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A review by mia_1312
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
I really tried getting into this book but it was just awful and reading felt like a burden; obviously because of the awful topics but also because of the writing style. I can‘t help myself but see nothing of the other good reviews in this book. I understand that a book sometimes just isn‘t for one, but I really don’t get how someone would give this 5 stars.
It‘s a slow paced book and it took a long time before I even started gaining a little interest in a character. There were often characters mentioned that I just couldn’t remember and it started to get exhausting and also annoying towards the end. I‘m used to read big novels with many characters and also different time stamps, but I guess in this case I sadly was just lacking interest to even remember everybody.
I HIGHLY recommend to look at all the trigger warnings and take them serious!!
For me personally, despite everything described was just painful to read, the description of self harm was unbearable and I needed to skip a few sentences later because it was just too much for me.
The description of the life of all the characters also felt a little unrealistic to me and I don‘t even mean Jude’s story, which is filled with every trauma you can think of, because I‘m sure sadly that is reality for some people. But just in general: all 4 friends are completely successful in their jobs (maybe that was used to describe the discrepancy between what other people see of someone and what is going on inside a person? But still…). On the other hand JB was kind of the only one I felt a little bit with, because of his end, which just didn’t sit right with me and felt so out of place and really unnecessary!
I felt uncomfortable facing the description of the few queer people and stereotypes, that weren’t not only out of place and time but also complete unnecessary regarding the topic of the book.
Also the few women, who appear in this book, and their prescription felt like they were unnecessary and the story kind of wouldn’t miss anything when they would have been completely erased. I think that’s a sign that maybe you could write a few more sentences about a female character, cause that isn’t worthy of a book written in the 21st century.
Spoiler
I was looking forward to Jude and also his relationship with Willem, since that was often highly written about, but although Jude’s background story is just awful and I really am out of words to describe what it did to me, I couldn’t build up good feelings or a connection towards this character.
I was disappointed that characters like JB and Malcolm didn’t seem important towards the end; one point why I didn’t like the writing is because I felt like the author made these two look ridiculous and I hated how JB was portrayed at the very end.
I don‘t know how to feel about this book. It made me cry but not because the writing was good or because I was feeling with a character, but because of the striking and relentless descriptions of violence in all forms. It was awful and I hated it.
I read it completely because I waited for the good writing style and the deep emotions so many are having towards the characters but I just couldn’t see any of it.
It‘s a slow paced book and it took a long time before I even started gaining a little interest in a character. There were often characters mentioned that I just couldn’t remember and it started to get exhausting and also annoying towards the end. I‘m used to read big novels with many characters and also different time stamps, but I guess in this case I sadly was just lacking interest to even remember everybody.
I HIGHLY recommend to look at all the trigger warnings and take them serious!!
For me personally, despite everything described was just painful to read, the description of self harm was unbearable and I needed to skip a few sentences later because it was just too much for me.
The description of the life of all the characters also felt a little unrealistic to me and I don‘t even mean Jude’s story, which is filled with every trauma you can think of, because I‘m sure sadly that is reality for some people. But just in general: all 4 friends are completely successful in their jobs (maybe that was used to describe the discrepancy between what other people see of someone and what is going on inside a person? But still…). On the other hand JB was kind of the only one I felt a little bit with, because of his end, which just didn’t sit right with me and felt so out of place and really unnecessary!
I felt uncomfortable facing the description of the few queer people and stereotypes, that weren’t not only out of place and time but also complete unnecessary regarding the topic of the book.
Also the few women, who appear in this book, and their prescription felt like they were unnecessary and the story kind of wouldn’t miss anything when they would have been completely erased. I think that’s a sign that maybe you could write a few more sentences about a female character, cause that isn’t worthy of a book written in the 21st century.
Spoiler
I was looking forward to Jude and also his relationship with Willem, since that was often highly written about, but although Jude’s background story is just awful and I really am out of words to describe what it did to me, I couldn’t build up good feelings or a connection towards this character.
I was disappointed that characters like JB and Malcolm didn’t seem important towards the end; one point why I didn’t like the writing is because I felt like the author made these two look ridiculous and I hated how JB was portrayed at the very end.
I don‘t know how to feel about this book. It made me cry but not because the writing was good or because I was feeling with a character, but because of the striking and relentless descriptions of violence in all forms. It was awful and I hated it.
I read it completely because I waited for the good writing style and the deep emotions so many are having towards the characters but I just couldn’t see any of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Grief, Mental illness, Death of parent, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Violence, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Pedophilia, and Injury/Injury detail