Book Review: A Little Life
- Amazing Grace L. Danso
- Aug 15
- 2 min read
Book Review: A Little Life
Author: Hanya Yanagihara 🇺🇸
Type of work (Genre): Novel
Number of pages: 720
Own or Borrowed: own, purchased from The Word Playce
Overall Impressions: my God, this book! I went into reading this book well braced for trauma thanks to TikToks from a few years ago that had people bawling their eyes out. Thankfully, none of the videos I saw gave away the plot but there was recurring reference to “trauma porn”, which admittedly prejudiced my perception. About 200 pages in, I couldn’t help but wonder if that sentiment was truly correct because while I understood why people had that impression—it really is heavy on traumatic events—I couldn’t help but feel it was lacking justification for that tag. I paused and read about Hanya herself and finally, it clicked for me why I wasn’t too convinced about the “trauma porn” tag. She’s a journalist and as such, wrote this book with journalistic precision and integrity by bringing you unadulterated stories of people’s real life experiences. Granted, the book is fictional, but it is quite evident that its content is grounded in the experiences of real people who have existed that are known to Hanya in some capacity. With the care she takes to set up and take us through near 4 decades of life, she asserts that these stories need documentation and dissemination, no matter how uncomfortable and painful, towards helping us become better, more compassionate people.
Something that stood out: Hanya’s attention to detail and precision in touching on many fields of work that influence this book.
Overall Rating: 🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋 (out of 5 fountain pens).
Recommend or nah: absolutely recommend this but with a huge TRIGGER WARNING because there’s all manner of trauma in these pages! Follow my @agsbookadventures 🤓📚IG & Facebook accounts dedicated to books & reading☺️ Also find me on TikTok via the handle @agsbookadventures.
Below are the 2-part video reviews. They contain SPOILERS!!!
Comments