Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

46 reviews

mmiirrpp's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad

• 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

This is one of my favourite books of all time. Reading this book felt like I was being gripped by the shoulders and forced to look at my life up close through Ocean Vuong's poetic musings on his own. 

While this book did touch me deeply I would warn people, particularly survivors of abuse and POC, that this book can be painful to read at times and to check the content warnings left by other reviewers. I couldn't finish it the first time around, nor could the majority of my queer Asian friends that I recommended it to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault, Transphobia, Outing, Colonisation, and War

anneliemn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse and War

Minor: War

grace_farrimond's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.25

beautiful writing that occasionally boggled my smooth pea brain but I loved this book so much

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Abortion

Moderate: Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Excrement

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, and Sexual assault

novella42's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

I can still hear Vuong's gentle, relentless voice when I read quotes or pages from the hardcopy I finally picked up. Sometimes I read a little to remind the writer part of my brain how lyrical words work, and what kind of writer I want to be.

His author-read audiobook performance of this powerful book was nothing short of magnificent. 

A queer Vietnamese American man writes a letter to his mother, a survivor of the Vietnam War, who cannot read. His love for her, and hers for him, is ferocious and beautiful beyond words. Vuong is a poet, but strangely, I find his novel more compelling than his poetry. Tons of content warnings, to the degree I don't know when I will ever feel mentally resilient enough in my own C-PTSD to re-read it in its entirety, but if you're in the mood for a good cry, I can't think of anything more cathartic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Fatphobia, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War

thesecretsapphic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism and Cancer

aprilinao's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? No

5.0

This book is so beautifully written, and as a queer person raised in a Viet immigrant family, it was a very emotional read. I would love to read it again and again. I hosted a book club through my campus library on this book, and it was difficult to narrow down discussion questions: A high number of lines are filled with meaning, and the book is told in unconventional manners. We could have made the meeting so much longer and would have loved every second of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

lucille_c's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Medical content, Car accident, and Abortion

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

ell_'s review against another edition

slow-paced

Not a fan. Not for me at all. To try hard - it’s difficult to read and understand. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I don’t really read poetry but I have now put Vuong’s works on hold at the library. The writing of this is incredibly lyrical almost dreamlike (or nightmare?). 
I also don’t annotate books but I want a physical copy of this book to annotate because there are so many wonderful lines and quotes and more

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

fietje's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis