A review by meganshil13
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.25

Everyone either loves or hates this book. I first purchased it due to its acclaim and then decided to take it off my tbr due to its controversies as someone who tends to read challenging/darker stories. It is a heavy read with trauma and triggers throughout with characters that you form a complicated relationship with. This book is on many people’s “sad/made me bawl” lists and I did not get to that point (I was mostly upset/disturbed/unsettled  during Jude’s most traumatic points) UNTIL the last 5 pages. That’s when the tears came. This book is a slow burn, and builds slowly and doesn’t end happily but closes out in a poetic way. Hanya Yanagihara deserves the acclaim she was given for her craftsmanship of this story despite the sometimes gratuitous trauma of the main character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Grief, Suicide, Blood, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Addiction, Cursing, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Ableism, and Car accident