Kayla

I had beef with this book when I was 14 but I don't remember why. I think his recovery was rushed and unrealistic or something? I'll blindly stand with my 14-year-old self and give it 1 star.

There is a big debate of whether or not this book is considered "trauma porn" or "misery porn." (I think it is, but that's beside the point) I don't think there is anything wrong with reading a sad book for the purpose of having a cathartic experience. I also recognize that many see themselves in Jude and resonate with some of his experiences. However, the amount, intensity, and detail of trauma that is displayed in this book is waaayyyy over the top to the point that it is gratuitous and unrealistic. Yes cycles of abuse exist and yes trauma can be complex and people can experience multiple and varied traumatic experiences in their life. BUT, Jude's life is utter misery at pretty much every single possible turn. The few good things he has going for him are ripped away in the most dramatic and upsetting ways possible. And for what? Based on the final few chapters and Yanagihara's interviews about the book, she is trying to make the point that some people are simply "too broken" to ever be "fixed" and that these people are better off just being dead. That is the point of this book. There is nothing deeper than that and THAT is why I dislike this book so vehemently.

Yanagihara has shamelessly revealed multiple times that she has done no research whatsoever into any of the primary topics she touches on in this book. She is a talented writer with uninformed (and wrong) opinions about therapy, trauma, and mental health and, instead of doing anything to challenge her ideas and study these topics that seem to interest her so much, she decided to write this book in a poor attempt to illustrate her (wrong) perception that life can be too hard for some people so they should just die. What good does this do for society, or for human expression, or literature, or philosophy, or anything at all? Every single suicidal person on this planet feels that they have endured too much hardship and that they would be better off dead. So, we should just let them die, then? And this lazily written, two dimensional and highly unrealistic caricature of a person with trauma is supposed to convince us all that life is too unbearable for some people, so mental health professionals should just give them the okay to throw in the towel? This is the primary message of this book, and it is what Yanagihara talks about when she talks about this book.

The praise this book gets is completely beyond me. Even outside of the abhorrent message about trauma and mental health, the characters all felt flat, and it seemed their sole purpose was to either hurt Jude or to show him hope in a very specific way which was to only be challenged or torn away from him eventually. Jude himself felt flat as well, so much so that I found myself rolling my eyes the more I got to know him. This may be my least favorite book of all time.

I don't remember anything at all about this book (I read it 12 years ago) but I do remember really liking it so we're gonna go with 4 stars.

I read this when I was in high school. All I remember is that I liked it even though the ending irritated me.

My brain hurts.