A review by revolverreads
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

dark reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Has TikTok bamboozled you into reading a 700+ page book by an author who doesn't believe in trigger warnings? If so, you might feel you deserve some emotional compensation. 

Although delayed by conflicting travel plans and illness, we finally managed to finish "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara.

For a book that covers extremely heavy triggers such as self-harm, sexual assault, complex racial issues, and living with disabilities, you would expect the author to have done thorough research beyond just asking friends. Unfortunately, this book is as disappointing as the limited scope of research that was put into it. It is gratuitous in its depiction of trauma, filled with unapologetically useless friends, and frankly leaves us baffled every time someone claims it will change our lives. Will our lives be changed because we will inevitably conclude that this was the worst thing we could have ever read?

This book follows the lives of four friends: JB, Jude, Willem, and Malcolm. They come from different walks of life and each has their own quirks. JB is an queer "artiste" and one of the Black characters in the book, along with Malcolm, the "architect," who is biracial. As a non-Black author, Hanya Yanagihara makes some interesting choices in writing the dynamic between JB and Malcolm, where JB constantly questions Malcolm's Blackness. The author is quite vocal about her lack of research, and the chapters written from their perspectives leave you feeling uncomfortable about how these characters and situations are portrayed.

The other two characters are Jude, the "lawyer" and the "trauma dump" of the group, and Willem, the “actor” who is beautiful but oblivious to the attention he receives. Jude and Willem eventually enter into a relationship so dysfunctional that it leaves you wondering why anyone would root for them.

This book might take 200 pages to become somewhat interesting, but it only takes a few to understand how toxic the friendship between these four is. 

Jude is undoubtedly the punching bag that Hanya Yanagihara uses to get her message across to her readers. Abandoned and raised by abusive ,onks, he eventually runs away with a monk who pimps him out and rapes him. After this monk commits suicide, Jude is placed in a group home where he is bullied and sexually assaulted again. He then runs away, giving sexual favors to truck drivers to get from place to place, only to later realize he has an STD because a sadistic psychiatrist found him, locked him in a basement, and gave him medicine to get better before sexually abusing him. The psychiatrist then drove him out to the middle of nowhere, ran over him, and left him with lifelong bodily damage.

Jude never actually tells his friends about his past (except for Willem near the end of the book), but they are aware of his issues, including self-harm and potential suicidal tendencies. He has a Doctor (Andy) who has been attending to him for years, yet none of his friends ever suggest that he seek help for his trauma. Hanya constantly tries to paint Jude as the ultimate martyr, but this only creates a narrative. By the last quarter of the book, it becomes so absurd that you can’t help but laugh as the miseries continue to pile on.

It’s a book we had very strong opinions on, and barely a single one of them positive. Be sure to tune into our episode of A Little Life and commiserate with us by looking for Revolver Reads: A Bookclub Russian Roulette on your podcast platform of choice, or simply @revolverreads on Instagram. We love getting suggestions for our roulette wheel, so feel free to DM us, or email at [email protected].
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