Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

62 reviews

tessa52's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Homophobia, Dementia, Excrement, Racism, Car accident, Alcoholism, Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Death, Animal cruelty, and War

aein's review

dark emotional reflective tense 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

4.0

This is a letter from a son to his illiterate mother. Knowing full well that she may not be able to read it, he spills everything on paper in English - the generational trauma, hardships of being interracial, and sexuality among a few. An acceptance that beauty is something we can be, no matter the briefness of it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, War, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, and Cancer

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Miscarriage

t0rixoxo's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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

5.0

this book is so beautifully written. ocean vuong's writing style is so poetic and detailed that i truly felt invested in these characters.

on earth we're briefly gorgeous is about a gay, vietnamese-american and the letters he writes to his mother. these "letters" describe different parts of his life with her and other people in his life, such as his grandmother, lan, and his lover, trevor. through these letters we get a beautiful look on how the vietnam war affected his family.

definitely a 5 star book, ocean vuong's words touch a deep part inside of me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual content

Minor: Miscarriage, Hate crime, and Vomit

nadiadhansen's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.5

this is a beautifully written, very lyrical and deeply sad and at times very touching autobigrafical fiction...

and i really wanted to like it a lot more - it has all the things i usually love, queer themes, minority perspectives, genre pushing.. but i have to admit the tangents were confusing to me a lot of the times, and i dont usually have a hard time following stories. i've seen other people write that they missed a narrative they could 'follow', a more gathered story, so you could know where you were going and i feel that too.

that being said i didnt dislike this book, i would probably still recommend it to people who i knew enjoyed lyrical writing

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

catzngoenz's review

emotional inspiring 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

3.5

I did read this in Vietnamese so most likey all the amazing prose people praised are lost in translation. Overall, interesting story but i couldn't really connect with the characters. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Drug abuse, Death, Miscarriage, and Racism

florenceassetto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

i REALLY enjoyed parts of the book and other didn't hit me quite so hard! the whole story of trevor hurt my heart and the complexity of relationships in the book is something really special.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Miscarriage

Moderate: Addiction

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. 

---

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

poppyedition's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, War, Terminal illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Murder, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Panic attacks/disorders

ieotter13's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

5.0

absolutely gorgeous writing - truly poetic at times. loved reading it again for a friend (love u soph) and had sm fun annotating the prettiest of lines.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Racism, Violence, Drug use, Grief, Sexual content, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Classism, Death, Child death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Sexism

larakaa's review against another edition

challenging tense medium-paced

I'm not able to rate it at the moment, might do it later. Reading through this is a hard earned experience. It's poetic, it's gripping, it's brutal and disgusting, it's often depressing - it's life so much that you keep forgetting that it's a novel not a memoir. So it's genuinely great in that regard but I also didnt enjoy most of it and really had to push myself to finish it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, and Cancer