Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

21 reviews

chaosbumblebee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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? Yes

5.0

Such a beautiful book it makes me want to go back and lower my rating of everything else so that this is the only 5 star read I have this year--or ever. Heartbreaking, poignant, perfect and imperfect, Vuong puts words to feelings I didn't know words could be put to. I need to call my mom.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, 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, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

n7n0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

so berührend. irgendwie hat ocean vuong auf diesen paar seiten einmal über alles geschrieben, inklusive dem schreiben selbst. ich wusste nicht immer worauf genau eine passage hinauswill, umso erfrischender, dass er selbst manchmal schreibt „i don‘t know what i mean by that“ als finden wir gemeinsam heraus was da liegt und entdeckt werden mag. heavy heavy heavy und gleichzeitig so leicht und angenehm, nie pathetisch. hab noch nie ein so poetisches buch gelesen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Abortion, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, and Car accident

marena02's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

frostjem's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

Incredible writing and an incredible concept of writing to his mother who cannot read it. Some difficult and challenging themes meant I often had to take breaks reading this. Vuong has a way of describing deep, difficult and strong emotions in such a beautiful way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

readwithev's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Vuong is amazing as expected. I read Night Sky with Exit Wounds and I’m not disappointed with this. It’s not only a love letter to his childhood in Hartford CT, but to his family. It’s a search for identity, a reckoning with the past, finding joy even in fleeting things, and all of life in between. I cried and smiled but was also left so stunned. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is poetic, thoughtful, empathetic, reflective, but also full of rage, grief, and yearning.
We watch Little Dog fall in love, watch him be bullied, but also grow into himself, like skin that he would grow into. It’s beautiful and I cannot recommend enough!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, and Abortion

gabriella_'s review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

His prose is beautiful and reads like poetry, it is recommended to read this before Night Sky with Exit Wounds, it adds so much more context to that read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Classism

emoweaboo's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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 made me cry like a baby on a plane next to confused strangers

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

_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

sahar18's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Grief, Abortion, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and War

sakura_m's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

3.5

Stream of consciousness writing often feels too tangential for me, but Vuong has a certain command of the langauge that kept you immersed in the poignant reminiscing of the narrator. Reading this felt dazzlingly disorienting, like a dream where you float through various scenes that are loosely stitched together.

3.5 rating rather than 4 because tw: a lot of trauma and various kinds of abuse, including animal abuse

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship