Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Op aarde schitteren we even by Ocean Vuong

364 reviews

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Excrement

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual violence, Abortion, and War

carolinacortez's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.0

"what I left behind becomes exactly what I'm running toward -- like I'm part of a family." 

Tengo que ser honesta, es un libro complicado de leer, no es una lectura que se lea en una sentada (aunque es cortito), es prácticamente poesía en forma de novela, entonces mi recomendación sería que se lea despacito, disfrutando cada palabra de Ocean. 

"The wound is also the place where the skin reencounters itself, asking of each end, where have you been? 
Where have we been, Ma?" 

Cada párrafo, cada capítulo, cada oración, son hermosos, yo no podía dejar de decir 'no puede ser' de lo bello que está escrito y se ve el amor que hay detrás de cada palabra, que pensó la mejor manera de mostrar una parte de la vida de mucha gente. 

"Ma. You once told me that memory is a choice. Buy if you were god, you know it's a flood."

En cuanto a las relaciones (tanto con su mamá, abuela, como con Trevor) están súper marcadas las diferencias, como la personalidad de little dog se moldaba según con quién estaba, según lo que la otra persona necesitará de el (muy mirrorball de su parte) 

"You once told me that the human eye is god's loneliest creation. How so much of the world passes through the pupil and still it holds nothing" 

En resumen es una novela preciosísima, solo hay que tener en cuenta que requiere su tiempo para digerirla bien. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Death and Abortion

archiveofrasa's review against another edition

inspiring reflective tense slow-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

I adored this. I love love love the writing in this; everyone who said his writing is gorgeous is absolutely right. some of the way he phrases things is like... man what the fuck. the reason I consider this inspiring is just because of the way he words things, it gets me writing again. I love any book that does that.

I liked the route it took with the sexuality storyline. I think with these books of this type I expect a chain of boys the main character has been with but it's just one guy that has had a major impact on Little Dog and I appreciate that a lot. and of course, his relationship with his mother, oh God. I don't have anything to say, I just really love this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and War

Minor: Cancer and Racism

lillieb130's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and War

peggymay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, and War

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and War

yummosocks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Grief, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Medical content

Minor: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Pregnancy

ieotter13's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

5.0

absolutely gorgeous writing - truly poetic at times. loved reading it again for a friend (love u soph) and had sm fun annotating the prettiest of lines.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Classism

thestarsaresad's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

This book was good, but honestly I feel like I'm just too dumb to truly comprehend and appreciate it. I'm sure someone smarter than me could read it and come up with a bunch of important meanings, but for me, I just read it as a letter from a son to a mother. It's not that this book was boring -- it's not, I loved reading about his experiences -- but the reflection and different metaphors in the book honestly flew over my head. I've read a lot of fantasy books recently, so this book was a much needed breath of fresh air, of reality, of the human experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Abortion, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Excrement, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

lauren_shilling'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

This book was absolutely incredible. The writing was gorgeous, and I marked so many quotes in my copy. One of the most beautifully written books I've read in a long time. I felt so many emotions while reading this book, and it made me think about a lot of different things. It gave me a new perspective and I couldn't ask for anything more when I'm reading. It was beautiful and heartbreaking and perfect. The story, above all, felt so real. If I was told by anyone at any point that this story was completely nonfiction I would believe them. The story, the characters, everything felt so incredibly real that it is so hard to believe that it isn't. Check trigger warnings because this is a really heavy book, but it was also beautiful and I would highly, highly recommend it to anyone!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Violence, Grief, and War

Moderate: Homophobia and Abortion

Minor: Animal death and Car accident

larakaa's review against another edition

challenging tense medium-paced

I'm not able to rate it at the moment, might do it later. Reading through this is a hard earned experience. It's poetic, it's gripping, it's brutal and disgusting, it's often depressing - it's life so much that you keep forgetting that it's a novel not a memoir. So it's genuinely great in that regard but I also didnt enjoy most of it and really had to push myself to finish it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Drug use, Homophobia, Miscarriage, and Physical abuse