Reviews tagging 'Child death'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

36 reviews

kaimetcalfe's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, War, Addiction, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Blood, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death of parent, Gun violence, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cancer, and Car accident

Minor: Excrement and Medical content

raelong12's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Animal death, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Car accident, Classism, Addiction, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Racism, Cursing, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, and War

novella42's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I can still hear Vuong's gentle, relentless voice when I read quotes or pages from the hardcopy I finally picked up. Sometimes I read a little to remind the writer part of my brain how lyrical words work, and what kind of writer I want to be.

His author-read audiobook performance of this powerful book was nothing short of magnificent. 

A queer Vietnamese American man writes a letter to his mother, a survivor of the Vietnam War, who cannot read. His love for her, and hers for him, is ferocious and beautiful beyond words. Vuong is a poet, but strangely, I find his novel more compelling than his poetry. Tons of content warnings, to the degree I don't know when I will ever feel mentally resilient enough in my own C-PTSD to re-read it in its entirety, but if you're in the mood for a good cry, I can't think of anything more cathartic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Chronic illness, Blood, Homophobia, Car accident, Misogyny, War, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Self harm, Addiction, Sexual content, Animal death, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Cancer, Abortion, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Excrement, Cursing, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Gore, Pregnancy, Dementia, Suicide, Sexual assault, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Child death, Rape, Abandonment, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Deportation, Body horror, Sexism, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Torture, Cannibalism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Adult/minor relationship, War, Confinement, Fatphobia, Religious bigotry, and Murder

luckyone's review

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, War, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Child death, Addiction, Cancer, Drug use, Car accident, Excrement, Medical content, War, Violence, Hate crime, and Racism

Minor: Transphobia and Cursing

antoniaodernein's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Grief, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Gun violence, Animal death, Cancer, Death of parent, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

Minor: War and Miscarriage

natalie_davies's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This was a beautifully articulate bit of autofiction, one of my favourite niches in literature. It had some moving perspectives on issues and lives I'd not considered before, and read like the best prose poem. That being said, because of a few graphic sex scenes, I'm not sure it was for me.

As a piece of literature it hangs together really well, it's just not always to my taste. There were universal ideas peppered throughout that tied me to the narrative; I loved the about language and art for instance, as well as the intrinsic theme of family, but the explicit nature of some scenes left me a bit cold... I'm not 100% why that is though.
 
It could be because of my own relative disinterest in sex scenes in literature, or because seeing certain anatomical words rubbing up amongst the rest of Vuong's eloquent and graceful language felt wrong. Either way I found myself losing track of the things I cared about in the middle portion of the book, which is mainly concerned with sexual discovery with a fellow immigrant and Tabacco picker, Trevor. It picked up again after this section, once the letters had become splinters rather than whole paragraphs, but it never quite thrilled me as it did in the first 30 pages.

Quick-ish note... Feel free to stop reading, I just need to ramble. 

One thing that has definitely been impactful on my reading has been the gendered critique surrounding the text. I've seen discourse online comparing Vuong's style to that of Rupi Kaur, and taking issue with the idea of style over substance (a debate that's raged for hundreds of years). My question is; why do we consider one to be frivilous and surface level while the other is subversive and holds great beauty?

Is it because Vuong is very much subverting expectations of masculinity, having the courage to express his vulnerability, while Kaur is a of feminine expectations to ONLY dwell in these realms?

I'm not suggesting that the argument is this surface level, but it's a thought I had.... Maybe ignore this bit 🤷

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Drug use, Sexual content, Child death, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Death, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Cancer, Excrement, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Grief, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

bites_of_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

There is no question that Ocean Vuong can write. There were passages that struck deep in my core and that I can't shake. 

Little Dog is a young man who is writing a letter to his mother, telling her about many aspects of his life that he'd never told her before. We learn about his family's story in Vietnam as well as what happened as he grew up in the US. This is all told in snippets that jump back and forth between memories, almost like a structured and poetic stream of consciousness. While it was beautiful it was also violent and raw and simply overwhelming at times. 

I so wish that the structure of the novel had been a bit more linear, adding that to the poetic writing made it quite difficult to fully appreciate everything that was going on in the novel. If anything, I think this is one novel that I'll get a lot more out of upon re-reading it. 

I'd recommend it but definitely check the trigger warnings before reading, be patient, take your time, and keep an open mind for a novel that is blurring the lines between novel and poetry. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and War

picoledenaranja's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Mental illness, Homophobia, and Death

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Child death and Gun violence

sydapel's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

There's a blurb on the back of this book that calls it "raw" and that's really all I've got to say about this story, these people, this writing. Its a book that requires revisiting, despite the heartache and suffering that almost leaks through the page, and it reminded me of the strength in remembering, of drawing beauty out of suffering, and oddly of the complex community of Hartford. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Addiction, Animal death, Grief, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Homophobia, Blood, and Colonisation

tessareads_'s review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The story was interesting and I feel I learned a lot about Vietnam and Vietnamese Americans but I didn't like how it was written. It jumped all over the place, changed tenses (time and personal) and structure, making it hard to follow. It often started off telling one story and then went on a tangent about something unrelated and I found myself rushing through those parts to get back to the original point. Sometimes it focused way too much on particular imagery which just got a bit boring and repetitive. For me, a lot of it just felt pretentious. It felt like a lot of things were just thrown in, like the mention of friends who he hadn't mentioned previously.  Also, are we not over the bury your gays trope by now? This book was published in 2019, there was no need.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Child death, and Death