Reviews tagging 'Grief'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

358 reviews

mykes's review against another edition

reflective

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

yuki__'s review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and War

rebekka_evie's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

I liked the way the story is told. The letters to a mother that will never read them. Ocean Vuong's writing style is really enjoyable.
I liked uncovering the history of the family through the eyes of the youngest member. 
I did feel like certain points in the story were told quite confusing. I had to go back to previous paragraphs a couple of times, to make sure I got the context right.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Excrement, and Abortion

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

blueberryhotel'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? It's complicated

5.0

gorgeous gorgeous book. it felt like reading a novel-length poem, which i loved. i think i could spend years picking apart each sentence and passage and weaving together all the meanings and symbolism and still not cover everything. so unique and captivating and heartbreaking - this book made me cry and i rarely cry while reading.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Blood, Abortion, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Medical trauma, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

radfordmanor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

dustghosts's review

challenging dark hopeful 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Dementia, Grief, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

mareike_df's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

2.75

I am sorry, u r supposed to like this book but I simply cannot.
It's written like Goethes himself wrote it and the story is heartbreaking (and way better than Goethes Faust btw). But I just could not stand the long chapters where no sentence connects to the other. It is SO random that it is unnecessarily hard to read. The author has talent, that's obvious, but it's also obvious that this is his first novella. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Rape, and Grief

Moderate: Miscarriage, Violence, and War

katrinasherise's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Drug abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Grief, and Alcohol

higherwvrlvck's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Language, which is beautiful and should be celebrated, can be something shameful for immigrants in America. Besides maybe their appearance, their mother tongue is what singles them out from all the rest. Little Dog's mother says "You're already Vietnamese" as a warning to her son. He must try as much as he can to stay invisible in order to stay alive. 

This novel was heartbreaking. Although the primary story was about the main character, Little Dog, his mother, Rose, and his grandmother, Lan, it was also about his friend and lover, Trevor, his grandfather, Paul, and the character of the town Hartford, Connecticut and all those people it contained.

I read this book in about three to four days. Once I began, I could not stop. Vuong's language is captivating for both its beauty and relentlessness. Ocean Vuong puts on display the pain and the joy of having an immigrant mother who suffered through the Vietnamese War and domestic abuse. Vuong examines different standards of sexuality and masculinity in Little Dog and Trevor. He expresses resistance, his anger in words but continually recognizes language's failure to fully capture everything we want to say.

Stories by people of color tend to have this expectation of the characters of color be heroes, pick themselves up by the bootstraps, fight back, and achieve success, but Vuong simply tells it the way it is. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous depicts Asian American life from an Asian American voice. This should be enough. Bodies of color are not just faces for a movement, but lives worthy of being documented in Literature. Ocean Vuong does just this. 

There are many, many topics of discussion in this novel. Depending on the emotional maturity of students, I think this would be a wonderful book to use in a high school world literature class and of course could be used in college curricula. I have heard many teachers argue that we don't read as many works by people of color because of time and lack of literary achievement, but Ocean Vuong has done both in this debut novel. I will forever cherish this story, and I can't wait to come back to it again.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Xenophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Bullying, Miscarriage, Excrement, Vomit, Abortion, and Alcohol

prideandparchment's review against another edition

dark 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? No

4.75

This was a much harder read emotionally than I anticipated it but it is a really good book. Poetic, harsh, honest. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Abortion, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness