A review by dashes101
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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

4.5

Man oh man, was this a sad read. I knew going in this was going to be sad and traumatic, and I want to stress how important it is to read the trigger warnings for this book before you read it. While the book says its following four friends, this book is mainly about Jude. We follow his life, jumping with beautiful prose from the present day to his past, uncovering the traumas he endured to create who he is today. While people complain this book has no cultural / time indicators, I loved the concept of it. I liked being fully immersed in the characters rather than the political landscape of New York during their lives. As someone who isn't from New York and doesn't follow a lot of the news, I wasn't lost trying to navigate the story in relation to the city - it just provided a lovely backdrop to really meet and engage with our characters. 
Some things I really enjoyed were the characters (of course) and the way Yanagihara really shows us all of them: the good, the bad, the messy. There are times where characters do morally ambiguous, or even bad things, and I really liked that. While people say the characters are often one dimensional, either all bad or all good, I seriously disagree. Sure, there are characters like
, Caleb, who is a complete piece of shit with very little redeeming him, but there are also characters like JB, who are good people who do bad things and place themselves in bad situations and hurt the people they love.
I thought the characters were fleshed out and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them.
Another gripe I saw people having with the book is the idea that it's torture porn. Again, I don't agree. Yes, there are times where there are just horrific things happening, but I don't believe its gratuitous for the reader as much as it is expositional and necessary to create the characters that she made. 
A couple other things I saw people having an issue with was the travel-esque parts of the book, which to them seemed a little too far fetched, but I think that is honestly just reaching. I also saw some conversations about the bad representation of gay characters, which I really had a hard time with. I loved the representation in this book. The characters that are gay often have their own storylines and don't fall into caricatures of gay stereotypes.
The two that we follow most evidently, Jude and Willem, are in a gay relationship, yes, but Willem even states that he is not gay. People saying it's bad representation of a gay character I think lose the idea that it's not a gay character. If anything, when I read this book I almost thought Jude was demi-romantic while Willem was bisexual. The relationship between the two of them is stunningly lovely, warm, and caring. Willem's speech about the importance of compromise within a relationship really shaped me.

Overall, a stunning book. Brilliant prose, lovely characters, heart wrenching tale. Strap yourself in for a ride, but I seriously doubt once you start this one you'll be able to put it down. 
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