Review by cryptidarchivist - A Little Life

cryptidarchivist 's review for:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

5.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

I loved reading this book-- I cried reading it and the characters now live in my brain having finished it. I think of them daily. It really impacted me to see trauma discussed so frankly and accurately, especially when society loves to hide traumatized people like us away. Despite it being slow-paced and 800 pages, I sped through it in a couple days.

The one thing I wish would be that we had more of Malcom's perspective. I really liked the exposition and shifting perspectives at the beginning and how it evened out into mainly Jude's, Willem's, and Harold's perspectives, but I felt we didn't get enough of Malcom. He was intriguing and I wish he got more page- and perspective-time.

Content Warnings