Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

33 reviews

grcompain's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Vuong’s story is as deep and captivating as his writing style. This was a beautiful and heartbreaking story that keeps you down allowing you to come up for only brief and humorous pockets of air. This story was real and vivid. The writing was very poetic and the imagery provided, drops the reader right into the scene in the best and worst ways. I personally disliked the amount of the gruesome and gory details (animal abuse and body horror) which of course added emotional value but also distracted from the rest of the page. I found my mind stuck on horrible images long after turning the page. This book is beautiful and fearlessly describes the gorgeous, and the terrible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Blood, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Abortion, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Racism

pastelmeganes's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

Ocean Vuong is a brilliant poet and you can see it in his writing. There are so many good quotes from this book and his perspective and reflection on his Vietnamese identity and how that intersects with his status as a first generation child of a poor single mother as well as his struggles with his sexuality are conveyed with such thought provoking idioms, metaphors and similes that it requires you to try and encapsulate the true feelings he is trying to convey to his mother. He paints such vivid images with his mastery of the english language. His work envoked many emotions within me that i never reflected on. I would adore reading another book by him; I know he writes poems mainly but his work here was just so breathtaking and tantalizing and left me craving either another memoire in the future about his life again OR a work of fiction. This book was so simple gorgeous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Drug use, Cursing, Racism, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Bullying, Dementia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Genocide

fernreads42's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Violence, War, Hate crime, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Genocide, Sexual violence, and Addiction

yummosocks's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Animal death, Genocide, Grief, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, War, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia, Medical content, Cancer, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Bullying

Minor: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Racial slurs

aishallnot's review against another edition

emotional reflective

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

3.5

beginning was beautiful, middle i got lost, and end is a mixture of both, but I slowly was interested in the story again. 

no doubt, I did like this book and I'm glad that this is my first time reading ocean vuong's work. I think I just need to come to terms with the fact that time skips can be a 50/50 experience for me in books where they either work for me or they don't (which in this case it partly did). despite this, i will love to continue to read his works as I really loved the writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, and Racism

tetedump's review

emotional sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Car accident, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Drug use, Abortion, Genocide, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Mental illness, War, and Xenophobia

naddl0r's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Violence, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Colonisation, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cancer, Hate crime, Alcohol, Self harm, War, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail

masucolmusings's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

this made me simultaneously hopeful about life and despair my existence

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, War, Violence, Mental illness, Hate crime, Genocide, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Suicide, Drug abuse, Sexism, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Dysphoria, and Addiction

reemoony's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

i used to be so pretentious when it came to giving books five stars. i thought they had to check this huge list of boxes, but they dont. if you enjoy a book, give it five stars. with that being said, i dont know if i enjoyed this book. it doesnt feel like a book you’re supposed to like, but you love it anyway. its gut-wrenching and hurtful and powerful and loving. it’s everything in the universe at once. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Racism, Medical content, Terminal illness, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Hate crime, Sexual content, Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, and War

Moderate: Car accident, Excrement, Rape, Medical content, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Police brutality, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexism

minnie_xx's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

really beautifully written. you can tell vuong is a poet. page 153-160 are really  special.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Dementia, Cursing, Alcohol, Addiction, Abandonment, Death, Genocide, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, Bullying, and Alcoholism