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kovvster_c 's review for:
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
DID NOT FINISH: 47%
Weirdly enough for a book being praised as a queer classic, what ya'll really love is reading about self-loathing and abuse passing off as "sad" and "deep" because it happens to a queer disabled man.
First few chapters did an amazing job setting up just how human our protagonists were only to hyperfocus on one mans misery and decide thats all the story is gonna be. Half the book in and things only get worse and worse to the point of comical disbelief.
All these characters deeply care about Jude but when the plot calls for it they all simply lose braincells and refuse to give Jude the help, the wake up call (or therapy) he deserves. Jude faces unrealistic levels of abuse to the point where you yourself think the author must hate this character to put him through all this.
Fuck this book and its trauma for the sake of plot and shock value. I await for actual good queer classics where its not "gay person sad i'm 14 and this is deep".
Edit: After reading the summary to see if I truly missed out on anything, I am completely puzzled as to the 5 star reception of this book. "Gay classic" my ass. Hanya admitted to doing no research to any of the things she threw onto Jude, and this book is a shameful look into the romantisiation and exploitation of real traumas and struggles for the sake of emotionally shocking the reader. Cheap tricks by an author who could not give less of a fuck about the things she writes about, shame to waste moments of good prose for this.
First few chapters did an amazing job setting up just how human our protagonists were only to hyperfocus on one mans misery and decide thats all the story is gonna be. Half the book in and things only get worse and worse to the point of comical disbelief.
All these characters deeply care about Jude but when the plot calls for it they all simply lose braincells and refuse to give Jude the help, the wake up call (or therapy) he deserves. Jude faces unrealistic levels of abuse to the point where you yourself think the author must hate this character to put him through all this.
Fuck this book and its trauma for the sake of plot and shock value. I await for actual good queer classics where its not "gay person sad i'm 14 and this is deep".
Edit: After reading the summary to see if I truly missed out on anything, I am completely puzzled as to the 5 star reception of this book. "Gay classic" my ass. Hanya admitted to doing no research to any of the things she threw onto Jude, and this book is a shameful look into the romantisiation and exploitation of real traumas and struggles for the sake of emotionally shocking the reader. Cheap tricks by an author who could not give less of a fuck about the things she writes about, shame to waste moments of good prose for this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault