Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

119 reviews

fayemomodu's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring 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? No

5.0

Loveddddd this book so much. Beautifully wrote, almost poetic. Very deep, talks about a lot of deep issues, so there may be a trigger warning for this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Transphobia, Abortion, Alcohol, and War

thesoftestcowboy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Grief, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, and Terminal illness

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Excrement, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

lalu's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad

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

4.0

This was very different from what I usually read. It was beautiful, confusing, challenging, desperate, touching, and intimate. Easy to read despite the extraordinary prose. 
But I have to say I don't envy students who have to analyse and interpret the hell out of this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and War

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Grief, Car accident, and Abortion

blanxx_2102's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Xenophobia, Car accident, and Alcohol

carojust'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

4.0

I almost gave up on this book 70 pages in. The writing felt too decorative for me, like a really, really long poem. Then I saw that Ocean is a poet, and it started to make sense. Something changed in the pages after that, as I got used to his cadence and by the end, craved it. It's a difficult story, triggering, somber, a dry landscape. But the beauty really is in the poetry of every description, half sentences, fragments, trains of thought. This was a long read, because of how much meaning there was to absorb in every sentence.

I'm glad I didn't give up on this. I'll keep thinking about this memoir forever.

You'll like this is you appreciate memoirs, are in a mentally good place with darker content in real-life context, Asian American stories, LGBTQIA+ perspectives.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Transphobia, Dementia, Abortion, and Alcohol

cepbreed's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

3.5

I honestly expected so much more from this book. I was told it would be earth-shattering and remarkable but upon reading the last page I didn't have any strong feelings. That isn't to say I didn't like it at all or feel strong emotions during certain parts, but the novelty wore off. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous was obviously written by a poet. The prose has a poetic quality and so does the organization. Paragraphs and chapters are arranged in such a way that sometimes appears random and is in need of clarification, which in poetry you can get away with but in a novel it became tiresome as I was getting to the end. Vagueness in poetry is almost necessary, but a novel is a much less flexible medium. I think a part of the reason this quality was so glaring to me is because I just read Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks, another novel by a poet, but one that is much more successful. I enjoyed reading about Little Dog from his perspective and the concept of writing to his mother was intriguing. My heart strings were continually tugged and the intimacy of Vuong's writing made Little Dog feel like a friend. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Grief, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

baddgerose's review against another edition

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

hsitbeenworthit's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Excrement, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

vinniee's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, and War

peggymay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, and War

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and War