i don’t know
join the book club that is definitely not a secret society/cult: / prioryofshawn
instagram: / shawnnmccomb
depop: www.depop.com/shawnmccomb/
goodreads: / shawn-mccomb
letterboxd: letterboxd.com/shawnmccomb/
email: shawn.mccomb27@gmail.com
frequently asked questions:
Q: do you like this little life?
A: i think
intro song: Son of Sam - Elliott Smith
this was like watching my sleep paralysis demon lose the plot
ive been rewatching ur silly stupid vlogs all weekend to distract myself from getting cheated on by a skinny white boi so really appreciate that you went out of your way to make this and post this just for me like that's so kind of you you honestly shouldn't have god ur too kind x
skinny white bois are the worst 😫🫣
@@shawnmccomb 👨🏼💻: “skinny white bois are the worst” /lh
True words Shawn
skinny white boys have a ridiculous amount of audacity i swear
EWW LEAVE HIM SIS!!! 😤😅
"my hips.. i feel like jude..." BOY 😭😭😭
As someone who was highly abused as a child and hold captive and chained in the basement for 8 years of my childhood by my own parents, and also someone who read "A little life" I can say, that sometimes healing can happen. There are a lot of things that can trigger you and make you feel uncomfortable but I am glad to say, that I'm genuinely fine. Some days, It feels like me chest is on fire and I can barely breath but some other things help me to calm down and make me realise, that I'm not in the basement anymore and that I'm 23 now and healthy. Focusing on little things that brings you comfort and joy is really important
Very sorry to hear that happened to you , but so glad to hear you’re doing better. Hope life only gives you good things ❤
I'm very happy for you! You are safe and fine now♥️ You'll only get better!💕
wow, thank you so much for sharing 🤍
I watched the theatre production of a little life by myself in my university cinema. Needless to say, sobbing next to a stranger who is also sobbing was a cathartic and yet so humbling experience
Omg really? I really wanna see it! Ive heard there are so many parts where his friends are just on other parts of the stage, cleaning up Judas blood.
I wish I was stable enough to read A Little Life. Oh well, if I wait, the time will come.... (the time will never come)
nobody is ever stable enough to read A Little Life LOLOL
That was my thought for the longest time, and I started it at the beginning of this year and have now decided to (soft) DNF at 60% because I just don't really care about it. I have at no point felt emotionally destroyed or anything like that, and it all felt very contrived and predictable to me (I'm not elaborating, because I don't want to possibly spoil things for you). By which I absolutely do not mean to deter you from reading the book, in fact, my point is that you should probably just go for it and see how it affects you. If you feel like it's too much, you can always stop! Also I'm absolutely not criticizing the book, I think, going by the general response to this book, that me not vibing with it is absolutely a me-issue.
I’m grateful to a little life for providing me with all that trauma at 15
I totally see why some people hate the book, but I remember seeing so much beauty between the lines. The way Jude always just waits for Willem and Harold to hate or leave him like all the other people in his life have. But then they keep loving him so unconditionally throughout all his lowest points and even when he’s trying to push them away. How he slowly has less and less of these self-sabotaging thoughts and starts to accept the love they try to give him. And then, at the end, he decides to get his legs amputated because he finally realizes how loved he is and he wants to be there for the people he loves. Don’t get me wrong, for every one of these beautiful moments, there are 10 gut-wrenching ones. But their rarity makes me appreciate them so much more. Like the first day of sunshine after 2 weeks of cold winter and gray clouds, I just want to stand in the sun and enjoy it for a minute before all the gray comes back. This is so corny lol but this book brings out all these complex feelings and I love it.
my sentiments exactly
Idk if I wanna read this book, but if I do I’d wanna leave a review for it that says “If this is a little life I’m scared to see a big one”
I think that A Little Life is the Bojack Horseman of the book-enjoyers community. Both are devastatingly good, and I am scared to engage with either.
A Little Life is NOT like Bojack Horseman.
Shawn finally reached the peak of his sad boy era
I remember reading A Little Life the first week of quarantine in 2020 and (spoiler) getting hit by a car as a cyclist the same day i read about Jude getting hit by a car.... 10/10
Btw I am Dutch and i went to the Dutch theatre adaptation of this book and an old man in the audience had an actual stroke of some kind while (spoiler) they where acting out the scene of Jude dying???
wow…
Watching people read this book is like watching sports to me because I KNOW i'll never be stable enough to read it myself lol
Emma from DrinkingByMyShelf did actually do a spoiler-full vlog re-reading A Little Life and explaining everything that happens in it for people who don’t want to actually read it themselves
The end of The Happy Years made me throw my book across the room and pace angrily around my flat. Absolutely incredible storytelling
Im so glad that the cynical part of me was like the happy years is not gonna be THAT happy and thank god for that bc i dont think i would have survived otherwise 😭
i bought the book like 3 years ago and i finally thought i was mentally stable enough to read it last fall ummmm let's just say i was hospitalized and started therapy soon after
oop
Is it appropriate for 16 year old because I am tempted to read this
“I feel like everybody has experienced a feeling that is abstract and I think often dark- that it’s just put into words so perfectly; and it just feels like a relief.” Ough.
Calling A Little Life '"camp" was unexpected but also I get it
you WILL pay for making me want to reread this book
I read this book and couldn’t look at the cover without crying for a week 💀.... then I read it again.
I read this book 2 years ago and even now everytime I think about it I feel physical pain
i don’t know
real
Is this book appropriate for 16 year old because I am tempted to read this book
@@Nitya-rd4xhno don’t. wait until you’re at least 20 bc theres a lot of adult “stuff” that i think reading it as an adult makes you understand the context and be able to relate in some way more
@@sleeppparalysis oh okay thanks for the advice
I read this book maybe two years ago and thank God my brain made me forget all of the trauma in this book
I'm so easily influenced... now i feel the urge to reread my copy
i think i like this little life 🥺😍
i still remember reading the fault in our stars at like, 13, and i've never been the same again👍
the relationship that we have with this book is sooo weird lol. like i love this book very much, but sometimes i kinda want to hate it, but i can't hate it because it's the best thing I've ever read, but at the same time it's like the worst thing ever
I read A Little Life maybe 5 or 6 years ago when I was like 18 and the second Shawn said "Lispenard Street" all the things that happen in this book came crushing down on me again and I felt absolutely miserable 😍
This is the closest I’ll ever get to reading the book. I know I’ll never climb out of the hole it shoves me into
I really love the way you talk about books, you describe them in such an interesting and accurate way + the editing of your videos is so nice, I can't even imagine how many hours it takes you to make a video... I went to book signing with Hanya Yanagihara like 2 days after reading A Little Life and I just started crying in front of her, this is what looking at the woman who wrote a book that traumatized you does to you
thank you :) if I was ever face to face with her I would literally crumble
Maybe in like 20 years I’ll reread it
i also read a little life a couple years ago after seeing a quote from it on ✨pinterest✨, and yeah my depressed 19 year-old ass DID NOT appreciate while i do think the writing was beautiful, the emotional torture of it all was not worth it for me, especially the ending and the message of “yeah, therapy doesn’t work and some people just can’t get better” (the author said it herself in some interview) is incredibly harmful but idk, that’s just my two cents thank you for the video, as always!
This book continues to haunt me to this day
Is it appropriate for a 16 year old because I am tempted to read this book
A Little Life is one of the hardest, most depressing and disturbing books I've ever read, in fact the only one that left me truly and honestly deeply shaken, displaced and torn apart... It's heartbreaking and soul-crashing. It took me more than a week after reading this book to collect myself and organize my thoughts in order to write impressions and I don't know how eloquently and articulately I will present my impressions... It's extremely difficult, grueling, immersive, touching, harrowing and just immensely sad, a book where a human being is presented masterfully, evocatively and in detail, with incredible skill and palpable realism, for whom it is impossible not to sympathize, not to feel something, not to want to jump into the pages and just to be there for him, to hug him and tell him that everything will be alright... His traumas are so vividly depicted, descriptive and violent and shocking, crippling and devastating, that I felt them on my own skin, the misery and the suffering soaked me like tar, and I was unable to do anything. Yanagihara amazed and horrified me and it is impressive in itself that she wrote this book in 18 months while working, because she has a phenomenal, detailed and complex portrait of a character that you connect with and feel close to, the connection is truly undeniable and I have not felt it in a long time, I have become so identified with a fictional character, even though I have not in the least experienced anything that he has experienced. That's the power of this book, the talent of Yanagihara is undeniable. The writing style was wonderful, raw, direct but intimate, rich in vivid comparisons, excellent dialogues and many times I experienced it as a punch in the stomach and I ran out of air. I especially liked the convincing psychological immersion, the tangled labyrinths of the human mind, and especially the portrayal of trauma, pain and grief, how to live with that, how destructive it can be for the individual, but also how the people who are around that individual cope with that and witness its destructive and unscrupulous effect. Yanagihara covers very sensitive and taboo topics such as self-harm, mental health, sexual, emotional, physical and psychological abuse, pedophilia and homosexuality, which I feel are painfully realistic and effectively portrayed, although quite uncomfortable and difficult to read especially in a book with such a theme, but they are also part of reality and we should not look away because something may seem ugly or uncomfortable and repulsive, but we should face and see things as they are. The plot is carried by the characters and they are actually the plot, which was quite specific to me. Despite all the suffering and tragedy, the cruelty, monstrosity, agony and darkness of the plot, there are bright spots: true and sincere and priceless friendship, intimacy, support, love and empathy and understanding and kindness and a selflessly extended hand. But is that still enough? Can you help someone who doesn't want help, someone who is so brutally broken that they believe they don't deserve kindness? Whatever I say will be little because I have no words to describe how startled, moved, shocked and impressed this book made me, it evoked such intense emotions that I physically felt pain, no book has ever left me so strongly shaken and disturbed, it is so deep and powerful, truly a different and unique experience that I'm sure will never be repeated and I know it will forever have a special place. You will need a loooong hug after this... It's really emotional and incredibly painful and there is literally no good time to read it, there is simply no time when you are ready for something like this... Still, in my opinion, this is a masterpiece, brutal but extraordinary, exhausting and draining but unforgettable and after some time I decided that is one of my favourite books and right now it's on the top on the list.
I agree with your emotionally intelligent and insightful, sensitive words.
@@Journalistwoman thank you for the beautiful words, yeah, this book changed me... I am not the same as I was before reading it
i stopped writing in my journal and made myself a big mug of tea to watch this video
This book is a product of hell😭😭Had to take a year long break from it because it sent me into a depressive spiral and then I finished it and it ruined me all over again. Would fight Hanya on site🤜🏼
i love watching other people read this book because i already know what’s about to happen as soon as they hit “the happy years”
you deserve an oscar for the bit at 25:14 😭 also i relate to not wanting to touch the book, when I finished it I threw it across the room lmao
ok but the way i audibly gasped when i also remembered the horrible character
maybe it's just me but looking back on this book after watching saltburn the feeling it leaves me with was sort of similar. obviously a little life is far more devastating but like - making you fall in love with these very distinct and unique characters only to then have horrible and disturbing things happen to them... the only difference is there's no one to blame for a little life's tragedies but yanahara 😭
The book is also similar to the movie ' mysterious skin' .
This is also one of my favorite books of all time. I saw the stage adaptation when it was playing in Brooklyn (had stage seats) and a woman in the row in front of me passed out about thirty minutes in…a three and a half hour play. It is definitely not for the faint of heart.
when i tell you i had to take a year off of reading this book because it was giving me physical pain… so hyped to watch this
the thing about asian literature esp. japanese lit is that they make compelling storytelling in the most simpliest of the setting and atmosphere aka slice of life by using the uncontrollable fate of emotions, events, struggles, thoughts, and life as the focal point of the plot instead of anything grandeur that makes the plot in favor on the reader's expectations. And theyre good af at dissecting it just as much as it is hauntingly disturbing that will make you feel a lot of things. Instead of stories that helps you escape reality, these lits helps you confronts it.
your videos are always a blast Shawn, love you
This video was beautifully shot, I loved the clips of you speaking about the book and then switching over to the time lapses/you setting the scenery with elegant music. UGH I LOVE 😩
Congrats on 60k 🎉 🎉🎉 It feels wrong to love this book so much .
the acting at the end was just top notch. masterclass. absolute cinema.
nothing could be better than awaiting your sunday upload and having it center my current read
I love how you're able to say so much without spoiling
shawn my lord thank you for uploading
sis took my brain out, delved into the parts about little life and read the the manuscript out loud and im so here for it.
i gasped twice during this, first when you put the car sound effect and second when you held your legs and said you felt like jude 😭i finished the book over a week ago and its honestly changed my life, its a masterpiece
I found ur channel the other day and just finished watching all your videos and i feel like i've been in a weird liminal space where your videos have been background of my life for like 4 days straight so thank u for that
You're so comforting to watch
I still can’t get over the fact that Shawn reads with just the light from a tiny lamp 😧 like that is the reason why I use glasses now
This video is the epitome of you to me. It had it all, and your reaction and reflections are really insightful and spot on imo. All my compliments to the chef 🥹🤌
Shawn I love ur videos, bro got me back into reading ❤
the people from goodreads knew this was coming
you’re such a brave little boy, so proud of you. 🥹🥹🥹
I've been re reading it to feel something in life atm, this video feels like manifestation
“norman ruminals” new drag name calling dibs love your thoughts on this one! (and your face during “the happy years” haha)
Watching you flick through those first 7 pages before making it to the start of the book made me LOL
Ive lowkey been depressed and unmotivated asf lately, but whenever i watch a cute lil vlog of you readin sum, i suddenly feel like drawings and painting and reading and sooo much more. Looooove you for thisss. U also got me into readin
at first I watched like 41 seconds of the video and I instantly knew that he's gonna be my favorite and then it just got better!!!!!!!
i read this in like 2017 and it took me a solid 6 months to finish because i had to take SEVERAL breaks. but now you got me wanting to reread. fuck sake.
This was my first book of 2024 and I absolutely adored it - might be my favourite book ever but also I am devastated
This book was so emotionally devastating and horrifying because it served as a reminder of the tragedy and the disgusting things humans are capable of but at the same time it was incredibly hopeful and beautiful it was horrible experience reading it but I'm glad I did it gave me some much needed perspective
I loved her book To Paradise. Didja read it? Same beautiful writing but less soul crushing. I liked The People in the Trees too. Disturbing for sure, but less than A Little Life. Hats off to you for rereading it. I couldn’t go through that again.
"I think I like this little life" ✨💅😩
Read this book a month ago and still not over it!!
Shawnnn, if you liked hanya's writing in this book you have to read her book called ' People in the Trees'. I personally think that book is better plot wise, this story literally transported me into the island where the story is taking place. PLSSS give it a read you wont regret it! (its just as fucked up as a little life tho 😃)
the part you wrote in brackets was the most important one just sayin
Yay I’m gonna watch this before going to bed ❤
I would need to be presented a very large amount of money to A Little Life again. It is so good but it caused me SO much pain. You are so brave.
I bought this book because of you Shawn 😀 this better make me tear out a waterfall
It happens that when you reccomend a book, you *know* that you loved it but you can't remember much of the plot... This isn't the case for a little life, just the part titles gave me all the flashbacks. The character work in the book is also amazing because while I was reading it, I just felt so much love for Jude. I wanted to give him a hug through it all.
the "instead of trying to not be miserable..i'm just gonna go for it" has me hollering. I've been flirting with the idea of rereading Martin Eden but i'm afraid of getting even more depressed... maybe i should follow your example of bravery
This guy is my favourite booktuber
you were so real for using an Elliott Smith song in the most depressing ass book vlog. It’s an elliott smith winter I fear.
goddd! i love you, dude!
a little life is the most tragic masterpiece
I finished the book this morning and am currently at work. This book OBLITERATED me. I cried here and there a bit but the last 100 page tore everything from me
I read this during the panorama and I got my own copy to reread only to realize after that the spine was already falling apart, making it unbearable to handle. methinks it's a sign
i just finished reading this book and it was beautiful and haunting at the same time. Love this video! Might need some tissues if I read this again though...
3:41 YOU DID NOT
THE INTRO PLEASEEEEE😭😭😭
the elliott smith cameo at the intro had me shocked
i couldn't wait to finish the book so i could watch this
Seeing this video on my tl actually made my chest hurt i hid this book in the way back of my wardrobe because i simply could not look at it again after reading it.
gorl returning to say u gotta read the new Atlas 6 cause idk if she was rushed for a deadline but the writing is like FANFICTION in a bad way the descriptions r insane 🤪
You got so real in this one lmao Also if you've seen the South Park episode your reaction to this felt like all the parents' reactions to Scrotie McBoogerballs
I think i like this little life I think I like this little life I think i i thik I like this ittle I think I like this little life I think Little life little I think I little I like I think think
essential reading imo 🎶i think i like this little life🎶
omg this is perfect i just started a little life today!!
DAMN !!!
You make me laugh, I love it and I love your videos!
read this book at fifteen and i've thought about it once a day since
im about to read part IV AND NOW IM SCARED
A Little Life is highly controversial, and for many readers, it is all the more concerning to add such vivid and gruesome imagery in the book. Jude isn’t the only one battling with issues concerning or relating to trauma, abuse, assault, etc. You have his friends JB, Malcolm, and Willem (or Wilhelm), who are also dealing with a lot of troubles in their personal lives. One of them strives to become successful on stage, a recognizable architect, a hard working and distinguished employee in the workforce-like most adults, they’re struggling to find themselves and having these dilemmas in their minds of whether or not they’re on the right path or if they actually love what they’re doing. Anyway, you have great insights.
i read a little life twice in a year in 2021 and to this day i still think i have every single thing that happened memorized
Isn’t that traumatic for you?
omg perfect timing im currently getting whiplashed every five minutes with a little life
shawn a couple videos ago: 'i'm trying to optimise my wardrobe' 'i do not need any more pants, i cant buy any more pants' *buys a jean jacket to fill the jean jacket sized hole in his wardrobe, then buys MORE PANTS* this video: *unpacks new pants and another new jean jacket* ...shawn...
FUCK
I returned the first Jean jacket tho🤭
i only noticed because i watched the older video the other night with a friend (gotta get others on the shawn bandwagon) so it was fresh enough in my mind for me to be staring at that part of the video like 🤨🤨🤨 - we are here to hold you accountable