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A review by yazthebookish
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
4.0
4 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Little Life has to be one of the most depressing books I have ever read. I will not go into details with this review because I am emotionally wrecked after finishing it. However, I will write down what trigger warnings this book contains because they are MAJOR and this isn’t a book I would recommend to any readers.
Trigger Warnings: graphic self-harm, physical and emotional abuse, pedophilia, rape, suicide. < if you feel even a fragment of discomfort regarding these I urge you that you should not pick up this book.
My experience with this book has been very emotional and at times devastating. For a certain character, his life has been molded by his childhood trauma that follow him like a shadow for much of his life. I cannot think of the suffering he went through without my heart crying for him.
Minor spoilers:
The representation of a person with a mental illness and disability was impressively realistic. I felt the helplessness he had felt about himself. I was so frustrated that I couldn’t reach out to him and tell him “You are good! You deserve better! It’s not your fault!” and give him a tight hug. The fact that someone lives each day thinking they deserve the worst for simply existing, for others, evil people, to embed the idea that he is disgusting, he is sick, he is nothing. I’m even on the verge of crying again writing this. He’s been subjected to abuse no child should had ever gone through, and because of it he is willing to accept any sign of affection no matter the cost even if it meant he would compromise himself. How precious it meant for him to hold on to even a fragment of affection and safety that in fact was anything but affection and safety but the true forms of those two were so foreign to him that he could not distinguish.
It tears me apart knowing that although this is fiction yet it does not steer far away from reality. These kind of experiences happen. Those kind of horrible people exist. Such stories are never told or worse, might never be believed.
It was a devastating yet an impactful read for me. I don’t think this is a read I’ll ever forget because it is important for me. I dove into this knowing what awaited me, yet I was still caught off guard by so many things.
Hanya Yanagihara is no doubt a brilliant writer. But I have to address a few issues I found: First, it felt to me that the book dragged on, it didn’t necessarily have to be a 700+ book and it would have served its purpose. Second, I struggled with recognizing the voices of the characters in each chapter within the first 200 pages, it was Jude and it shifts to Willem, and then to Harold or someone else, it got me confused and irritated.
A Little Life has to be one of the most depressing books I have ever read. I will not go into details with this review because I am emotionally wrecked after finishing it. However, I will write down what trigger warnings this book contains because they are MAJOR and this isn’t a book I would recommend to any readers.
Trigger Warnings: graphic self-harm, physical and emotional abuse, pedophilia, rape, suicide. < if you feel even a fragment of discomfort regarding these I urge you that you should not pick up this book.
My experience with this book has been very emotional and at times devastating. For a certain character, his life has been molded by his childhood trauma that follow him like a shadow for much of his life. I cannot think of the suffering he went through without my heart crying for him.
Minor spoilers:
The representation of a person with a mental illness and disability was impressively realistic. I felt the helplessness he had felt about himself. I was so frustrated that I couldn’t reach out to him and tell him “You are good! You deserve better! It’s not your fault!” and give him a tight hug. The fact that someone lives each day thinking they deserve the worst for simply existing, for others, evil people, to embed the idea that he is disgusting, he is sick, he is nothing. I’m even on the verge of crying again writing this. He’s been subjected to abuse no child should had ever gone through, and because of it he is willing to accept any sign of affection no matter the cost even if it meant he would compromise himself. How precious it meant for him to hold on to even a fragment of affection and safety that in fact was anything but affection and safety but the true forms of those two were so foreign to him that he could not distinguish.
It tears me apart knowing that although this is fiction yet it does not steer far away from reality. These kind of experiences happen. Those kind of horrible people exist. Such stories are never told or worse, might never be believed.
It was a devastating yet an impactful read for me. I don’t think this is a read I’ll ever forget because it is important for me. I dove into this knowing what awaited me, yet I was still caught off guard by so many things.
Hanya Yanagihara is no doubt a brilliant writer. But I have to address a few issues I found: First, it felt to me that the book dragged on, it didn’t necessarily have to be a 700+ book and it would have served its purpose. Second, I struggled with recognizing the voices of the characters in each chapter within the first 200 pages, it was Jude and it shifts to Willem, and then to Harold or someone else, it got me confused and irritated.