Where do I even start?? If you've heard of this book, you probably know by now that it is VERY sad. I'm talking about the 'rip your heart out and stomp on it and you'll never recover' kind of sad. I don't think I've ever been so emotionally affected by a book before, or so distraught for a character. Hanya Yanagihara's writing can seem quite tedious at times, but she excelled in multiple things, and one of these things is giving her characters so much depth and such distinct personalities that I actually felt like they were real people.

This book has been described as torture porn, and I can definitely see why. A lot of triggering or traumatic events have been put into this book and I don't think they were all necessary, however they are in there, and there isn't really anything we can do about it. One thing I will say, is that I do feel like the author has done her research into the sensitive topics discussed.

I recommend this to adults who are a looking for a emotional read, with very strong characters and balances a lot of sensitive themes. I do think many of these topics were portrayed well, I believe some could have been removed from the book but I don't think this should stop you from reading it.