Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

48 reviews

nineinchnails's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

i don't usually read poetry so i think a lot of these went over my head. i didn't really connect to or understand much of the poems in the first half of this collection which was a little disappointing because i've heard such good things about vuong's work. there were more than a few poems in the second half that managed to grip me though. 

'Künstlerroman' was my favourite here. if i'm remembering correctly it was the longest poem, which might be why i managed to connect to it more. it was gutting and felt very raw. a shorter poem i really enjoyed was 'Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker'. i don't think i've ever had a list poem make me tear up like that. vuong is no doubt a talented poet but i think the formatting and structure of most of these poems just didn't work for me - that's not to say that they'll never work for me, but as it stands i don't read much poetry so i much preferred the longer poems in this collection.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, War, Terminal illness, Car accident, and Racism

Minor: Suicide and Police brutality

calcijade's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Cancer, Death of parent, Suicide, Hate crime, Bullying, Gun violence, and Racism

robinks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Similar to Night Sky with Exit Wounds, the run on sentences made some poems really hard for me to follow. Overall, however, I felt the impact of these poems, their imagery and select phrases.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content, Cancer, Racism, Classism, Blood, Suicide, and War

Minor: Vomit, Gun violence, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Medical content, Homophobia, Alcohol, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Forced institutionalization

keirahelena_'s review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Racism, Murder, Gun violence, and Death of parent

mirandyli's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

4.25

Exquisitely beautiful poetry.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Drug use, Racism, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Death, Colonisation, Homophobia, Grief, and War

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Cancer, Car accident, Medical content, Racism, Death, Hate crime, Grief, Suicide, Animal death, and War

Moderate: Gore, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, and Pedophilia

akswhy's review against another edition

challenging sad medium-paced

2.5

Touching, but disjointed.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Homophobia

issyd23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

4.0

Beautiful, moving, heartbreaking: ‘Time is a motherfucker’. 

Highlights include: Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker. 

‘In my language, the one I recall now only by closing my eyes, the word for love is Yêu.

And the word for weakness is Yếu.’ 4⏳

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Racism, Violence, Cancer, War, Classism, Death of parent, Homophobia, Medical content, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Death

booksbeyondthebinary's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Moderate: Racism

soswiin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

2.5

still was just reading words on a page but had to stop and think about "because everyone knows yellow pain, pressed into american letters, turns into gold."

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Homophobia, Violence, and War