Book · 2015
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
Four college friends move to New York to build lives together, and one of them never stops paying for what happened to him before the book began.
What does Reddit think of A Little Life?
The top three excerpts in r/suggestmeabook reach for three different words for the same complaint: misery porn, devastating, torture porn. Nobody displayed here disputes that Hanya Yanagihara's novel is brutal; the argument is whether brutal is the same thing as good. r/RomanceBooks's top mention (↑601) says the book ruined the commenter's emotional state for six months, and she's in her thirties, mentioned like a credential for how bad it got. Even the harsher reviews tend to concede the prose: one comment calls it beautifully written in the same breath as listing trigger warnings for child abuse, rape, self-harm, and suicide. The line comparing it to the Friends cast written by the Marquis de Sade has stuck around because it's accurate. What's missing from the top-upvoted quotes is anyone arguing the suffering serves a purpose beyond itself. r/suggestmeabook's own scored sentiment lands critical, not mixed.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Trauma depicted at endurance-testing length across four friends in New York
- · A found-family structure that never gets a redemptive payoff
- · Beautiful prose paired with explicit trigger-warning territory
- · A recurring test case for what 'misery porn' even means
Common praise
- + The ↑360 comment calls it a beautifully written book in the same breath as listing its trigger warnings.
- + It's the book people reach for when they want to call something devastating and mean it literally.
- + The ↑307 comment's Friends-written-by-the-Marquis-de-Sade line gets repeated because commenters keep finding it accurate, not just quotable.
Common criticism
- − The top suggestmeabook comment (↑684) dismisses it as misery porn, suffering for the sake of suffering.
- − The ↑601 r/RomanceBooks commenter says it ruined her emotional state for six months.
- − The ↑380 comment calls it torture porn outright, with no hedge.
Who it's for
Don't start this one during a hard stretch; the ↑601 account identifier says it took six months to shake off, and she wasn't exaggerating for effect. If you've rolled your eyes at the term misery porn before, this is Reddit's most-cited test case for whether the label actually fits. People who finish it tend to call the prose beautiful even while warning you off the plot, so go in expecting craft alongside the trauma, not a trade-off between them. Skip it if you need a book to end somewhere gentler than where it started.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for A Little Life?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“A Little Life. Misery porn. Suffering just for the sake of suffering.
“The most objectionable one for me is A Little Life. That book is so heavy, it ruined my emotional state for a good six months and I am firmly in my 30s.
“A Little Life by Yanagihara. Absolutely devastating
“A Little Life. I promised myself it was going to get better. It didn’t. It got worse. The story, writing, emotion, trauma. Just 736 pages of never again or recommend.
“*A Little Life* and I didn't enjoy it because it is torture porn.
“A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara! Easily the most devastating book I’ve ever read. TW for child abuse, rape, self harm, and suicide. A beautifully written book though
“A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Imagine the cast of Friends being gay...now imagine the show written by the Marquis de Sade. Unending misery ensues.
“I'm surprised it isn't here already but A Little Life by Hanya Yangihara definitely had this effect on me! Gutted, and gutted when it ended.
“Not a small book, but it will tear your heart out. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
“A Little Life. Oh my god. So annoying. I hate finished that thing.
“A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihira. When you're elbow deep in the relentless trauma-porn of it all, the story is so sad and so moving but once you're done (especially after that ambiguously unresolved non-ending) all the flaws leap out. Somehow, it was nominated for the Booker! The post-read hangove…
“Midnight Library is definitely up there. I hated that book. I think a little life takes it for me though. That book is just one giant trigger fest disguised as literature.
“A Little Life. I was told it was incredibly moving. It read like a cheesy soap opera to me. Nothing in it felt true.
“Unpopular opinion, but... I highly do NOT recommend A Little Life, especially if you are at all considering unaliving yourself. Please see the author's views on therapy and how much research she did for the book. I would also recommend reading Andrea Long's essay "Hanya's Boys" and then deciding for…
“A Little Life, which TBH I've actually recommended for someone else in instances where I think another reader might actually like it. For me however, it was just gratuitously and unbelievably dismal.
Convinced? Pick up A Little Life
What else does r/suggestmeabook read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
Guides featuring A Little Life
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
A Little Life — frequently asked
Is A Little Life as devastating as Reddit says?+
Yes, by its own account. The top-upvoted r/suggestmeabook comment (↑684) calls it misery porn, and the second-most-upvoted (↑601, r/RomanceBooks) says it ruined the commenter's emotional state for six months. Nobody in the top excerpts disputes the intensity; the disagreement is only over whether that intensity is worth sitting through.
Is A Little Life well written or just sad?+
The ↑360 excerpt calls it a beautifully written book in the same sentence as listing trigger warnings for child abuse, rape, self-harm, and suicide. Reddit isn't arguing about the prose quality here; it's arguing about whether you should put yourself through it.
Should I read A Little Life if I'm already stressed?+
Probably not right now. A r/RomanceBooks commenter (↑601) says the book left her emotional state ruined for six months, in her thirties, and states it without irony or exaggeration. Save it for a stretch when you can absorb what one r/suggestmeabook reader flatly calls 736 pages of never again or recommend.
Is A Little Life just trauma for shock value?+
Yes, per the top three excerpts themselves: misery porn, torture porn, and suffering just for the sake of suffering all appear verbatim in the top three r/suggestmeabook comments. Nothing displayed here argues the suffering serves a purpose beyond itself; the disagreement is mostly about tolerance, not about whether that description is accurate.