Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

346 reviews

nooneshouldbereadingthis's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Heart wrenching portrait of a mother and son. It fucked me up, but I have no regrets reading it. I felt seen. It made me want to write. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and War

Minor: Racism and Xenophobia

dellydoos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This book felt like a vivid dream; fantastic and colorful, but unfocused and tortuous in parts. On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is a highly praised debut novel that explores themes of identity, family, love, and trauma through the eyes of a young Vietnamese-American man named Little Dog. Written as a letter from Little Dog to his illiterate mother, who cannot read or understand the story her son is telling, the novel is a deeply personal and introspective exploration of the human experience.

While the writing is fantastic, brilliant, and lyrical, with highly complex and nuanced characters, I found the book's plot to be underwhelming. Yes, symbolism, stunning prose, and deeply flawed characters can be enough sometimes to pull me through a book, but the lack of a clear narrative thread left me feeling somewhat adrift. The book is filled with abstract vignettes that jump around in time and space, making it difficult to fully engage with the story. Although I appreciated the experimental approach, it just didn't hit strongly enough for me to enjoy beyond the technical skill.

Additionally, and in part this was my own fault for not checking content warnings, one aspect of the book that really caught me off guard was multiple instances of graphic animal cruelty and abuse. These scenes left me feeling really uncomfortable and disturbed, and I just wasn't prepared for how dark the book would be in this aspect. I’m rarely left uncomfortable by a lot of heavy content, but graphic and gratuitous animal cruelty is just where the line is for me. 

So while, I can appreciate the technical skill and talent that went into creating this book, I just think it wasn’t for me. 3/5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

mxajlikesbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , 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

redheadorganist's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

It just wasn't for me. This would probably take multiple reads to unpack.

srhi96's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Dementia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Pregnancy

luciovalencia's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Abortion, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

anton13's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

Beautiful. Just beautiful. Seriously the way Ocean writes is so poetic, I love it! And just the way he’s able to intertwine everything he’s been through with well placed facts and anecdotes is amazing. I always love finding good writing and this truly is as good as it gets. I love everything about it. I’d truly recommend it to anyone and everyone!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

kay_ne's review against another edition

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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

This was an emotional, beautiful, and difficult read that made me cry and tear up many times.  

It's not for everyone. The literary prose and writing can be confusing along with his themes that are difficult to get through at times. 

Content warnings may not include all that is in the book and tags shown may be in both graphic or moderate as I didn't keep track.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Racism, and War

Minor: Cancer

bookish_skies's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Drug abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Excrement, and War