A review by abhess
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I am giving this 2 stars for the very few moments where I felt genuinely touched, because most of the time it just felt like grotesquely horrible trauma being thrown to the main character for the sake of creating an emotional (?) story - but for what? It felt like an exploitative and unnecessarily excessive depiction of trauma and abuse, given that the final overall take could have very easily been delivered without such vivid imagery. 

Tragedy does not equal a deeper meaning and I felt as if this book lacked purpose.

Daniel Mendelsohn described it perfectly: “the abuse that Yanagihara heaps on her protagonist is neither just from a human point of view nor necessary from an artistic one (…) Yanagihara’s novel has duped many into confusing anguish and ecstasy, pleasure and pain”.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Vomit