A review by withlivjones
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

2.0

I wouldn’t wish this book on my worst enemy. It gets points for the chosen family trope and some gorgeous prose, but that is unfortunately outweighed by the absolutely terrible time I had reading this. The fact that Hanya Yanagihara was able to come up with so many different traumatic events to put Jude through is concerning - I hope that she’s seeing a therapist, and that that therapist is also seeing a therapist. Some of these scenes belong not in traditionally published fiction but on AO3 tagged “whump”, “hurt no comfort”, and “dead dove do not eat”. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent