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egeltz's review against another edition
challenging
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse and Homophobia
katie_belle's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
4.0
I decided to try this book at the recommendation of a friend, and I can only describe the feeling I had while reading it as being swallowed whole. At times the main character describes himself as drowning and reading this made me feel as if I was drowning with him. He writes in such a tangible way, using everyday things to pull a memory, in the same way a smell or a song might take you back to a past experience. His thoughts aren't necessarily linear which gave the narrative a fever- dream feel at times. This book is aching and reaching, longing and regretful. But cutting through the pain are breath-giving moments of love and gentleness. Definitely a read that left me with a lot to digest and dwell on.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
havenbarrett's review against another edition
3.0
I loved the concept of this book, but i wish there was more story and less thesaurus eating, cause i was reading some sentences like wtf?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia
barath_6023's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Sexual content
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and War
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, and Abortion
sing_to_me_paolo's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Terminal illness, Excrement, Abortion, and Colonisation
marc_a_lope's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
5.0
This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. The imagery is utterly captivating, and each sentence is lyrical and resonant.
Some chapters became montages of poetic imagery that still came to focus on the story the author tells.
I could read this book 10 more times and each time be struck by different passages.
Some chapters became montages of poetic imagery that still came to focus on the story the author tells.
I could read this book 10 more times and each time be struck by different passages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Death
Minor: Homophobia
maiking's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and War
that01loser's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, and Grief
deeb_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“Some people say history moves in a spiral, not the line we have come to expect. We travel through time in a circular trajectory, our distance increasing from the epicenter only to return again, one circle removed.” (27)
Most people in my life LOVED this book. Someone I knew put it in their gender studies thesis. I liked it and really loved some parts of it, but I felt a little let down by it in other places. Perhaps this is the tragic fate of every book that arrives with a ton of hype– it’ll invariably let some people down.
The novel is split into three parts, following the coming of age of Little Dog, a Vietnamese American boy who grows up in poverty with his refugee mother and grandmother in Hartford. The first section of the book follows Little Dog’s childhood, interspersed with stories of his mother and grandmother’s lives. Some of the writing is quite beautiful and quotable, especially as Little Dog struggles to understand his often enigmatic and harsh mother. At times, though, I couldn’t help but compare it to other books/ story collections with poetic writing about intergenerational trauma like Luster by Raven Leilani or Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So. Maybe I’ve been reading too many Asian/ POC trauma books, but some of the writing about migration and family history felt a bit trite. (Like using monarch butterfly migration as an analogy for… migration?) Some parts also confused me, like one scene that interweaves flashbacks of Little Dog’s grandmother’s story with a seemingly unrelated, rather gruesome scene of a bunch of guys eating the brains of a monkey.
To me, the second part read the strongest. It follows a teenage Little Dog and his starcrossed relationship with Trevor, an older white boy he meets while working at a tobacco farm. Here, the book is the most grounded, relaying rich sensory descriptions of Little Dog and Trevor’s temporarily idyllic summer and alternating moments of tenderness and cruelty between them. I found Little Dog’s relationship with Trevor to be the most compelling. Through their relationship, Vuong explores masculinity, coming of age, sexuality, and desire with eloquent and fresh-feeling prose. These were the parts I kept coming back to with a pencil to underline. He also captures the bleakness of life in the Northeast, especially for people like Trevor and Little Dog, who struggle with poverty and complicated or abusive relationships with their families. While readers may not necessarily agree with the choices that Trevor or Little Dog make, they still feel very human and understandable.
The third part of the book returns to Little Dog as a young man, a burgeoning writer who has left Hartford for New York City but is still tied to the tragic ends of the people he left behind. This section again felt a bit uneven in writing quality. I enjoyed reading about Little Dog’s exploration of creative writing and its limited power, as well as the book’s continued discussion of familial memory and addiction. The writing kind of goes off the deep end in some parts, slipping into a poetic style that some people might like, but I found it a bit confusing and a detraction from the novel’s story. There are a couple extended metaphors, like one about a table that may or may not exist, that just made me throw up my hands and hope it wasn’t important.
Although this novel is billed as a story about refugee families, I think the strongest parts of it were actually the relationship subplot in the second act, and the novel’s following thoughts on masculinity, sexuality, and desire. I’ve found much stronger work about migration and its intergenerational impacts in other works, and at times I felt like Vuong wanted to write a queer coming of age novel but got pushed into making the family relationships a bigger part of the story.
From a pacing and character perspective, the book is mostly character driven, made of often nonlinear vignettes. Some of them felt a bit random at times, to be honest. As a narrator, Little Dog is not perhaps the strongest character, but I still enjoyed much of his insights. I also didn’t feel like I got much of a sense of his mother as a character, even though she is supposed to be the center and purpose of the novel. She does come across as a complex character who cares about her son in her own, occasionally misguided way, but I felt like her relationship with Little Dog didn’t feel as rich as the relationship between Little Dog and Trevor. Perhaps this is because our parents are always a bit incomprehensible to us, but I was a bit let down in this regard.
Overall, I’d still recommend this book, though with a few caveats. Some parts of it are really strong verbal gut punches, but other parts, especially the more abstract poetic ones, seem like a distraction from the actual storyline. However, I did enjoy its wrestling with topics like addiction, complicated family dynamics, and sexuality with nuance and grace.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
jasminrain's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
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
4.0
This book is one of the most beautifully written novels I've ever read in my life. I really enjoyed the use of language and the way in which the author described the world with buffalos, butterflies and the kind. That being said, war and history aren't exactly interests of mine so the book didn't quite live up to the hype for me. I can certainly understand why people are so obsessed with it though and I'm keen on exploring other books written by Vuong.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Grief, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Violence, and Alcohol