I can’t talk about every single sad detail about this book because it is over 800 pages long, so I highly suggest you read it yourself to get the full experience. In many instances, Jude’s friends would fight with him about how he isn’t telling them anything, and this only leads to more despair and self loathing. Throughout the entire book, Jude struggles to seek help from others, and his friends have no choice but to see him wallow in despair as they fear he might end his life. The saddest part of the book isn’t just the traumatic experiences that Jude has experienced, but also the pain it causes the people who love him, and how it affects not just his life, but also the lives of the people around him.

The book focuses heavily on Jude’s life, as it carefully peels apart the layers of trauma that haunt him everyday. Jude is a brilliant law student with a traumatic past. Willem is an aspiring actor who constantly struggles to find good acting jobs to support himself. Malcolm is in architecture school and comes from a rich family. JB is an up and coming artist with a loving family who is just starting his journey of self discovery. Throughout the first part of the book, which is titled “Lispenard Street”, we learn a little about each character and how they play a part in each other’s lives. The book starts off by introducing its four main characters: Jude, Malcolm, Willem, and JB. Even though there are many books that deal with sad topics such as depression, trauma, and suicide, no other book that I have read goes into such excruciating detail, which is partly why I believe this book is so fantastically written. It almost felt like I was another character in the book who felt the same pain as the characters. Honestly, I don’t even know where to start because this book was truly a once in a lifetime experience, and the type of sadness it made me feel was so raw and almost physically painful. A few weeks ago I finished A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, and when I went online to search up reviews in hopes of some sort of comfort, I found out that most people deem it the one of the saddest contemporary novels of all time.

A little life cover