A review by midnightvenus
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Did not finish book. Stopped at 51%.
Inside him, the creature hesitates, perching on its hind legs, pawing the air as if feeling for answers.
I cannot deny Yanagihara’s talent for writing. In this book, she has created an immersive world, with a style that has clearly been inspired from her work as an editor for T Magazine. So mesmerizing her writing was, I went to check her Instagram out of curiosity and found many posts captioned this way: incantatory in its syntax—carefully taking its time to describe in detail, if need be, the accompanying photographs.

Yanagihara is an intentional writer, that much I can sense, and with every information about Jude—or the ensemble—that she has doled out, I marveled at the careful attention to details. In particular, her choice of having pure mathematics as Jude’s interest compelled me the most.

However, it’s difficult for me to parse what I exactly feel towards this book. I did enjoy it, and I went in knowing the ending would be like that. But I was just so drained by the time I was 50% into the book. Jude’s childhood was so harrowing, triggering even for me, that I couldn’t go on any longer knowing that, in the end,
he would not find the peace and healing he so craves
. 

I have much love, admiration, and respect for Yanagihara, but this book is simply not for me. 
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