Reviews

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

awdrummer's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

mieuxloti's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

bruhcheesee's review against another edition

too triggering. pages upon pages of explicit rape and sexual abuse. cant stomach it. great writing and very interesting characters so far, but the scenes where

jude gets forced to walk and move outside of his physical capabilities, and then beaten and raped over and over again

makes me too sick to continue

lee_loryn_'s review against another edition

5.0

I'm not even sure I can properly review this. I think my rating really gets the point across. But it's been a month, I've read other books and I'm still thinking about 'A Little Life'.
And all I can think is, well...a book's never done that to me before.
This book gave me so many feels for so many pages. I wanted it to end at points but I also had a fear of it ending.And when it did end I went back to the reading other books and I will probably pick this back up again to re-read. If I can handle that. :o

pisces_angel's review against another edition

4.0

i don’t think a book has ever made me feel so many emotions as this one

angel95's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

5.0

lacemska's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

2.0

sammi620'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

4.5

mayflowergirl74's review against another edition

2.0

Hanya Yanagihara is a gifted writer, tugging you into the lives of her characters with beautiful writing, but I simply couldn't find a way to like this book. It felt like a punishment to read it, going longer than I think was necessary, and creating a life so bleak for the main character that it was almost unbelievable. There are good people in this book, loving, caring people who are the very best of humanity, but sadly it feels as though the very worst are the ones who win, their damage never being able to be undone no matter how much others try to fix it. And the tragedy never seems to end. It is overwhelming and smothering and seems to be put in place just to make the MC's life worse and more unbearable.

Spoiler

And while others may have been grateful for the romantic relationship between Willem and Jude, I found it hard to believe and, in the end, disappointing. Because of Willem's relationship with his brother, Henning, I'd always seen Jude as a sort of brother to him as well. Neither had living siblings (at least not known), and so I could appreciate what seemed like an incredibly close, familial type relationship, so strong that it would never end. But when it became sexual, they both lost that, and it was unbelievable that nobody, except for maybe Andy, seemed to have any concerns about a man who was arguably straight and a man who most of them had not known to have any relationship at all getting together. No matter how good their relationship ended up being, Willem became yet another man that would do things to Jude that he hated and would then have to go outside of their relationship for sexual fulfillment. It felt to me like the author just wanted them to have sex or create more heartache for them.

laraamtk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0