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tori21's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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
3.5
Needed to let the book sit in my mind for a bit to comprehend how I actually feel about it.
And I really wish I could bring myself to give the book a better score. I really do, but the disappointment I felt compared to my expectations and the overall hype, I just can't.
The writing style was beautiful and I loved how refreshing the poetry-like style was, but sometimes it got a little too much and left me confused. Which made me not enjoy the book like I wanted it to.
And I really wish I could bring myself to give the book a better score. I really do, but the disappointment I felt compared to my expectations and the overall hype, I just can't.
The writing style was beautiful and I loved how refreshing the poetry-like style was, but sometimes it got a little too much and left me confused. Which made me not enjoy the book like I wanted it to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicide, and Cancer
Moderate: Homophobia
pastelmeganes's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
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
5.0
Ocean Vuong is a brilliant poet and you can see it in his writing. There are so many good quotes from this book and his perspective and reflection on his Vietnamese identity and how that intersects with his status as a first generation child of a poor single mother as well as his struggles with his sexuality are conveyed with such thought provoking idioms, metaphors and similes that it requires you to try and encapsulate the true feelings he is trying to convey to his mother. He paints such vivid images with his mastery of the english language. His work envoked many emotions within me that i never reflected on. I would adore reading another book by him; I know he writes poems mainly but his work here was just so breathtaking and tantalizing and left me craving either another memoire in the future about his life again OR a work of fiction. This book was so simple gorgeous.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Drug use, Cursing, Racism, and War
Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Bullying, Dementia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia
Minor: Genocide
mahaofhyrule's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
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? Yes
2.75
I really wish I could give this more stars, because at its core I think the message of this story is heartbreaking in the most beautiful way. However, as a story, I wasn't the most engaged reader.
The narrative is told through the POV of Little Dog, who is a Vietnamese immigrant boy writing a letter to his illiterate mother, who is suffering from trauma from the Vietnam War. On this premise alone, I was intrigued to get right into this story.
Let me start off by saying that Ocean Vuong is a great writer. His prose is definitely one of the stronger aspects of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous which of course is a given since he is a poet after all! There were a number of quotes I marked with sticky notes while I was reading because I had a feeling they would stick me for a long time, and I truly felt like I was present in some scenes described throughout the novel.
I was pretty hooked during the beginning, however, I started to feel more disengaged towards the middle of the book. I personally don't really read poetry that much (rarely, in fact), so I think I just felt disconnected from the writing style and it made me realize I'm probably not Vuong's target audience. I could not engage with the flowery language and I felt like because I'm not a poetry reader that a lot of the "beauty" of this work went completely over my head.
This story is supposed to be a letter, and Little Dog recaps various events at different stages of his life, and here's where I experience another issue: the events are completely scattered. What I mean by that is that one moment, he's describing a time when he was a child following another boy on the playground, and then after, he's describing another moment where he's with his dying grandmother (it wasn't these two specific moments, but hopefully you get the point). Anyway, because of how these events were framed, it not only confused me often and took me out of the story, but also ruined some tension of otherwise very emotional moments.
I'm not sure what else to say here. I feel like this caters to a very specific reader and unfortunately that reader is not me.
The narrative is told through the POV of Little Dog, who is a Vietnamese immigrant boy writing a letter to his illiterate mother, who is suffering from trauma from the Vietnam War. On this premise alone, I was intrigued to get right into this story.
Let me start off by saying that Ocean Vuong is a great writer. His prose is definitely one of the stronger aspects of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous which of course is a given since he is a poet after all! There were a number of quotes I marked with sticky notes while I was reading because I had a feeling they would stick me for a long time, and I truly felt like I was present in some scenes described throughout the novel.
I was pretty hooked during the beginning, however, I started to feel more disengaged towards the middle of the book. I personally don't really read poetry that much (rarely, in fact), so I think I just felt disconnected from the writing style and it made me realize I'm probably not Vuong's target audience. I could not engage with the flowery language and I felt like because I'm not a poetry reader that a lot of the "beauty" of this work went completely over my head.
This story is supposed to be a letter, and Little Dog recaps various events at different stages of his life, and here's where I experience another issue: the events are completely scattered. What I mean by that is that one moment, he's describing a time when he was a child following another boy on the playground, and then after, he's describing another moment where he's with his dying grandmother (it wasn't these two specific moments, but hopefully you get the point). Anyway, because of how these events were framed, it not only confused me often and took me out of the story, but also ruined some tension of otherwise very emotional moments.
I'm not sure what else to say here. I feel like this caters to a very specific reader and unfortunately that reader is not me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racism, Sexual content, Racial slurs, and Homophobia
Moderate: War, Bullying, and Child abuse
Minor: Death and Cancer
mxcopmy's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
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
3.0
Let me start by saying this: Ocean is a stellar writer. He immerses you in his words that are a magical translation of feelings. They gave me warm feelings and chills every time. How he could make every detail so tangible probably reflects how those ambivalent feelings came to me.
It was just a bit hard to follow at times. He sometimes described 2 different themes in 1 chapter which confused me. I also missed some depth in the story. Every time I caught myself waiting for when I was going to understand his history better, but it didn't come. So while it was an okay experience, I might have expected a bit more emotion from myself as these letters do touch on hugely emotion-laden themes.
Tip: read the book while listening to quiet classical music in the background. This brings the story much more to the fore than otherwise!
It was just a bit hard to follow at times. He sometimes described 2 different themes in 1 chapter which confused me. I also missed some depth in the story. Every time I caught myself waiting for when I was going to understand his history better, but it didn't come. So while it was an okay experience, I might have expected a bit more emotion from myself as these letters do touch on hugely emotion-laden themes.
Tip: read the book while listening to quiet classical music in the background. This brings the story much more to the fore than otherwise!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, War, Cancer, Drug abuse, and Drug use
melanieripple's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Addiction, Abortion, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, War, Death, Grief, Racism, and Mental illness
Minor: Transphobia
pikkumarja's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The language and storytelling is so beautiful, painful and touching it feels like a poem. The book is definitely challenging and it takes time and effort to read if you want to understand it fully.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, War, Homophobia, and Child abuse
Moderate: Cancer, Vomit, and Violence
bookforthought's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Car accident, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and War
etherealisnt's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
First time reading something like this. I have to say I'm rather surprised with myself.
This was more of a tough read, at moments it was a lot, but the flow of the book made seamless transitions from paragraph to paragraph. It still left me confused at times, even lost. Not totally jarring, but took me out of the story a few times.
Definitely left some heavy feelings at some parts - it was very raw and organic. Quite strange to understand and not know.
This was more of a tough read, at moments it was a lot, but the flow of the book made seamless transitions from paragraph to paragraph. It still left me confused at times, even lost. Not totally jarring, but took me out of the story a few times.
Definitely left some heavy feelings at some parts - it was very raw and organic. Quite strange to understand and not know.
In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nhớ. Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, "Có nhớ mẹ không?" I flinch, thinking you meant, "Do you remember me?"
I miss you more than I remember you.
The ending had much more of that foreboding element, I suddenly felt on edge. That's when I started feeling like I had a literal rocks stuck inside my rib-cage, when they moved I suddenly felt sick. It was sad, but a better word would be painful. A painfully beautiful story of living, despite everything.
I am thinking of beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful. If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you're born to the day you die, is to be gorgeous only briefly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Death
Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, War, and Violence
Minor: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Abortion, Homophobia, and Terminal illness
hsitbeenworthit's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Bullying, Car accident, Gun violence, Blood, Cancer, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Excrement
sarasreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
Stunning and unflinching. I know this almost connected stream of consciousness writing might not appeal to everyone, but wow did it work for me. The way each short chapter bobs and weaves several ideas, or even completely disparate things, together was masterful. And the quality of the writing, the turns of phrase, it was all incredible. I'm not going to forget unicorns stamping in a graveyard for a long time.
I didn't know much of what this was about before picking it up, only that it was beautifully written, but reader beware. Read the trigger warnings as there are many and some passages were hard to read.
I didn't know much of what this was about before picking it up, only that it was beautifully written, but reader beware. Read the trigger warnings as there are many and some passages were hard to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Excrement, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abortion, Cancer, War, and Sexual violence