A Little Life Book Review (With Trigger Warnings and Age Rating)

A Little Life Book Review: Quick Summary

A Little Life is a 2015 literary fiction novel with LGBTQ themes by Hanya Yanigahara, published to high acclaim.

The Guardian named it one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, and it has sold over 2.5 million copies as of 2023, thanks to social media influence and celebrity praise of everyone from Victoria Beckham to Kaia Gerber and Dua Lipa.

Trigger Warnings for Human Trauma

A Little Life has more trigger warnings than any book I’ve ever read. It contains many of the worst triggers you can imagine. While thousands of readers consider it a five-star read, it is certainly not for everyone.

If you have triggers related to significantly traumatic events, you may wish to review the most prominent trigger warnings in A Little Life below. I have hidden them so as not to spoil the content for readers who aren’t triggered by content that involves some of the worst things humans can endure and prefer not to see them.

Age Rating: Adults Aged 18 and Over

The age rating for A Little Life is adults aged 18 and over. It contains graphic descriptions of sexual content and traumatic, potentially triggering content. It also contains dark themes, such as severe emotional, and physical suffering. Lastly, it makes a very strong impact that is both incredibly sad and psychologically intense to handle as a reader.

Given these mature themes and content, A Little Life is best suited for adult readers who feel capable of handling its complex and difficult material.

That being said, I’ve heard actress Sarah Jessica Parker remark about her young teen daughter’s love for A Little Life on the Books, Beach, & Beyond podcast. So, it’s possible for a teen to read it. However, I would recommend significant parental awareness and involvement for any teen readers.

The Main Characters

A Little Life is often described as a book about four college friends growing into adulthood in New York City. The focus is on one of them, Jude St. Francis, who suffers from a traumatic past.

However, I found this book to really be about three groups of people in Jude’s life: his college friends, his heroes, and his villains.

While learning these characters can be a bit overwhelming at first, the reader quickly becomes immersed in this character-driven novel, and they become unforgettable. Here’s a quick guide to get you started.

Plot Summary (Without Spoilers)

A Little Life is a timeless modern novel. It takes place over several decades (presumably beginning in the later 1900s), mostly in New York City, though it never refers to historical markers of time.

There, four male college friends (Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm) are beginning their adult lives– particularly, their chosen careers. Quickly, though, the novel begins to focus on one of the friends, Jude.

It becomes clear Jude has suffered from unspoken childhood trauma, and this begins to shape their friendships and their lives. Additional “found family” members come into Jude’s life and begin to change all of their lives, including his doctor friend, Andy, and his law school professor, Harold.

Meanwhile, Jude struggles to speak of and cope with his past and the villains that created his current state of self-loathing. Over the course of 800+ pages, this is slowly and methodically revealed, as Jude’s found family comes together to do everything they can to support his “little life.”

Full A Little Life Book Review With Pros and Cons

A Little Life was a luscious five-star read that I didn’t want to end. This book is the definition of a book hangover, and while I’m not a crier at books, it definitely made me tear up. (I’ve heard many readers say they balled.)

Though Jude’s story is very long, I indulged in it slowly and methodically, in the same way that he revealed the details of his story to us. I definitely think this is the way to do it. This book is heavy—both literally and figuratively.

Jude’s story is as traumatic as it gets. But, there’s so much beauty in the found family that supports him, and there’s so much reality in their limitations.

My favorite thing about A Little Life is how supportive Jude’s found family was. It was beautiful to watch them accept and love him unconditionally, even when it was hard to do so, and show so much restraint in never pressuring him to reveal more details than he wanted about his life.

I also loved how JB’s art was woven through the story, as it often is in books about trauma. It shows what remains from our unique experiences, and how it can help us and others cope.

I’ve read criticisms of A Little Life, including that there’s too much trauma and that the author wrote these characters and their actions without informed research or perspective, and I do think those are fair reactions to the storyline. However, I had different takeaways from the narrative.

I do think the book could have still worked with less trauma, but for me, it still made sense that Jude’s earliest traumas spiraled into a pattern of trauma, particularly given his low self-worth.

I also would have loved to understand more about how the four college friends initially became friends, and why they chose to remain in each other’s lives for so many decades. It definitely felt like a loose end throughout my reading of the novel.

Ultimately, what made A Little Life so special for me was the notion that each of our lives is somehow little in the global sense, as the title states, yet also big to those in our inner circles.

Reading Tips

About Author Hanya Yanagihara

Recap and What to Read Next

This A Little Life book review detailed everything you need to know about one of my best book recommendations.

For those who read it, you’ve now dug deeper and have recommendations for what to consume next, such as my top pick, The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. For those who haven’t, remember to consider the trigger warnings for traumatic human experiences, the adult age rating, and reading tips, including consuming it slowly over time.