A review by lmayfieldx
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

โ€œ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐›๐ซ๐จ๐ค๐ž๐ง & ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฒ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฉ๐š๐ข๐ซ๐ž๐. ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐œ๐š๐ฌ๐ž๐ฌ, ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎโ€™๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ณ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ง๐จ ๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐ฐ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐š๐ฆ๐š๐ ๐ž๐, ๐ฅ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ซ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐จ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ž๐ง๐ฌ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ, ๐ฐ๐จ๐ง๐๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒโ€

๐Ÿ–ค friendship
๐Ÿ–ค hardship
๐Ÿ–ค trauma
๐Ÿ–ค poc rep
๐Ÿ–ค lgbtqia+ rep
๐Ÿ–ค disability rep
๐Ÿ–ค mental illness rep

in case the list of tws doesnโ€™t speak for itself, this book is extremely dark and heavy. there are graphic descriptions of different situations. please take the tw list seriously to protect your mental health

jude, willem, malcolm, and jb are four friends that have experienced many different things in life together. judeโ€™s life becomes the main focus of the book and we learn about different things that have happened throughout his life to shape him into who he is

โ€”

i will think of this book for the rest of my life. the writing is beautiful. the story it tells, although terribly sad, is beautiful. the characters felt so real

a little life shows that sometimes people go through more pain in their life than some will in their entire lives

my heart really broke for jude, because he endured so many things, things that nobody should ever go through ๐Ÿ’”

i never cry at anything. my family & friends joke that iโ€™m the ice queen & heartless lol. this book made me cry twice & close to crying several other times. good luck to the criers of the world haha

๐Ÿšจ there are no spoilers in the slides, but there are spoilers below ๐Ÿšจ

last chance to scroll

something else that i loved (and hated ๐Ÿฅฒ)  about a little life is that despite the sense of hope that was still felt when things would start to get better, something else would happen. the light at the end of the tunnel came back several times & was repeatedly dimmed until there was not a crack of light left. i think this was so real to include, because some people do not get that sense of relief of things getting better. it shows how brutal life really can be
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