172 ratings (3.98 avg)
102 reviews

Trinity Bigelbach

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Trinity’s Bookshelves

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fantasy‎ (106)

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Trinity is Currently Reading

Trinity Bigelbach is currently reading

Queen of Myth and Monsters (Adrian X Isolde, #2)

by Scarlett St. Clair (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jan 05, 2025 01:44PM

Trinity Bigelbach is currently reading

Cleopatra: A Life

by Stacy Schiff (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: based-on-true-true, currently-reading

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progress:

(page 117 of 369)
— Dec 14, 2024 04:40AM

Sep 18, 2023 09:41PM

Trinity Bigelbach is currently reading

A Little Life

by Hanya Yanagihara (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, realistic-fiction

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Trinity Bigelbach said: " Trigger Warnings at the end of the review…

I am sitting here contemplating what rating to give this book. It was everything I thought it would be but I am still sitting here, mouth open, rethinking the ending as if I didn't know what was going to hap Trigger Warnings at the end of the review…

I am sitting here contemplating what rating to give this book. It was everything I thought it would be but I am still sitting here, mouth open, rethinking the ending as if I didn't know what was going to happen. As I am reading reviews I am noticing two common themes. People give the book 5 stars because of the compelling emotions and connection with the characters that they feel, and some are giving it one star due to the question many critics have asked. Why did Hanya Yanagihara write such a horrifically depressing book? What was the point?
I think the answer to that question lies within another.
Almost everyone who reads the book knows about the many awards it has received. One of which is the socially decided “Most Depressing Book of The Decade”. Whether it be from social media, blog posts, or reviews, most people know that this book is as painful and horrible as it gets. So why did they pick it up off the shelf? Why did they read it?
I believe that one of the few things promised in life is pain and suffering. Whether it is minor or to the magnitude displayed in A Little Life. Everyone feels it, everyone knows its face, and feels its presence at one time or another. It is something that people fear, it lurks around corners and we never are sure when we will feel it or find it waiting for us. If you live a life at all, you will know discomfort and misery.
When humans are in pain it often feels like a one-way hallway. With no doors, windows, or apparent escape. When we turn to look back there seems to be a mirror, displaying only us and our lonesome, seemingly endless journey ahead. There are only two options keep moving forward until you stumble upon escape or kill yourself. People who are in pain most of the time have what I call the One-Way Hallway Mindset. We feel we are alone in this struggle to find content. What reading books that invoke the well know feelings of suffering does, is it breakthroughs that mirror behind us. Allowing us to see the complex universe of hallways that each human must pass through. This journey is what everyone has in common, we are able to finally see the connections between us all, and that it is hardship, struggles, pain, misery, and finally death. It is unavoidable, but it also means we are not alone.
I will not sugarcoat it. There is no happy ending in A Little Life. But as depressing, dense, and difficult as reading the book is, we connect. The best and most consistent connection we have is suffering. As I have heard before “Misery Loves Company”.
However, if you look close enough, there are comforts within the words. Even with chronic pain, whether it is physical, mental, emotional, or perhaps spiritual, we have the compacity to experience love and passion. Maybe it makes it better even? Maybe it makes us appreciate what we have even more. But the most depressing comfort of all is that there is a guaranteed end to our hardships. Death.
We are promised that one day we will no longer feel pain and we will not remember the tall mountains or scary hallways we passed through to get here. We will just be. Regardless of if you believe in an afterlife or not, one way or another, this becomes true.
In conclusion, I am stuck between two ends of the spectrum. So I think a 3-4 star is what I will go with. A 1 for the many tears I shed in my room at 3 am, and a 5 for the truth this book portrays. ...more "

progress:

(page 244 of 720)
— Dec 14, 2024 04:09AM

Feb 22, 2023 05:43PM · see review

Trinity’s Quotes

“I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

tags: happiness, pride

2969 likes

“He was a young man of between eighteen and twenty, tall, slim, with fine dark eyes and ebony-black hair. His whole demeanor possessed the calm and resolve peculiar to men who have been accustomed from childhood to wrestle with danger." Page 8”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

tags: hot-mf

1 likes

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe

tags: attributed-no-source, best, life, love, misattributed-marilyn-monroe, mistakes, out-of-control, truth, worst

164917 likes

“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

1357 likes