Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

2116 reviews

hullabalyew's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book was so well written. Yanagihara evokes so many emotions from guilt, shame, and fear to joy, pride and love. “A Little Life” encapsulates the complexities of existing, of living. While many will never suffer even a fraction of what Jude has, we can still relate to the insecurities that we’re not good enough for our friends or our job or our family. This book was so powerful, and in many ways, I think the twists and turns and painful and sad bits are what makes it so good. For some, life is full of loss, but they still chug along and keep living. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, and Gaslighting

panger97's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Read this through as a book club book with friends! It honestly took me a bit to get going with this book. The prose is beautiful, but the book does use a somewhat unconventional story telling style, as it mixes flashbacks, a bit of POV shifts and more.

The story begins with 4 boys, Jude, Malcolm, JB and Willem, just fresh out of college and trying to make it in NY. 
Malcom is an architect, Jude is a lawyer, Willem is an actor and JB is an artist. The book starts off a bit slow, but that’s because it does spend some time developing their backgrounds. However, and not really a spoiler, Jude is the most mysterious of them.

I overall enjoyed it, but I did find some parts of it to be quite unrealistic or over the top. I also found that what were main characters kind of took a backseat roll later. Not a critique per se as life happens like that, but I do wish they were developed more. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Car accident

alastair_james's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow. Yeah so it ended the way I thought it would. Still frickin sad, though.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

statfan21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the greatest book I have ever read. I’ve never felt so connected to characters before. While reading I find myself telling stories from this book as if they’re stories of a friend of mine. I’ll mention “my friend JB…” and then remember that they’re just book characters. I’ve never felt more seen in my life by anything ever. Of course there’s many, many differences between my life and Jude’s, but the way he thinks and acts, I didn’t think anyone else thought or acted like this. It took until I was 21 years old to realize that maybe there is someone out there who actually does understand me. Which makes this both heartbreaking but also healing. I’ve never been this affected by a piece of media before. I will never forget this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

torilehman28's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Rape, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

skye_anderson's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ryoung23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I think this is going to hold the title for my favorite book of 2024. It was heartbreaking and all so beautiful. It ended in the way I expected, but had some shocking things happen from beginning to end that I didn't expect. Jude deserved all the love he ever received in a life full of hate. I am so thankful that I finally read this book. I don't know if I'll ever read another book like it. 

There are A LOT of trigger warnings in the book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Dysphoria

Minor: Addiction and Gaslighting

anemosise's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

oh my i am conflicted. understand the criticism deeply, have yet to watch interviews with the author and tbh we'll see if i do! but! my oh my! what effortlessly beautiful writing and what beautiful explorations of human relationships. the dynamics of the (mostly) loveable main characters are so fascinating to me. the beauty of jude slowly learning to stop self-sabotaging his relationships with harold and willem and andy. beautiful. however. i wanted a lot more from jb and especially malcom, and some side characters deserved better development (richard, people at the law firm, caleb, maybe even ana? though I didn't mind some being less developed and simply reappearing names!)

oh and how powerful the ending would have been. if despite everything, despite all the trauma, jude still decided to live. what is the book saying by having him kill himself at the end? some experienced trauma is too unrecoverable for people? i guess I just find that level of pessimism disappointing. gotta think on it more.

i think simply reducing this novel to trauma porn is incredibly reductive of a lot of the work it puts into exploring.. well.. the little moments in life. the people who make the days worth living. yea idk. i think i liked a lot of this, but it left a really uncomfortable distaste in my mouth. man.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

strawberryfairy__'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Car accident, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

nicole_switzer's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A little life is a beautiful depiction of the horrible, deeply troubling life of the MC, Jude St. Francis. The writing in this book has such an incredible, rhythmic beauty about it. It makes the saddest, most devastating scenes so exquisite. The metaphors and similes are wildly imaginative. The story unfolds in a complicated web of multiple timelines, back and forth in a way that, at first, made my head spin. However, as I got more into the book, it was easier to understand. 

I do think that TikTok overhypes this book. It was beautiful and a devastating story, but it was (occasionally) predictable and a little repetitive. By the time I hit page 650/700, I found there wasn't anything new or interesting to be said. I struggled through the last 100-150 page, as they were nearly the same page again and again and again. 

It is a beautiful book, well worth the read. I am glad I had it on both audiobook and physical copy though. I would recommend the mixed media method. Also, please check your triggers before reading this book. Triggers for SA, self-harm, suicide and nearly everything in between. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail