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A review by karinasilvz
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
5.0
I cannot give this book any less than five stars.
I am sitting here, a mere half hour after having finishing the last page, with the book lain in front of me because I feel that if I let it out of my sight it will all have been a dream.
My hands are shaking and have been since at least halfway through the book, my face is still stained with tears, and my body and mind are exhausted from what just happened.
I have never, in my life, been finished with a book and been satisfied. My friends and family know this; there's always something I think the author should have done differently, some small decision that portrayed a character in what I thought was the wrong manner, some grammatical errors that I cannot believe have been overlooked. But, when I finished this book, all I could do was sob as I had been for at least the last forty pages. I heard whimpers of agony and had to remind myself that this was coming from my own body.
For the first time, I cannot be angry at any decision the author has made. The book is so shockingly life-like that I continue to forget that the author had anything to do with it, that she created these characters and their complicated relationships and backstories, that all the pain and wonder within these pages were not a chronicle of actual experiences.
I know that I will hold these characters close to my heart for as long as I live.
This is the type of book that I will selfishly not want to tell anybody about, the type of book that I want to read for the first time again and again so I can live in it, breathe in it, and let its world overtake mine.
There were moments where the things written in this book made me feel like somebody had twisted my heart into a bloody, mangled mess.
I honestly feel that the person I am changed every minute that I spent reading this book.
I want to write a review as eloquently gorgeous and heart-wrenching as this story was, but I simply cannot.
The title was perfect, because inside this paper and ink lives are thriving, people are laughing and loving and dying as realistically as they are in the real world.
I know with all my being that I will read this again and again, and I will live through it again and again.
I cannot give enough praise to Hanya Yanagihara; although I have been pretending she doesn't exist, it is only because her characters are so life-like that, in my mind, they live and breathe without her having to puppeteer them.
I honestly think that this book is the best book I have ever read and the best book I will ever read. I will hold it close to my heart, and I cannot thank the author enough for creating it, nor can I believe that another human being has the capacity to create something like this.
I feel like the world is now divided in two: people who have read this book, and people who haven't.
To the people who have, I hope you feel the same way as I do, as if anything you could say, any praise you could give, could never be enough.
I am sitting here, a mere half hour after having finishing the last page, with the book lain in front of me because I feel that if I let it out of my sight it will all have been a dream.
My hands are shaking and have been since at least halfway through the book, my face is still stained with tears, and my body and mind are exhausted from what just happened.
I have never, in my life, been finished with a book and been satisfied. My friends and family know this; there's always something I think the author should have done differently, some small decision that portrayed a character in what I thought was the wrong manner, some grammatical errors that I cannot believe have been overlooked. But, when I finished this book, all I could do was sob as I had been for at least the last forty pages. I heard whimpers of agony and had to remind myself that this was coming from my own body.
For the first time, I cannot be angry at any decision the author has made. The book is so shockingly life-like that I continue to forget that the author had anything to do with it, that she created these characters and their complicated relationships and backstories, that all the pain and wonder within these pages were not a chronicle of actual experiences.
I know that I will hold these characters close to my heart for as long as I live.
This is the type of book that I will selfishly not want to tell anybody about, the type of book that I want to read for the first time again and again so I can live in it, breathe in it, and let its world overtake mine.
There were moments where the things written in this book made me feel like somebody had twisted my heart into a bloody, mangled mess.
I honestly feel that the person I am changed every minute that I spent reading this book.
I want to write a review as eloquently gorgeous and heart-wrenching as this story was, but I simply cannot.
The title was perfect, because inside this paper and ink lives are thriving, people are laughing and loving and dying as realistically as they are in the real world.
I know with all my being that I will read this again and again, and I will live through it again and again.
I cannot give enough praise to Hanya Yanagihara; although I have been pretending she doesn't exist, it is only because her characters are so life-like that, in my mind, they live and breathe without her having to puppeteer them.
I honestly think that this book is the best book I have ever read and the best book I will ever read. I will hold it close to my heart, and I cannot thank the author enough for creating it, nor can I believe that another human being has the capacity to create something like this.
I feel like the world is now divided in two: people who have read this book, and people who haven't.
To the people who have, I hope you feel the same way as I do, as if anything you could say, any praise you could give, could never be enough.