A review by melisayasilem
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

dark sad medium-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

4.25

You could say that none of the characters -who you become very much attached to by the way- deserve what happens to them. You feel what they feel, go through what they go through. I knew what I was getting myself into before I began reading this book, but it still hits you hard. I didn't find myself as affected as others whom I've seen their reviews saying nobody should read this book because it is f'ed up- and this could be because I read this over a period of months instead of a couple days or even weeks. Regardless, it still succeeded to leave a deep impact.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Dementia, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Excrement, Car accident, Outing, and Classism

This book is not for the weak, it gets very graphic in some chapters and you might have to put it down for a bit. But it also makes you want to continue reading because you get very attached to the characters. Sexual assault and suicidal thoughts are very much present, to the point where you sometimes have to think hard to understand why the character thinks that way.