unitedwellfail 's review for:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Wow, just wow. I am so touched by this esquisite style of writting that was poetic as well as realistic. I understand that some people felt this was "torture porn" but I did not perceive it this way at all. Sure, some passages are very hard to read and the amount of awfull things that happen to the caracters can seem like a lot at times. But those events do not seem to be told for "shock value" and the messages and the way they are told surpass that pain. 
These caracters will stay with me for a long time.

PS: I am not sure what the exact message was behind the fact that there are no prominent female caracters in this book (Julia is the only "developed" caracter but still feels secondary and not very well know in depth), but I do think that it is important to underline that fact.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail