A review by pennepasta
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This book was so traumatizing and so horrific that I had to excuse myself on several occasions just to continue. IF YOU AREN'T EMOTIONALLY OR MENTALLY STABLE (or even if you are) DON'T READ THIS BOOK! I will never read this book again and I actively try to avoid it when I visit book stores. While I had originally rated this book 5 stars because of the emotional impact it had on me (dare I say, emotional trauma it evoked), I have come to my senses and instead rated this book 1 star. There was not a page in the book that was purely happy, or even neutral. From beginning to end and everything in between, this book was simply a trauma dump. Yanagihara really picked up Jude (mc) and was like "lets see how much utter depression, trauma, pain, suffering, and immense horror we can inflict on a single person and then, lets
kill all his best friends
Please, please, please read ALL of the trigger warnings before reading (and maybe the length of the list will deter you from this book all together). I would not wish this book upon my worst enemy and I will burn my copy as soon as I leave for uni. 
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