I want to do it in audiobook. I
own the hard cover, but I want to read
it in audiobook because her audiobooks
are so good. Um uh BD Wong does the uh
some of the narration. It's not a full
cast, but there's he he does like the
little asides and the parentheticals and
whatnot. And then another um
another narrator does the the main
section, which is from Norman Parenas,
the scientist, point of view. And then
BD Wong is uh narrating the like I said,
the parentheticals from his his partner.
Uh one of one of the people that he
works with. I believe the guy's name is
Robert.
Um also, does BD Wong have a lisp? And
now I'm not judging. Don't get me wrong,
but I I'm not sure if he was acting
here. I've never noticed like when he
was in Jurassic World and whatnot. I
never noticed that he had a lisp, but
it's a pretty heavy lisp this time
around. So I I'm just I don't know. I
just curiosity. Not Not that it was a
bad listen to.
Um but also I
I'm failing to remember if it was
mentioned that the character does have a
list. I forgot that part. Um, but yeah,
it took me about 3 weeks to read it um,
because I'm I was only listening to it
uh, while I was walking and I only walk
about an hour, hour and a half every
day.
Uh, so it took me a while to get through
it. It's a 17-hour audiobook. You can do
the math. Um,
and I I didn't listen to it every single
day, either. Um, but yeah, if you read A
Little Life and you loved the style of
that book, but you were like, "Hey, the
content is way too much." There's still
some of that stuff in here, but it's
it's pretty much right at the end of the
book. Um, there is a
scene of consensual,
I guess sodomy, kind of like a right of
patch passage. So, if that's going to
upset you, and yes, I said sodomy, um,
if that's going to upset you, it's
man-on-man, um, and if that's going to
upset you, then definitely skip this one
as well.
Um, but yeah, this one I I really
enjoyed I I enjoyed this trek through
Ivu Ivu and getting to know the uh, the
indigenous peoples there and their
culture and and whatnot. And and then,
on top of that,
the unfortunateness of colonialism, how,
you know, you just go in and just, you
know, take everything these people
cherish and try to monetize it. Um, and
I especially loved Pareena's uh,
conflict with himself
trying to figure out whether or not he
was responsible for their not downfall,
because they're still around, but it's
Basically, they
they don't really turn Ivu Ivu into a
theme park,
but it does become more modernized, um,
and I really like the way that it was
that that unfolded. It was very
believable, um, and it was, of course,
upsetting to watch it happen.
Um, there is a standout scene in here
where uh, Fa- fajo I anyways there's a
character when one of the turtles is
killed
the character
freaks out that Perrina killed the
turtle.
Also animal cruelty
as you can tell
because that you know they're the
turtles they have to eat the turtles.
So
there is there is some of that in there
also
but there's a really really really good
scene that is
deep and layered and it has it speaks so
much to Perrina as a character the way
he reacts to the character reacting to
him
and it it really put me in the mindset
that the
the person that I'm following
is not a good person. They are an
interesting person. I understand their
motivations. I do not condone them. I do
not like them. But Perrina was a very
interesting character to follow all the
way up until the end. And when you find
out the the truth behind everything it
is very upsetting. It is very dark. It
is very graphic.
Just know all that going into it. But
yeah,
I I hate that uh that Yanagihara's A
Little Life has overshadowed this book.
And I also haven't seen too many people
reading to paradise. But to paradise
seems like it's it's more it's got some
more supernatural it's got it's more
supernatural leaning. It's more fantasy
related than the first two books. The
first one's kind of like a soft science
fiction. A little life is character
drama that's nothing else but character
drama.
So if you're looking for I would love to
hear any of y'all read to paradise and
if you guys enjoyed it. I don't want any
spoilers of course. But that might
actually be my next read after I get
done with Susan Choi's flashlight which
I am loving. I think she won the
National Book Award or the Pulitzer or
something like that. But yeah, Hanya
Yanagihara can do no wrong in my eyes.
Her stuff is heavy. It is rich with
theme. It is poignant. It is it tackles
some very very tough subjects and I
think tackles it very well. Some people
are like, well, she doesn't have to go
into such graphic detail.
People live these stories. While this is
fiction and not based on anything real,
I I watched I was watching one guy, you
guys might know him. He's got glasses
and mustache. He looks like he should be
on some kind of list. He has a huge
platform here on BookTube. But he was
saying that in a little life it became
unbelievable how many horrible things
were happening to Jude. And I made a
comment on his video saying I am I'm
honestly glad
that you have not experienced any of
these things and if you have not to the
extent that Jude has.
But these people exist and what happens
to them should be known
because there is a cycle of abuse.
Once you are abused, it continues on.
You look for those You look for those
things in other people.
Whereas most people would be like, you
would want to stay away from that. It's
more more of like almost like comfort
food. It's like the devil you know
instead of the devil you don't know.
It's like at some point in time
you just
instead of wanting to be loved, you see
love as this
toxic thing
that can only be established through
abuse.
And I hope all that stuff makes sense.
But yeah, I watched the guy's video and
I Was I a bit upset? Yeah, I was because
there are so many people out here that
just discount or completely ignore
things that happen that really truly
happen in the world. The spiral of
abuse, the cyclical nature of abuse,
and people do fall down that rabbit
hole, and they get stuck in Wonderland.
Um, not that it's Wonderland, but I
hopefully you get the metaphor.
Uh, but yeah, um, if you haven't read A
Little Life, I highly suggest checking
this one out first. Uh, just to see the
growth of the author. Also, this one is
far shorter than A Little Life. I think
it's about 400 pages, whereas uh, A
Little Life is 700 pages, and To
Paradise is 7 or 800 pages also. So, if
you're looking for a a road into Hanya
Yanagihara's
uh, content, definitely check this one
out. But, have you read The People in
the Trees, or listened to the audiobook?
Let me know what you thought of it down
there in the doobly-doo, but I'll see
you guys tomorrow. No, that's not my
outro. Sorry, that was a short outro,
but if you made it this far, I'm going
to do it again. Just cuz
But, until next time, I have been
Eubeniu. This has been another book
review. I'll talk to you guys later.
Bye-bye.