A review by baumej
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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

3.5

A Little Life was…….. tough to read. I had a hard time deciding how I felt about the book, so much so that I’m coming to this review about two weeks after finishing. I think what’s so challenging about deciding how I feel about this book is the fact that Yanagihara’s prose is one of a kind. There are several passages in the book that verbalized feelings that I had never before put to words, that were so beautiful they had me tearing up. Unfortunately the main character Jude’s story is just… unbelievable. Truly I had a hard time believing that his life was something that could actually happen to someone in the world. It broke my enjoyment of the book several times and had me feeling that the author was just exemplifying the trope of gay people as vessels of trauma. I could not handle it and had several eye rolls reading this. So, I’m still trying to decide how I feel about this book. I loved parts of it, I hated other parts.
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