Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

79 reviews

yetanothernastya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

This is a great book, however, the reason I didn’t give it 5 stars has nothing to do with the book but me – books that are a bit too poetic is not exactly my cup of tea. That being said, it is a beautiful yet dark read. Would definitely recommend to anyone who is not bothered by the style

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Abortion, and War

rebeckareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Sexual violence

_bailey_reads_'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? Yes

5.0

This is the most well written book I have ever read. It is powerful and beautiful and gut wrenching. I am in love with Ocean Vuong’s master ability to write and articulate what it means to be human and to suffer and feel pain and loss. This is masterful! My favorite book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and War

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.5

This book is DENSE. I had to really turn my brain on to read it, which was not a bad thing, but it did make me take much longer to read it than I expected. Like in his poetry, Vuong's descriptions are vibrant and original. My favorite aspect of his writing is I can see exactly what he is describing, even though his manner of description is unique. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Abortion, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, Vomit, and Abandonment

Uses of slurs against LGBTQ+ folks

jarif_hasan's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Hear me out....! it's a really good book, this write is god gifted. The only thing I didn't like that much is LGBTQIA. Yes I no it's his own life story and I really didn't have any problem with writer . The thing is I don't support LGBTQIA but that doesn't mean I hate them. But yeah don't hesitate after seeing my review and highly recommend to read this book it will be really good thing to consume 🙂✨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

leoniekross's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? N/A

3.5

Took me a month to read, partially because the subject matter at times was very challenging to read through and partially because of the ebb and flow of how much the book sucked me in. The author is know for a writing style bursting with metaphors and imagery which I found well-done throughout most of this book but veering into bloated towards the end. I didn't vibe at all with the last 30 or so pages but the beginning is wonderful. As you can see, I find it truly hard to make up my mind about this book in its entirety but I will say that my mom enjoyed it, for what it's worth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, and Blood

_forestofpages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

 This started out so great and then lost me toward the end. I was skimming and the only reason I can think of why is because it stopped making sense. There was a lot of construction at the start, when he was a child, it was focused and moving forward with smaller vignette stories about his mother and grandmother which were great and relevant. Then he started talking about animal abuse and things got very abstract with two boys singing a choir song over a bloody child in the woods. I didn’t understand most of those parts. 

There was more of that near the end with pages and pages of singular lines that read like shower thoughts instead of letters to his mother. Also if he’s writing letters to his mother why would he write her about extremely sexually explicit times with a closeted boy? To each their own, but I doubt his mother would have wanted to read that even if she could, especially considering her homophobia. Good for him for opening up so deeply and allowing strangers to see the most vulnerable cracks like that, but to specifically tailor that for your mother seems strange to me. I kept feeling, especially toward the end as though it should have been a poetry collection not a novel. The early parts felt more like an essay collection, or a literary novel (it tittered between the two often) but toward the end it really lost it’s sense of direction. I just felt disjointed reading it, especially that last 3rd of the book. I do love Ocean Vuong's prose and will be picking up his poetry collections in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Racism, Sexual violence, and Abortion

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

steffi_jo's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Sexual violence

killeenm's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

2.0

I wanted to like this book but I really didn’t. The first part was the best in my opinion, and I did appreciate the book’s exploration of war, immigration, parents, and queerness. Overall, I didn’t understand the sometimes overly metaphoric tangents, even though I wanted to understand what they were getting at, I didn’t. They didn’t flow well with the rest of the book and seemed like an author’s attempt to work in certain points without actually having to tie it into the story. As the book went on, graphic descriptions turned gruesome and torturous to read. I’m not one to shy away from reality or portrayals of it, but it was too much for me at times, and most of the time it didn’t seem to add to the point of the book. It was obviously written by a talented poet, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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