A review by atlas_shruggs
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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

1.0

If this book had focused on Jude and Willem's relationship and love story, it would've been a 4,5. The last third is definitely a 4,5 but unfortunately I disliked the first 500 pages were so unforgiveably bad that I cannot in good conscience give it more than 1 star.
Don't get me wrong, the prose is beautiful and the character creation was spectacular but it truly does just read like ~800 pages of trauma porn. The overly graphic descriptions of Jude's self harm made me gag more than once and the fact that this is at least the second work from Yanagihara that features graphic sexual violence against children is alarming to say the least.
I did absolutely adore Willem and the chapters from his point of view were amazing, but it just couldn't save the book as a whole.
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