mrsladle 's review for:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

2.0

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I really wanted to like this book and I liked the story, however, the writing was just terribly difficult to get through. Pretentious, pretentious(again), and pretentiously all in one sentence? And a lot of background information about characters who are literally mentioned once and the details were irrelevant to the story. 

Unfortunately, this has been my least favorite read of 2024 as it felt like a chore to read. 😔

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail