A little life OR If he had been with me

[rosesrded]

If u have read them please tell me which is more depressing and soul crushing <33

[Karsyn]

I haven't read if he had been with me, but i can tell you with absolute certainty that A Little Life is soul crushing. I saw so many reviews saying to look at TWs and I fully ignored all of them and SHOULDN'T HAVE. in the last 2 years or maybe 3, it's been the only book to actually make me cry (and I was at work of all places when that happened). I kept thinking there would be a turn towards a happy ending. nope. no hope. no glimmer of joy or even just peace. none of that. crushed my soul to a fine powder.

TWs are: sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, scary verbal abuse, psychological manipulation and gaslighting, kidnapping/imprisonment, many modes of self-harm, a violent accident, a few moments of prejudice against the disabled, drug use, addiction, grief and loss of a loved one. I don't even think that's all of them actually

[Rachael]

I haven't read If He Had Been With Me, but going by the Goodreads tags it's a young adult contemporary romance. While young adult contemporary romance does have the capacity to be depressing and soul crushing, I do not think it's to the extent of what A Little Life is.

A Little Life is not just depressing and soul crushing, it is DISGUSTING, PAINFUL and EXTREMELY GRAPHIC, in the sense that it's violent, traumatic, and not for the faint of heart. It's violent content is written with beautiful prose and it's weaved into a net of alluring, and thought provoking writing, but really, it's just trauma porn.

Please please check the TWs for it, I would really only recommend it to 18+.

Here's a list of trigger warnings: https://www.booktriggerwarnings.com/A...
AND I even think this list doesn't cover all of it. Some other TWs I would add to that list is (view spoiler)[ that the self harm is extremely graphic and gory (think like flesh and rot and infections and puss), various types of self harm (tossing yourself against walls and down the stairs, cutting, setting fire to self), amputation, extremely violent abuse (hundreds of instances of sexual and physical abuse, both to children and adults) (hide spoiler)]

Good luck.

[rosesrded]

thank you for helping !!! just looking for some sad books rn tho I don't think I am ready for the extent of A little life . so if he had been with me it Is !!

[❃A.J❃]

A Little Life. It has all the possible trigger warnings in the entire world. It's over 800 pages of complete sadness and depression.

Good luck!

[Harley]

I haven’t read a little life but i’ve been wanting to! I read if he had been with me and I hated it so much personally. It was definitely a little sad but only in the last 5 chapters the rest of the book was just pointless to me.