Book Review: A Little Life

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara

4/5

Before I start the review I have to say that this book should come with quite a few trigger warnings: suicide, sexual abuse, self-harm, domestic abuse, and child abuse at the minimum though I may have missed something. The one thing you should know about Jude is that he has a long list of ways which people have inexplicably wronged him in life, years filled with unimaginable betrayals of the most severe manner. The book follows his journey from that point onward in his life with a group of three other college friends, all of who are struggling with their own doubts and fears in life. 

I'm very conflicted on the rating here, on the one hand it did exactly what it set out to do. It made me cry and think about a lot of plot points. The tragic poetry of it all was beautifully composed, she left not a single trace of happiness of joy or just even acceptance. The book is supposed to be sad and was well-written enough to invoke a considerable response from me and other readers. In that respect, I feel like it's a great read. 

I'm going to get into some spoilers here so be warned. But it also made me feel a little sketched out upon further reflection. I don't like a protagonist who has had too many bad things happen to them, it's way too Wattpad to rely solely on your protag's suffering to push the plot on. I think she did a good job counterbalancing that with his relationship with his counselor and with Harold, but then kept layering on the suffering to the point where I had to think someone else should have helped him or forced him to take help. Maybe I'm completely unaware of the horrors of the foster system, but how was an infant left with a group of men and never checked on? The severity of his injuries should have justified some sort of intervention. Same with after he was such an integral part of a child pornography ring, he should have been forced into some kind of counseling or something? I don't know, maybe I'm blinded by SVU and just hoping for the best. 

She also tried to counteract his tragedies with his relationship to Willem but like the more I think about it the less... right it felt. It's definitely not anything that should be considered a good romantic relationship on any level. They were both way too reliant on one another and too toxic in their needs and habits. Willem physically abused Jude and really didn't comprehend his reasoning behind things, I don't like the underlying message of this being the best that Jude deserved. Also didn't like the statement when Jude said he was with men cause that's what he's always been. Just contributed to the weird implications on sexual abuse and homosexuality that I didn't really feel comfortable with throughout the novel. That's the end of the spoiler section.

I also think the author maybe relied too much on being verbose, she distracted us from the unrealistic nature of many of the plot points by piling on the more commonplace life interactions. Again, this book did what it was supposed to and is undeniably a good read. It just got away with a lot of things that felt weird to me and worthy of discussion. I would recommend it if you like to cry, like actually sob, because that's the most authentic emotion that this book inspired.