A review by leezavh
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh god. Why did I do this to myself. First of all, let me confirm, this is every bit as sad as everyone says it is. Just devastating. I've had a pit in my stomach for days, and probably days to come, because of this book. I've literally lost my appetite. But it was so worth it. This is probably the best thing I've read all summer. The writing is (sometimes painfully) vivid and descriptive, and the blunt yet poetic tone perfectly encapsulates Jude's personality. The core relationships in his life are well developed and realistic, and the constant up and downs of his mental health kept me invested for all 814 pages. When it happened, and those who've read this know what I'm talking about, my heart dropped to my stomach and my hands actually started shaking. It felt like getting shot. Again, I don't think I can fully convey how gut-wrenching this whole thing is. However, one thing Yanagihara does really well is punctuating the sad parts with happier (or at least neutral) parts, which not only gives the reader a break, but also keeps the sadness from getting repetitive and actually makes the sad parts even sadder by comparison. I recommend marking parts that you really liked or that you thought were happy to look back on later, because trust me, you'll need it. My main gripe with this book is that basically the entire plot is predicated on the fact that
nobody forced Jude into therapy or a psych ward or something after the things he did to himself. Sure, it was strongly advised, but all the people in his life let him go on for years without stopping him, without getting him to talk about what happened to him. It's probably the most unrealistic part of the book for me. Especially in his adolescence. Like the authorities rescued this fifteen-year-old from a crazy kidnapper-rapist who had run him over with his car (this is after he prostituted himself for months to escape from a sexually abusive boys' home, which he was placed in after being rescued BY THE AUTHORITIES from a crazy sexually abusive priest, who was also prostituting him out for money) and nobody said, "hey, maybe we should get this kid some meds? Or a child psychologist? So that he's not irreparably damaged for life with no ability to talk about his trauma?" and then his social worker also never made him talk about it? Even when she knew she was dying and that she had very limited time to help this kid? Idk, it broke my suspension of disbelief at times
. Apart from that, the traumatic events were always grounded enough to feel realistic. Now that I've written this review I'm going to lie down on my carpet and stare at the ceiling for a while, hopefully long enough to erase the events of this book from my mind and go back to living a normal, well-adjusted life
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