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A review by camiraculous
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I don’t recommend this book to my friends or anyone, really.
Or, read this book but you have to prepare yourself for a VERY emotional read.
Or, read this book but you have to prepare yourself for a VERY emotional read.
I was nauseated, had to close my eyes on so many parts and had to take breaks because I couldn’t read through lyrics tears. I am in grief.
Check the trigger warnings, and I can’t stress this enough.
As I am writing this, I still have a hundred pages left, but I needed to sort my feelings before being even more in grief.
It is book you can not put down but also a book that you have to put down to absorb the horror of it.
I hated that book at some point, I thought « why would I do that to myself? I can just put the book down » but no! I couldn’t because what I was reading couldn’t be final, there had to be an end to all that suffering Jude went through!
But I loved it. The writing is flawless. I loved how seamlessly we could jump from one narration to another, or from a moment in time to another.
I loved how some pieces of the story, important pieces, were only first mentioned in the latter half of the book. How we kept on discovering more and more about each character in a quite jarring manner.
And, I need to talk about how much I loved the characters.
My favourite one is Willem. I loved reading in his perspective, discovering his flaws and insecurities right after a chapter where he was described as the perfect friend by Jude.
I love books that make me take a big step back, rethink your priorities.
But as I said: I do not recommend this book. Or don’t blame me if you do read it and do not come out intact. (it’s crazy how people only read the stuff I forbid them to read).
…
It took me ages to finish it because it is hard to read through tears.
I still agree with my review previously written. I still love-hate this book and it’s characters.
Graphic: Self harm, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Death