Scan barcode
A review by themoonwholistens
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
1.0
I don’t want to read a book written by an able-bodied person on the suffering of a disabled person without the research and nuance. You are allowed to love this book (I don’t though) but don’t close your eyes to the fact that this is an able-bodied person writing about how a gay disabled character “never gets better”…. I don’t like what that says.
Everyone keeps saying “books don’t need to have a happy ending” and that’s why people dislike this book. But it’s not the reason? Atleast not for me. This book could have the saddest ending for all I care but what matters to me is how it got there. And reading through a friendship that we didn’t even get to watch grow, was not it.
The biggest trigger warnings for this book is self harm, rape, (child molestation, child prostitution), suicide. Check the ending of this review for more. And I don’t care if you consider trigger warnings as spoilers because keeping someone from experiencing episodes and relapses is more important to me than your “plot twists” and your “enjoyment”. It needs to be said and it needs to be normalized because I don’t want to imagine even one person going through what I went through reading this book, or worse. So I hope that if you’re hyping this book up and someone asks you why it’s so depressing, you can tell them about it’s trigger warnings and keep from openly saying that it’s a “worth it read”. I’m tired of people recommending this problematic book so easily.
this book should never be recommended lightly.And should be read by those who are in the healthy headspace to do so.
I was wrong to think that this was going to be about friendship, it's not. which was half of the reason I started this, and the full reason why I thought I would still love it despite the endless list of all the most trigger-able content. I thought we were going to see the development of this friendship or at least get to know why their found family was/is as solid as it supposedly was. And we never got to see that. I really don't know why people keep emphasizing it but I'm here to tell you that it isn't and I was gravely disappointed when I realized what this book was really about. Some characters were used as plot points and some where used to make you feel guilty... at worst, they were added for the shock factor.
Before I say anything else, if you didn’t already know, the author herself said that she wrote Jude without doing any research and that he came to her “fully formed”. Given that the author is not 1. A disabled person and 2. A gay man bothered me the whole time I was reading this book. If you are going to write about mentally sick disabled gay man, you should at least do research about… well, all of those if you’re going to be writing about highly sensitive topics. Most especially when you pack so many traumatizing things into one book.
In another interview she said that the reason that she writes about men is because she thinks that they aren’t as good in expressing their emotions as women. And I don’t know with you but that’s a red flag to me.
hmm… so… this was grueling to read and I was extremely triggered the whole time I was reading so there’s that. I read the trigger warnings about this book before reading it but i didn’t realize that it so strongly focused on self-harm and self-destruction as much as it did. As someone who has battled with self-harm, it’s going to be incredibly upsetting and hard to read if you aren’t ready. I know it was for me. No one really emphasized that part when I was going through reviews and I do see why since it could be seen as a “spoiler” but I think we need to stop equating trigger warnings = spoilers. . It keeps people from having to read triggering content, like what happened to me, that could result to relapses. I could feel my mental health going somewhere I didn’t want it to.
This book wasn’t for me but I know a lot of people loved it. More thoughts in the future (maybe) because it’s currently 1am and I very tired.
Somewhat Full RTC!!
— NO RATING —
⇢ content warnings// Ableism (violent), Child abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Child molestation, Child rape, Drug abuse, Domestic violence/abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grooming, Lesbophobia (unchallenged), Manipulation, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Prostitution, Racism, Rape, Self harm (graphic), Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide ideation, Suicide Expand, Transphobia (misgendering)
————————
kat from @paperbackdreams said that bridge to terabithia is nothing compared to this and i am nervous because i’ve watched/read that more times than i can count and have sobbed each time
————————
maybe I should wait to read this for a time when I'm feeling a little happier so that I'll have a heart to actually break
Everyone keeps saying “books don’t need to have a happy ending” and that’s why people dislike this book. But it’s not the reason? Atleast not for me. This book could have the saddest ending for all I care but what matters to me is how it got there. And reading through a friendship that we didn’t even get to watch grow, was not it.
The biggest trigger warnings for this book is self harm, rape, (child molestation, child prostitution), suicide. Check the ending of this review for more. And I don’t care if you consider trigger warnings as spoilers because keeping someone from experiencing episodes and relapses is more important to me than your “plot twists” and your “enjoyment”. It needs to be said and it needs to be normalized because I don’t want to imagine even one person going through what I went through reading this book, or worse. So I hope that if you’re hyping this book up and someone asks you why it’s so depressing, you can tell them about it’s trigger warnings and keep from openly saying that it’s a “worth it read”. I’m tired of people recommending this problematic book so easily.
this book should never be recommended lightly.And should be read by those who are in the healthy headspace to do so.
I was wrong to think that this was going to be about friendship, it's not. which was half of the reason I started this, and the full reason why I thought I would still love it despite the endless list of all the most trigger-able content. I thought we were going to see the development of this friendship or at least get to know why their found family was/is as solid as it supposedly was. And we never got to see that. I really don't know why people keep emphasizing it but I'm here to tell you that it isn't and I was gravely disappointed when I realized what this book was really about. Some characters were used as plot points and some where used to make you feel guilty... at worst, they were added for the shock factor.
Before I say anything else, if you didn’t already know, the author herself said that she wrote Jude without doing any research and that he came to her “fully formed”. Given that the author is not 1. A disabled person and 2. A gay man bothered me the whole time I was reading this book. If you are going to write about mentally sick disabled gay man, you should at least do research about… well, all of those if you’re going to be writing about highly sensitive topics. Most especially when you pack so many traumatizing things into one book.
In another interview she said that the reason that she writes about men is because she thinks that they aren’t as good in expressing their emotions as women. And I don’t know with you but that’s a red flag to me.
hmm… so… this was grueling to read and I was extremely triggered the whole time I was reading so there’s that. I read the trigger warnings about this book before reading it but i didn’t realize that it so strongly focused on self-harm and self-destruction as much as it did. As someone who has battled with self-harm, it’s going to be incredibly upsetting and hard to read if you aren’t ready. I know it was for me. No one really emphasized that part when I was going through reviews and I do see why since it could be seen as a “spoiler” but I think we need to stop equating trigger warnings = spoilers. . It keeps people from having to read triggering content, like what happened to me, that could result to relapses. I could feel my mental health going somewhere I didn’t want it to.
This book wasn’t for me but I know a lot of people loved it. More thoughts in the future (maybe) because it’s currently 1am and I very tired.
Somewhat Full RTC!!
— NO RATING —
⇢ content warnings// Ableism (violent), Child abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Child molestation, Child rape, Drug abuse, Domestic violence/abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grooming, Lesbophobia (unchallenged), Manipulation, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Prostitution, Racism, Rape, Self harm (graphic), Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide ideation, Suicide Expand, Transphobia (misgendering)
————————
kat from @paperbackdreams said that bridge to terabithia is nothing compared to this and i am nervous because i’ve watched/read that more times than i can count and have sobbed each time
————————
maybe I should wait to read this for a time when I'm feeling a little happier so that I'll have a heart to actually break