I've read very mixed reviews of this book. Some feel it's a masterpiece, others think it's worthless. I ultimately think it's kind of fine. 

The book consists of three independent stories. I'm sure the Yanigihara was going for some 'the sum is greater than the parts' thing, but for me it was not working. The first story (1893) is fine, but unremarkable and forgettable. The second one (1993) is boring and leaves too many things up in the air. It is also very bleak, and has none of the warmth that made the horrors of *A Little Life* bearable. The warmth does return for part three (2093),which I felt was the strongest of the three. Since it was almost half of a 700+ page novel, it could have been a book by itself, and would have been a 4 or 4,5 star read for me. But I do have a soft spot for dystopias. 

But given that the first half is so unremarkable/blah and I don't get what the auhtor was trying to accomplish with combining the different stories, I would hesitate to recommend this to anyone.