A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
The Review:
Hanya Yanagihara’s book, A Little Life, is a wonderful deep dive into the impact of trauma on individuals as they progress through growing up and transitioning into adulthood. Characters such as Jude, Malcolm, Willem, and JB are best friends who meet in college and stick together throughout the later years of their lives. Other characters are Harold, Julia, Andy, and Richard. The dynamics between characters who are introduced into the book are extremely well written, including the use of real-life antagonists. For example, the characters Caleb and Jackson are abusers and take advantage of Jude and JB when they are at their lowest. Yanagihara writes in a way that prevents you from putting down the book and keeps you flipping through pages. Authors like Hanya Yanagihara write stories that feel so real and possible. This tragic story of a man who was destined to fail from the very beginning is a heartbreaking read. Jude and Willem capture your heart from the very beginning with their friendship. JB and Malcom serve as Jude’s other best friends alongside Willem. Yanagihara’s use of flashbacks and foreshadowing builds the book and creates a stronger and more earth-shattering plot twist when aspects of Jude’s past are revealed. When reading A Little Life, the reader builds a bond with Jude as he is extremely relatable and realistic. Our world is tragic— evil acts are committed every day, even against the youngest souls. A Little Life dives into topics of sexual child abuse, rape, prostitution, self harm, eating disorders, domestic abuse, and substance abuse. Realistic depictions of grief and loss are highlighted as the strongest working part of this book. Words are meant to make people feel and understand things— while reading A Little Life, I was deeply impacted with every page and sentence written. A Little Life is a masterclass example of our world along with dark depictions of humanity, leaving the reader thinking philosophically about what it means to live and be human. Lasting questions such as, how to be a better empath? How do we protect our loved ones? When injustice occurs, is empathy enough? To those interested in reading A Little Life, ensure that you are in a safe place mentally. This book can truly trigger and induce bad thoughts to those familiar with similar sensitivity in A Little Life. Genuinely, prepare yourself. Yanagihara deserves her flowers for A Little Life as it is a revolutionary novel.
Opinion: Reading A Little Life destroyed me beyond repair— I still think about this book every day. I read A Little Life in September of 2024; as I am writing this, it is late February 2025. In the later chapters of this book, Jude and Willems relationship healed something in me for Jude; however, this is short-lived. I have never cried harder when I read the chapter describing Willems's death and, even worse, Jude’s grief. Every time I picked up A Little Life, I sobbed uncontrollably. The relationship between Harold and Jude is heartwarming and allows for happy moments in the book, serving as a breath of fresh air compared to the other material. The amount of tragedy in Jude’s life opened my eyes to what it means to live a sad life and be grateful for what I have. A truly humbling book. That is what A Little Life is. Throughout the book, we deal with Jude’s suicidal ideations and extreme self-harm, which eventually results in him committing suicide for the second time. The title, A Little Life, serves as a prophecy that ends up fulfilled. The book describes Jude’s entire life and all of his trauma up until the very end, ending in a beautiful monologue from Harold giving context on Jude’s death. This final chapter shows how many people truly loved Jude and how Willem adored him; he was never worthless— despite his own beliefs. This book depicts self-harm and suicide correctly, along with realistic scenes and proper reactions. Nothing about this book is corny or cheesy, it is extremely well written. I applaud Hanya Yanagihara. A Little Life is the best book I have ever read. Not only is it written compellingly, but the attention to detail and character building is phenomenal. I couldn’t put down A Little Life. I would get home from school, curl up in bed, and read and read and read until the late hours of the night. I read this 814-page book in about two weeks, record breaking time.
Up above are images that capture the feel of reading A Little Life.
Up above are my personal pictures I took of the book while annotating, my English project I based on A Little Life, and an image of me crying while reading.