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

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Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

845 reviews

chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad 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

3.25

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reemoony's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

i used to be so pretentious when it came to giving books five stars. i thought they had to check this huge list of boxes, but they dont. if you enjoy a book, give it five stars. with that being said, i dont know if i enjoyed this book. it doesnt feel like a book you’re supposed to like, but you love it anyway. its gut-wrenching and hurtful and powerful and loving. it’s everything in the universe at once.

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hunterlovesneilperry's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

one of the most beautiful things ive read in a while. maybe forever.

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line's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

bisexualwentworth's review

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

Ocean Vuong uses the English language in a more lyrical way that pretty much any other writer I can think of. His prose in this book is just as gorgeous as his poetry that I've read, and the way he connects concepts and images is breathtaking and heartbreaking by turns.

The use of the second person was striking and affecting. The novel is written as a letter from Little Dog to his mother, Rose, but the overall effect is basically a dual narrator situation. It works beautifully.

The content is difficult. I knew it would be. It's very much a mommy issues book, which is what I expected from Vuong based on his poetry collections.

It would be wrong to say that I enjoyed this. I didn't. I appreciate Vuong's craft. I was deeply moved by many aspects of the story. I was triggered and brought to tears. I thought a lot about family and identity. But it's not an enjoyable book. It's deeply harrowing.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is also autobiographical enough that I would feel weird about giving it a star rating, so I'm simply not going to at this time.

NOTE: This book does contain sexual scenes between teenagers. These scenes are not written for the titillation of readers and are instead in service to the characters' development, but I still think it's wise to warn readers of this going in.

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vrcreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-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? N/A

4.5

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purplemuskogee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

When I started reading this, I thought "Wow! 5 stars!" Then I thought "Ok, 4 stars". Now I think we are down to 3.5.

There's a lot to like about this short novel. The narrator, who writes to his mother - who, incidentally, cannot read and will never read his letter - remembers growing up with his mother and his grandmother, who nicknamed him Little Dog. Having left Vietnam after the war, his family tries to recover but still suffers from the trauma of the war. I liked his retelling of growing up marginalized, exploring his sexuality, listening to stories his grandmother tells him, his white grandfather. I felt though at times that it was trying too hard to be clever, and to be literary: the fragments, the ellipsis, the short sentences. I also could have done without his graphic depictions of animal cruelty, which I didn't think brought much to the story and were here for shock value.

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