The People in the Trees is my favorite book so far this year. It'll take a lot to knock it down.

Just finished reading The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara and so far it's my favorite read of this year. I'm only eight books deep at this point, but I feel like this one's going to be hard to beat.

Last year my favorite was The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson and I read 42 more books after that one with none topping DJ's magnificent farewell collection.

I've seen reviews saying The People in the Trees is difficult to read because of the depictions of child sexual abuse, but don't buy into that. There are certainly difficult scenes but everything feeds the narrative. In other words, there's nothing that's disturbing for the sake of being disturbing. Besides, the central theme of the book - immortality and the discovery of immortality - will keep most readers pretty focused.