Hi Charlie!
And hello to you there too :) Have you ever thought of reading a book that will make you cry and deeply ponder upon the meaning of life, friendship, and much more?
Well if I haven't got just the right book for you buddy!
A Little Life is a 2015 novel that follows the lives of four college classmates as they navigate through life, broke and astray, delighted only by their friendship and their ambitions as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune, while their relationship deepens, although tint by addiction and pride. This novel, in short, is about the families we are born into and also about those that we create ourselves.
The sheer amount of times I had to close this book and stare at a blank wall just to process what I had just read is unbelievable.
Please do not let yourself be frightened by the amount of pages (cough cough 816). Hanya's writing style turns every book of hers into an emotional rollercoaster of a page-turner that will keep you hooked as you will want to know what is to come next all the meanwhile being teary-eyed by the miseries that these characters are going through.
This book is amazingly daunting with gruesome descriptions of trauma that I will probably never get over but in conclusion, THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! Would I recommend this book to just about anybody? ABSOLUTELY NOT, matter of fact it is quite traumatizing, is it a masterpiece? ABSOLUTELY YES! This book changed my perspective on a multitude of things and, as a self-proclaimed bookworm, this book kept me hooked the whole time, and I regard that aspect down to Hanya Yanagihara's writing style, which I know I've talked about before but it's so good I really could not stress it enough. She's also written other books such as The People in the Trees (2013) and To Paradise(2022) And although I haven't gotten the chance to read them yet I'm sure they're really good!
I actually read this book last April, and it's now one of my favourites books of all time. It's just so well written and addictive, and it was very easy for me to understand Jude even though we have nothing in common, he's an american man, lawyer, orphan ( not a spoiler ) and I'm really not. I could only encourage everyone to read it too ! And the number of times I stopped to think about the truth of what I had read... Thanks Yasmine.
ReplyDeleteI read this book almost a year ago and to this day it's still one of my all time favorites. You described it perfectly. I totally relate to needing to put the book down and stare at a wall for a few minutes just to recover from what I'd just read. I think it's definitely in my top 5 of books that destroyed me emotionally and made me cry the hardest. It's 100% a must-read (if you're up for it). I'm so glad you posted about this!
ReplyDeleteThank you Yasmine! This blog makes me want to read the book!!! I find it interesting how you look at it though, was it really THAT impactful??? I'll need to figure that out for myself, as i haven't really found any books that were awe-inspiring to me or extraordinary. I appreciate the reccomandation, I'll probably read it in my free time during summer though, the amount of pages flabbergast me.
ReplyDeleteOne of my best friends has been talking to me about that book for months now ! Your article makes me want to read it so baaad, you've really convinced me about the NECESSITY to read that book. You really gave a very personal opinion and experience about it, and I find that veeeery cool, I definitely need to have "A little life" somewhere in my shelf !
ReplyDeleteHey Yasmine! Thank you for introducing us this incredible book. Unfortunately, I haven't read it before but the way you described it made me really want to read it immediately. I really like how you made your review so engaging with your own style of writing. It is absolutely amazing.
ReplyDeleteHi !!! I wanted to say that I found your review very interesting and I will try to read it as soon as possible. Generally, I don't like to read books that are very long but the way you describe it and your personal opinion really conviced me to have a look on the book. I hope the book will be as extraordinary as tou described it!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis review makes it sound like a therapist is what I'll need once I finish this book and I'm all here for this!! The story sounds amazingly written and I love stories like these, so I will definitely read this ! Amazing review and thank you so much for this post !
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for telling your opinion about this book it's been a long time i wanted to read it but I was not sure because, as you said, it seems traumatizing BUT now i'm sure i want to, and I'll ignore the fact that I feel like I will cry so much reading it, otherwise I wont buy it
ReplyDeleteThanks for the article! A copy of the book should be appearing in the school library soon!
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