This book was repeatedly devastating to read, but I couldn't stop reading it -- both because I couldn't claw myself out of the pages and because (once I realized where it was going) I wanted to be done with it as quickly as possible so that I wouldn't have to read it again. In a way, A Little Life is refreshing because you've never read something so soul-crushing before, yet with moments of elegance, tenderness, and beauty in the writing that keep you reading every word. This book will linger with me. I don't know if that's a good thing.