Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

378 reviews

kelisabeth's review

challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

chaosbumblebee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Such a beautiful book it makes me want to go back and lower my rating of everything else so that this is the only 5 star read I have this year--or ever. Heartbreaking, poignant, perfect and imperfect, Vuong puts words to feelings I didn't know words could be put to. I need to call my mom.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

n7n0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

so berührend. irgendwie hat ocean vuong auf diesen paar seiten einmal über alles geschrieben, inklusive dem schreiben selbst. ich wusste nicht immer worauf genau eine passage hinauswill, umso erfrischender, dass er selbst manchmal schreibt „i don‘t know what i mean by that“ als finden wir gemeinsam heraus was da liegt und entdeckt werden mag. heavy heavy heavy und gleichzeitig so leicht und angenehm, nie pathetisch. hab noch nie ein so poetisches buch gelesen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Abortion, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, and Car accident

vaykay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

maria_mccoy's review

emotional

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Death

Moderate: Child abuse and Drug abuse

crispycritter's review against another edition

I kept seeing these beautiful quotes from OEWBG come up on the Tumblr-esque side of instagram, but unfortunately there’s no real narrative structure holding the occasional beautiful thought together. 

I generally love 1st person stream of consciousness books with meandering or borderline non-existent plots. I don’t mind purple or highly lyrical prose. This book is basically a walking trigger warning, but even that didn’t make me put it down- because I thought the violence and horror were handled well.

This book just did not work for me. Poetry isn’t really my jam and this just felt like it should have been a collection of poems. I didn’t feel like there was much reason or justification for it being a “novel.” I dunno, perhaps auto fiction is just not for me and that’s the issue. It feels awful to say, given the heavy subject matter of this book, but it was boring. Boring and dark. And that’s not what I enjoy reading. Respectfully DNFing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

cmwilliams29's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

I tore through this one. Rather astonishing—and a bit of a thinker. I don’t entirely know what I’ve just read and somehow it’s ok. It’s beautiful and thought-provoking and I will be sitting with it for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, and War

ebrooker0103's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and War

mahamsiddiqui's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book just ripped my heart open. I felt the things I thought I would not feel again. Beautifully written, devastatingly sad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

shay_talksbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

Borrowed from my local library & the cjtalksbooks club pick for July (late reading)

I found it hard to rate this book knowing it's based on the author's real life. Some heavy topics, beautiful prose and a story about coming of age/coming to terms with your childhood & sexuality during a lot of turbulence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Sexual content