dandiego_01 's review for:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

4.25

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I felt a whirlwind of emotions when reading this book. As soon as something happy happened, right afterwards, the author had to crush your hopes and dreams for the character. I found it difficult to come to terms with the injustice and extreme abuse of Jude. Although this book was an extremely painful read, I still took some of the opinions expressed in the book and made them my own (for example, with Willem's opinion on therapy). I also find myself craving the way she wrote mundane scenes in an immersive, comfortable writing style but I definitely had to close the book a few times on more graphic scenes (painful).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail