A review by megque
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

I love this gut wrenching, terribly upsetting book. It is very raw, human, and emotional. This book is about trauma and how trauma affects us so deeply in ways that can be healed, and in ways that can never be healed. This book puts to words what all of us feel sometimes but may not be able to describe. Feelings of the terror of receiving help, terror of the ones we love knowing what we are most ashamed of, but the themes of shame are the shame that are not the victims fault. Feelings of wanting to help so bad but not being able to because the recipient refuses to accept. Feelings of that complicated dynamic of needing someone but not being able to let them in. Feelings of truly being alone, but also feelings of those who understand each other the most and how that can alleviate the burden or being alive. I love this book so much. I love the way it makes me feel, cry, grieve, feel proud of the characters, relate to the characters. I love crying and grieving the characters in the book because I am crying and grieving everyone I see in them, including myself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Torture, Addiction, Biphobia, Bullying, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Chronic illness, Rape, Self harm, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

DO NOT read this book if any of the content/trigger warnings are very real triggers or upsetting to you. It is not worth it if you are sensitive to the content and will be harmed by the content because it is very explicit.