A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara Review

 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

We follow 4 friends and their lives after college in New York. We get to know Malcolm, JB, Willem and Jude over decades of their lives. And we learn about the trauma Jude had to live through as a child and all his struggles as an adult.

The first place to start, will be with Hanya Yanagihara's writing, she has so much talent. Her writing is exquisite. It is a beautifully written book, her writing pulls you in and is completely mesmerizing. She made me care about these characters, I felt like I met a new group of friends and went through all the sunshine and dark days with them.

I can completely understand the love/hate relationship readers have with this novel. This is not the kind of story every single person is going to love. This is a 100% character driven book and the story contains many, many horrible topics/scenes of trauma. It is strongly advised to look up trigger warnings. A thought that came to mind while I was reading this book...we all deal with trauma in our own way, and I don't think this book will be any different, Every one of us will experience this book in a different way and each of us will deal with the words we read in our own way. 

Now, I am being honest when I say that this book did suck the life from me just a little bit. I am a happy, positive, glass is half full kind of person, but by day 5 of reading this book, I could feel that all the negativity within this book was getting to me just a tad. And it is completely normal, we live with these characters for over 700 pages, we get to know every part of their lives and we learn of such terrible things and we share their happiness but mostly misery. I don't think there is one person on this earth that won't be affected by this book in some way. 

I can't say I enjoyed this book, but I can say that this book has a very special place in my heart. It is definitely in the top 10 best books I have ever read and I think it has mostly to do with Hanya Yanagihara's writing. 

I rated this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5 stars!