Reviews with content warning for Addiction - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

This is the book I have found that most excellently encapsulates the complexities of generational trauma, abuse, queer identity, and the messiness of it all. This is a book that I will definitely need to reread over the years because it is impossible to take it all in on the first read. This book is powerful.

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erinjeanhussey's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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barath_6023's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A beautiful book that I can only describe as "intensely personal", which I found was a work of fiction after many pages in!

It's a letter from the protagonist, Little Dog, to his mother, but it's also a letter to everything that has lead up to who he is, who they are in the world.

The story of them and other different characters(Lan, Paul, etc.) , the events and countries they drift across lends well to the poetic and stream of consciousness style. However, I did find some parts of the book to get lost in metaphors and purple poetry.

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sing_to_me_paolo's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This is beautiful and I understand why it's so beloved by so many. I just struggle with a book that has so little plot momentum.

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michaelapr's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.75

This was a beautifully written book that was heartbreaking in some moments, hard to read in others, and poignant throughout.
I was under the impression that this was nonfiction but it's actually fiction. I read it as more of a lyric essay with some parts prose, other parts poetry, and parts that still feel very true even after knowing some parts are fictional. All of these parts were connected through a process that seemed to appear on paper even when I know that the words only sound the way they do through a lot of editing.
This is essentially an exploration of identity, of an intense parent-child relationship, of the opioid epidemic through the eyes of someone who's friends keep dying, and of an ever present grief caused by trauma from wars of multiple varieties. Ocean Vuong does these explorations well by reflecting in a way that feels true.
The reason why this book falls just short of a 4 for me is hard to explain except it's probably mostly because of the end. The very end started to feel... looser to me than the rest of the book. The connections not as clear to me, the meaning of the table metaphor (was it a metaphor?) just out of reach, and the ending lines not clicking with me. This might've just been me - maybe if I read this again down the line I'd understand that part better. There were also parts of this that were hard to read. This isn't necessarily what made it not a 4 stars or above because these parts felt necessary, no matter how painful or cringe worthy. It's just worth noting to check triggers if you need to.
Overall this was a well written book that wants to make you think about important aspects of the American experience that many hate to acknowledge exists and Vuong succeeds in this mission.

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