I bought this book a while back as a friend was raving about it but the more I hear about it the less I want to read it.

I think the authors views on mental health and therapy and the fact she admitted to doing zero research doesn’t make it enticing. I might try it one day as I would like to form a proper opinion on such a popular book.

Not a fan. Read a bunch of Reddit posts after I finished because I was so annoyed by the book and needed to know if I was the only one 😆. It was just so far fetched- Felt like trauma porn.

this book really resonated with me. it’s heavy and emotional, but it’s a powerful and important read. i appreciate stories that tackle tough topics and make me think. if you’re into challenging reads, i’d also recommend checking out a few others like all the ugly and wonderful things and my absolute darling.

Loved it. Finished it a few months ago and think of it as one of the best books I’ve ever read.

I think these kinds of stories are important. There’s definitely a place for light reads, but books that tackle difficult and real issues have such potential to help readers grow as compassionate human beings.

Others that I recommend if you can stomach challenging reads:

• All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

• My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

• All of the novels written by Corban Addison

• Less Than by A.D. Long

great writing. great great writing. I just wish it wasn’t so gratuitous and unrealistic. I wish it didn’t relish in Jude’s misery. Try The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne if you want a story just like A Little Life but… better. It’s wonderful.

I hated it the whole thing. It was torture-porn. An entire book of worst case scenarios.
I guess I am not the target audience for this book.
I didn’t cry, not even once, I felt angry through most of it.
Jude was stubborn and prideful and selfish. He fell through the cracks. They all pretended he was okay, and walked on eggshells so as not to upset him. Fuck that. You don’t get to torture everyone around you, sorry.
They gave him all these ultimatums and threats, "if you don’t do this, if you don’t do that, you’re going to be committed, when he should have been committed YEARS ago. I know ppl hospitalized for less than what he did to himself (and he should’ve been hospitalized for months, on medication, with heavy in-patient therapy, group sessions, one-on-one, not for a few days or weeks, then released with the promises that he’ll do everything he’s supposed to do, only to continue lying and cutting and just going through the motions that he thinks everyone wants him to do.)
It was so unrealistic, I expected it to end with Jude, back in the monastery as a child, imagining the worst possible life, only for it to turn out to not be real.
Andy should have lost his damn license, for allowing it to go on so long, enabling him, just letting him do whatever the fuck he wanted without consequence, with more threats and more ultimatums and more enabling, and never actually doing anything about it.
All of them, closing their eyes and hoping everything would be okay. And the thing I’m most mad about is the way it ended. What was the point of the book if he was just gonna kill himself anyway? There’s no message there except everything sucks and then you die anyway. The constant hell he put himself and everyone else through, for years and years and years, only to do it anyway, barely doing anything to try to get better. And don’t say he tried, bc he still needlessly punished himself, cut himself, through himself into walls, even when he was in his “happy years.” That’s not getting better. Trying doesn’t count until you’ve exhausted all options. All his did was fight it. That’s not trying. No, you don’t get to torture everyone around you for decades.
Everybody who read it was like “I cried so hard.”
I’m sitting here with dry eyes and fury. I kept waiting for the sadness and all I had was disgust with everyone. Even Wilhelm, who enabled Jude just like everyone else, though I have to say he at least wasn’t scared to push him like everyone else was.
Jude was infuriating. He could’ve saved everyone so much pain (including his own) if he hadn’t have been so wrapped up in his own goddamn head all the time.