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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was such a beautiful and poetic depiction of the hardships and mundaneness of a seemingly unromantic day-to-day life. A heart-wrenching exploration of loss, chosen family, and the true nuances of the “American dream”.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautifully written. So beautifully written that it may have been at the expense of developing a meaningful connection with the characters. I feel like things were ripening in the middle, then the fruit was just never picked? I didn’t feel emotional in the end like I thought I would. Otherwise, this book felt like a calm pause. Maybe life is devastating, and happy, and gross, and…simple. Just wish I felt the characters with the same intensity the setting was described.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Medical trauma
Minor: Racism
one of my most anticipated releases of 2025, i was so sure i was going to love this because it's ocean vuong that i never even read the blurb before diving in. i guess i should have stopped once it was clear that drug abuse and similar topics would be major parts of the book but i decided to prevail and trust the process because once again it's ocean vuong. that's on me....
the few things i did like about this book: hai's relationship with noah, the way ocean vuong wrote about grief and loss and remembrance of lost ones like hai's grandmother and i did like at least some of the scenes with hai & grazina, especially when he was calming her down.
now to the things i didn't like. i thought i really had nothing to worry about and that even if the topics of the new book wouldn't be to my liking it wouldn't matter because vuong's a poet and anything he writes would be so profound and touching that i could live off the prose alone.
well, not this time. i don't know if it's just that i can't connect with contemporary literary works set in the US or what but i disliked this in the same way i dislike kristin hannah's books. it's like the entire story was hollow? yeah, it's obvious he wanted to write about the mundane every day life of people living on the fringes of society but it felt too forceful; it's like he got lost in endless descriptions... why is he trying to make a greasy cutting board or dust mites flowing around sound profound? and i say that as someone who loves purple prose. + the dialogue was painfully cringe and bad to the point i couldn't even believe this could come from a poet whose previous works i enjoyed.
but then again, this was a lost case from the start. i just couldn't care less about books where the army and war are major themes of the story and therefore i already couldn't really connect to grazina or sony. i couldn't connect to any of the scenes where hai and grazina are pretending to be in the trenches of some war or where sony is going on about his special interest about war and army generals. on top of that i really dislike reading about people with drug addictions/drug abuse. i kept reading because i wanted to give it a chance, who knows, maybe this is the book to change my mind... well no!
and then we have that fast food place hai is working at where i didn't like a single one of the characters working there. not one! found family, groups outcasts and weirdos who aren't accepted by society are some of my favorite things ever to read about and yet it just didn't work out for me here. i kind of see where ocean wanted to go with this but all the characters felt too much like a 12 year old who tries too hard to be cool came up with them. there was way too much effort to make them sound deep when they were talking about some weirdo conspiracy theory for the 30th time but it just didn't click. they weren't quirky, they weren't weird in a good way, they were either just boring & one dimensional or so weird and nonsensical that it didn't work anymore. some of the scenes were really so pointlessly absurd that i was thinking it was maybe going somewhere but nope... why was there a homeless lady coming into the restaurant, she ODs in the bathroom and then when the co-workers find out and try to help her, they trip over some cheese sauce or something and get her covered in the sauce? for what??? why was someone making a star wars dick shaped statue?
the few things i did like about this book: hai's relationship with noah, the way ocean vuong wrote about grief and loss and remembrance of lost ones like hai's grandmother and i did like at least some of the scenes with hai & grazina, especially when he was calming her down.
now to the things i didn't like. i thought i really had nothing to worry about and that even if the topics of the new book wouldn't be to my liking it wouldn't matter because vuong's a poet and anything he writes would be so profound and touching that i could live off the prose alone.
well, not this time. i don't know if it's just that i can't connect with contemporary literary works set in the US or what but i disliked this in the same way i dislike kristin hannah's books. it's like the entire story was hollow? yeah, it's obvious he wanted to write about the mundane every day life of people living on the fringes of society but it felt too forceful; it's like he got lost in endless descriptions... why is he trying to make a greasy cutting board or dust mites flowing around sound profound? and i say that as someone who loves purple prose. + the dialogue was painfully cringe and bad to the point i couldn't even believe this could come from a poet whose previous works i enjoyed.
but then again, this was a lost case from the start. i just couldn't care less about books where the army and war are major themes of the story and therefore i already couldn't really connect to grazina or sony. i couldn't connect to any of the scenes where hai and grazina are pretending to be in the trenches of some war or where sony is going on about his special interest about war and army generals. on top of that i really dislike reading about people with drug addictions/drug abuse. i kept reading because i wanted to give it a chance, who knows, maybe this is the book to change my mind... well no!
and then we have that fast food place hai is working at where i didn't like a single one of the characters working there. not one! found family, groups outcasts and weirdos who aren't accepted by society are some of my favorite things ever to read about and yet it just didn't work out for me here. i kind of see where ocean wanted to go with this but all the characters felt too much like a 12 year old who tries too hard to be cool came up with them. there was way too much effort to make them sound deep when they were talking about some weirdo conspiracy theory for the 30th time but it just didn't click. they weren't quirky, they weren't weird in a good way, they were either just boring & one dimensional or so weird and nonsensical that it didn't work anymore. some of the scenes were really so pointlessly absurd that i was thinking it was maybe going somewhere but nope... why was there a homeless lady coming into the restaurant, she ODs in the bathroom and then when the co-workers find out and try to help her, they trip over some cheese sauce or something and get her covered in the sauce? for what??? why was someone making a star wars dick shaped statue?
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There is something about Vuong's writing that makes you feel. Feel the sadness, the pain, the joy, the hope. I am always in awe of how he crafts his words. This found family story, focused on the lower class of the American food service worker, is so well done that it gave me the most melancholic nostalgia for my first restaurant job. All of the topics Vuong addressed were done with such grace and honesty. It's hard to put into words how phenomenal this book is.
Ocean Vuong is hands down my favorite poet. His writing is just so beautiful and full of feeling, and this book had a lot of that. The language alone makes it worth reading. Some lines literally made me stop and go "wow" and sit with them for a minute.
But I gotta be honest, the story lost me a bit in the middle. I liked the beginning and the end, but some parts felt kind of all over the place. The plot didn’t always feel clear or grounded, and I kept waiting for it to come together more than it did.
Still, I’m really glad this book exists. Even when I wasn’t sure where the story was going, the writing pulled me back in. If you love Vuong’s voice and how he captures emotion, it’s worth reading.
But I gotta be honest, the story lost me a bit in the middle. I liked the beginning and the end, but some parts felt kind of all over the place. The plot didn’t always feel clear or grounded, and I kept waiting for it to come together more than it did.
Still, I’m really glad this book exists. Even when I wasn’t sure where the story was going, the writing pulled me back in. If you love Vuong’s voice and how he captures emotion, it’s worth reading.