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

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

847 reviews

awashinfeeling's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

4.75

I am in love with this novel. It is lush; it is full of evocative imagery and just so beautifully melancholic. It is the best prose poetry I have read in a while. I underlined so many sentences and often found myself lingering on certain paragraphs, reading them over and over again, because that’s how amazing the language in this is. Although there is a plot, I would not recommend this to someone who wants a fast and action-heavy read. But if you want something slower, something emotional, this is going to be spot-on.

Content Warnings

bookichor's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective 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

2.5

Content Warnings

naju's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

OCEAN VUONG!!!!!!!!! made me insane with this book. and i have to guess listening to the audiobook just added to the psychic damage because his prose is insanely impactful when he reads it himself.

i swear sometimes his writing hit me so deep i’d have to pause and take several deep breaths just to be able to keep going. goddamn what a book.

“To be gorgeous, you must first be seen. But to be seen allows you to be hunted.

Content Warnings

davidbythebay's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

In Sum: Beautiful writing, some significant style issues I can’t get over, and a slew of trigger warnings at the bottom of this review.

The writing is absolutely beautiful and poetic. Striking language is used and really deep themes are explored. Among the themes explored are: race, being gay, drug use and abuse, mental health, death, love. The perspective is equally interesting and nuanced.

However, I had significant issues with the overall writing style. The “pop culture” references were a lot of the time out of nowhere and fell flat for me. I call them “pop culture” in quotations because they are really more references to people and things we all know of in some way, like Tiger Woods. But there are also references and commonly known research into the despicable practices of pharmaceutical companies in marketing and pushing opioids. These factual tidbits fell flat. They seemed out of place even though they were concerned with the story being told.

The book is written as a letter from son to mother. I just don’t see telling my mother stories she told me and events she and I lived through in an extended letter. Nor do I really see ever telling my mother about my first boyfriend or the first time I had sex with a guy or since then. But the author does do that, though he admits his mother will likely never read this.

Parts one and two were good and kept my interest - though the more experimental and poetic stanza-type sections in part two felt gimmicky and didn’t fit or work for me. Part three is where I lost interest and grew impatient with the style and the story. It felt as though the story stalled.

My biggest issue, which is incorporated in the above issues, is that the story being told had no real plot, no real character study with how disjointed and erratic the pacing and topics could be, and felt empty. For example, his mother and grandmother both have (it seems completely untreated) PTSD that pops up several times in parts one and two, then disappears (more or less) as if they never had those issues and visions.

I’m glad I read it for its beautiful language at parts and it’s perspective, but I didn’t like the style and flow. It just wasn’t for me, despite a lot of the contents being interesting.

TW: Death, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Underage Sex, Abuse, Racism, Graphic Animal Death/Abuse

Content Warnings

anniefwrites's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark 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

It's hard to describe this book because it's both ethereal and unconventional. The glimpses that Vuong shows of war, culture, addiction, sexuality, family, and coming of age all come together in a sort of collage that creates a full picture of Little Dog. I was more drawn to the narrative-style parts of the book; I don't think I'm the best reader for the more poetic passages, which could sometimes feel opaque to me. I think the writing style was innovative and deliberate, and I wish I was a bit more of a literary reader so that I could appreciate it more.

Content Warnings