I read "a little life."

Never again, though.

One of my friends recommended A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara a few months back, I got the book, but never really had the time to read it. But then i saw it all over booktok and wanted to see if it was really everything they said it was, trust me, it was.

The book has about 700 pages, and is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read, it's also the worst. It centers on four friends, each of them doing well in their fields, there's JB, a talented artist; Willem, an actor; Malcolm, an architect; and Jude, a lawyer who also happens to be the main character in the book. A little life takes you through Jude's life, as he goes from being an open-hearted child to a traumatized adult. In the first parts of the book, the characters attend parties, go on dates, meet new people and engage in regular mundane activities, but as you continue reading, the book gets dark.

Self-harm, physical abuse, nudity.. it's all in the book. And Yanagihara wrote these things so well, that the books becomes very hard to read. You fall in love with Jude in the initial parts of the book, then you slowly experience him become a human punching bag as he goes through one trauma after the other. At some point, I'd read a couple of pages and take breaks to cry. A little life is a very beautiful book, but go through the long list of trigger warnings before reading it, and do not read this book if you are mentally unstable in any way. It will ruin you.