Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - A Little Life

This is a good book, really beautifully written and with some loveable characters. But, it definitely does not need to be this long. Some passages are so drawn out, it seems only to hit a particular word count, at times. Also, as many people rightly say, this book covers just about every trigger warning I can think of. But the combination of horrific scenes and drawn out passages makes trauma almost sensationalised in this book. Similarly to hitting a word count, it is as if Hanya Yanagihara was trying to hit every possible traumatic incident possible, for some kind of sensationalism.

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sw317's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

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melisayasilem's review against another edition

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dark sad 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? Yes

4.25

You could say that none of the characters -who you become very much attached to by the way- deserve what happens to them. You feel what they feel, go through what they go through. I knew what I was getting myself into before I began reading this book, but it still hits you hard. I didn't find myself as affected as others whom I've seen their reviews saying nobody should read this book because it is f'ed up- and this could be because I read this over a period of months instead of a couple days or even weeks. Regardless, it still succeeded to leave a deep impact.

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amelieks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Okay I have a lot to say about A Little Life. (Review may be a little graphic)

First, let’s address the elephant in the room; read this at your own emotional risk. The list-no-pages of trigger warnings are not for nothing. Yanagihara takes you through the ringer in A Little Life. She leaves you raw- She’ll slowly peel pieces of your skin away until you’re fully freaking raw and then she’ll start throwing the punches. One after the other. Now there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the shocking elements in this book, stating that it’s torture-porn, shock value and all that stuff and, you know what? I would have thought so too, had I not read an article about how her publisher asked her to tone it down and she declined, stating that this was the point of the book.
Yes it’s over the top and yes some of it might be overplayed but that IS the point. It drives the message home; trauma is ugly. It’s ugly and sometimes you don’t get to heal. This book will NOT romanticize these things, they will be presented at face value for what they truly are.

Now with that aside; this book is one of the most beautiful pieces of fiction/media I have ever consumed. It’s in my top three favourite books (Top two, even, side by side with Starless Sea. I know, I see the contrast.) The characters, you just fall in love with them warts and all. You root for them, cry for them, sometimes you want to gives them a punch in the face but at the end of it all you freaking love them.
The timeline of this book is all over the place but in the best of ways. Hanya Yanagihara weaves through time with her characters so smoothly you don’t even realize she’s doing it.

I can’t recommend this book to anyone with a good conscience. I read this book to challenge myself and it was painful to read. Very painful and, well, yeah; triggering. Do I regret it, though? No. I’ll likely never read this book again, but it will always have a place on my favourites shelf.

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