Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

845 reviews

ieotter13's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

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

thestarsaresad's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective 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? Yes

3.5

This book was good, but honestly I feel like I'm just too dumb to truly comprehend and appreciate it. I'm sure someone smarter than me could read it and come up with a bunch of important meanings, but for me, I just read it as a letter from a son to a mother. It's not that this book was boring -- it's not, I loved reading about his experiences -- but the reflection and different metaphors in the book honestly flew over my head. I've read a lot of fantasy books recently, so this book was a much needed breath of fresh air, of reality, of the human experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Abortion, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Excrement, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

lauren_shilling's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

This book was absolutely incredible. The writing was gorgeous, and I marked so many quotes in my copy. One of the most beautifully written books I've read in a long time. I felt so many emotions while reading this book, and it made me think about a lot of different things. It gave me a new perspective and I couldn't ask for anything more when I'm reading. It was beautiful and heartbreaking and perfect. The story, above all, felt so real. If I was told by anyone at any point that this story was completely nonfiction I would believe them. The story, the characters, everything felt so incredibly real that it is so hard to believe that it isn't. Check trigger warnings because this is a really heavy book, but it was also beautiful and I would highly, highly recommend it to anyone!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Violence, Grief, and War

Moderate: Homophobia and Abortion

Minor: Animal death and Car accident

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.

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Content Warnings

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

bunny_rose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

5.0

Deeply sad and deeply beautiful 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Death of parent

moipone's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Racism

Minor: Gun violence and Suicide

summmerose's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Homophobia

kenjanae_s's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The only reason that this book didn’t get five stars is because I simply wasn’t able to absorb it all. Genuinely one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read, and Vuong’s ability to articulate feelings around identity and life is unbelievable. I feel like this is the kind of book that I’ll have to reread every few years because I’ll be able to take something new from it each time. This book made me reflect a lot and I think I understand myself better now because of it. I would recommend it to everyone but potentially take a peak at content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Grief, and Abortion

learivel's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-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

4.5

Normally I’d not pick up a book written like this one, thinking it would be too pretentious or lack an “actual plot.” But that was absolutely not the case with this novel, written in letter format from immigrant child to mother. Ocean Vuong writes in a way that is so beautiful and seamless I forgot where I started or where the book would end. The metaphors were poignant but never got lost or too hard to understand, as they often are. Truly such a raw and revealing piece, I think him for putting it into existence. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, and War

makoshark44's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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? No

4.75

all i can say about this book is that it is  not just briefly gorgeous but exceedingly beautiful as a novel. filled with outstanding symbolism, themes of generational trauma and a wonderful unexpected queer romance. i’d recommend this book to anyone who wants to feel a change of perspective on their own family trauma and see a reconnecting light into their older relatives viewpoints.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, and War

Minor: Homophobia