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wandaka's review against another edition
4.0
This book is so heavy and I can definitely see why people may love or hate it. I’ve just completed it and my emotions and thoughts are all over the place. Abuse and trauma takes a toll on one’s life and this book talks about it in a way that there were times where I had to put the book away because it was so raw and heavy for me but I’m still so glad I read it. I would definitely recommend this but make sure you read it when you’re in the right headspace.
xnink_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
elliemackechnie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
bradyhays's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
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
vjkinoshita's review against another edition
Absolute garbage trash torture porn
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
brisingr's review against another edition
5.0
2nd read: september 5th 2021 - september 14th 2021
I first read this book when I was 18, moving from high-school to university - and it had felt revelatory. I am now moving from postgrad to... probably the rest of my life, and i felt i needed to reread this story that feels so monumental, a story of a (little) life. For the most part, it is a way less traumatizing experience than a first read; I remember crying every 30ish pages, back then. It was also interesting to see which pieces of the story I remembered, and which my brain lost to time. The end is still fucking cathartic.
Also now, being way older and a little bit wiser myself, I really appreciate Hanya Yanagihara's intelligence, woven through this book, the cultured references, which I enjoyed, so much knowledge bounded into decades of living. I also appreciated the writing style way more, this time around, and how incredibly captivating it is, for a book this long.
This still remains one of my favourite books. I think, if you're willing to walk alongside its protagonists, it'll always be the kind of story that can change your own life. For me, it remains a very comforting, though still a very, very sad book.
Repeating my advice to anyone interested in reading to please check all trigger and content warnings applicable to this novel, because yes, it is a lot.
1st read: 30th march 2016 - 18th april 2016
Ok. So this book. This book is not exactly the best book I've ever read, but it is one of the realest and it made me feel so many things, made a mess out of me and my poor heart. And because as I'm writing this, my face is still blotchy and I still have problems properly breathing from all the crying I've did, it deserves that 5 stars rating.
(Later edit: After it's been a year and I still keep thinking about this book, recommending it to those around me and just constantly reference it in all my discussions, I think it's fair to also add it in my favourites.)
However, I have conflicting feelings about this. How can you properly talk about a book that compresses in hundreds of pages so much? How can you totally love something that made you suffer on almost a daily basis, and how can you totally hate something that made you feel something on almost a daily basis? I still haven't found a way to balance out everything that I feel about this story, so here I am trying to share what I have found... magical in this book.
The book follows the life of a group of four friends - starting with their college life (also the time when they met) and continuing on for decades. The focus of the story falls on poor and young Jude, and their lives are charming by how mundanely and insecurely the four of them go through it. Who has not doubt their skills, as time seems to run out? Who has not been certain of their worth at some point and who has not thought too heavy the expectations society pushes on their shoulders? This book deals with all of this, and much, much more, very heartbreakingly.
I first read this book when I was 18, moving from high-school to university - and it had felt revelatory. I am now moving from postgrad to... probably the rest of my life, and i felt i needed to reread this story that feels so monumental, a story of a (little) life. For the most part, it is a way less traumatizing experience than a first read; I remember crying every 30ish pages, back then. It was also interesting to see which pieces of the story I remembered, and which my brain lost to time. The end is still fucking cathartic.
Also now, being way older and a little bit wiser myself, I really appreciate Hanya Yanagihara's intelligence, woven through this book, the cultured references, which I enjoyed, so much knowledge bounded into decades of living. I also appreciated the writing style way more, this time around, and how incredibly captivating it is, for a book this long.
This still remains one of my favourite books. I think, if you're willing to walk alongside its protagonists, it'll always be the kind of story that can change your own life. For me, it remains a very comforting, though still a very, very sad book.
Repeating my advice to anyone interested in reading to please check all trigger and content warnings applicable to this novel, because yes, it is a lot.
1st read: 30th march 2016 - 18th april 2016
Ok. So this book. This book is not exactly the best book I've ever read, but it is one of the realest and it made me feel so many things, made a mess out of me and my poor heart. And because as I'm writing this, my face is still blotchy and I still have problems properly breathing from all the crying I've did, it deserves that 5 stars rating.
(Later edit: After it's been a year and I still keep thinking about this book, recommending it to those around me and just constantly reference it in all my discussions, I think it's fair to also add it in my favourites.)
However, I have conflicting feelings about this. How can you properly talk about a book that compresses in hundreds of pages so much? How can you totally love something that made you suffer on almost a daily basis, and how can you totally hate something that made you feel something on almost a daily basis? I still haven't found a way to balance out everything that I feel about this story, so here I am trying to share what I have found... magical in this book.
The book follows the life of a group of four friends - starting with their college life (also the time when they met) and continuing on for decades. The focus of the story falls on poor and young Jude, and their lives are charming by how mundanely and insecurely the four of them go through it. Who has not doubt their skills, as time seems to run out? Who has not been certain of their worth at some point and who has not thought too heavy the expectations society pushes on their shoulders? This book deals with all of this, and much, much more, very heartbreakingly.
All you really have to do is just be a good person, which you already are, and enjoy your life. You're young. You have years and years to figure out what you want to do and how you want to live.
Warning: this book features heavy themes such as: sexual abuse, self harm, depression, drug addiction and anything you could think of that fits in-between. It is a heavy book and never sugarcoats the events. It is hard to swallow some of the things that happen in A Little Life. It is hard to make yourself push through the book at time and it certainly offers you enough reasons to start crying and feeling your emotions going downhill. So yes, this book will have effects upon you and I do not recommend you reading it if you're triggered by any of the themes mentioned before or if you are an overly sensible person.
But, you know, while it deals with all of these things, you can also find topics such as friendship: its importance and how it can influence a person, the way the dynamics in a group shift and change along with the people, as years are passing by. Or family: how sometimes a family of your own making is more desirable, how a parent actually feels when facing the obligation of raising a child. These passages have been my favorite, the musing on human relationships and life in general, especially since so many paragraphs found an echo in my own thoughts. I related to these characters - and this is why this book means so much to me, right now.But what was happiness but an extravagance, an impossible state to mantain, partly because it was so difficult to articulate?
The characters are absolutely glorious and definitely the best part of the book. You have a diverse cast (lots of people of color!!! and it's wonderful!!) and so many great personalities. I don't have enough fingers on both hands to name all my favorites: I just found Jude's friends so charming and loveable, weirdly familiar in their actions. I have two top favorites: JB, an artist with a lot of problems and even more wrong actions under his belt, and yet I couldn't stop loving him, wishing him the best because he is the one I relate to the most, the one whose actions I could predict pages and pages before they happened. And Andy, a doctor with a strong personality and wonderful thoughts processes, and the bestest of friends anyone could probably wish for. My love goes to all these characters, to each and every small universe they created around themselves, their lives with their small worries and tender gestures, with annual trips and family rituals - everything so realistically painted that I could feel the smell of food, the worry, the warmth of their care and embrace. They are all very well portrayed and I will, from now on, thank this book for so many imagined individuals that, for as long as I was reading, felt real and true.Friendship, companionship: it so often defied logic, so often eluded the deserving, so often settled itself on the odd, the bad, the peculiar, the damaged.
One thing that I absolutely loved in this book is how it doesn't make a big deal out of people's sexuality. Everything is accepted as it comes and it is refreshing to see life goes on without letting who you are attracted to determine the trajectory of your life. Because this is how the real world works as well and it was so wonderful to see boyfriends and lesbians mentioned with such ease, such naturalness, and I hope one day books will have this diversity and the worst specimen of the human species will learn to accept it.
But this book will destroy you. I don't know if this is its purpose, I actually feel like this book somehow shows the most horrible pains of living, being human, but it does it well. You know what it is to come, there is a lot of obvious foreshadowing so you think: Oh, I will be ready when it comes. But then it comes and it is ten times worse than you thought it would be. Or it comes, and everything is okay until one line, just one line, makes you start hysterically sobbing. I lost count of how many times I had to bury my face in my hands to cry while commuting, or how for minutes long I couldn't breathe properly because of how much this book was. I read this book mostly in forty-fifty pages chunks, and even if by some miracle I didn't cry, I would still end up with a headache. Because all the incredibly numerous feelings found in this book are passed onto you as you're reading. A heart is a heavy burden and you can't truly feel it until you emphasize with what's going on in this book.There were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.
guayabafresca's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
schnien's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
wistfulwander's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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
5.0