keidzi 's review for:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

2.0

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Yanagihara is a wonderful, vivid writer, which makes the triggering scenes more traumatizing. She's truly "dedicated to sorrow" as one reviewer pointed out, although I would often think, "Is this scene really necessary? Is the amount of sorrow justifiable?" Sometimes Jude's (additional) suffering didn't make sense to me. (Again, "Is this really necessary?")

Yanagihara is good. Really good. And she used her skills to write a story that can be easily not recommended. Unfortunate, honestly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use