Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

54 reviews

decie's review against another edition

I need to reread before reviewing because I started listening to the audiobook when i was already in grief mode, started sobbing after like two poems, and missed most of the rest. but it was an excellent soundtrack for that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Death

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

The hype around Ocean Vuong's poetry is well-earned. I recommend reading these poems aloud.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, and War

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Violence

Minor: Car accident

clemrain's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

Vuong is a complex writer. This collection has some strong poems. Many of them require revisits from the reader.

I really enjoyed ‘the bull’ and ‘now theory’. Simple, punching lines that were accessible reads. 

It’s funny, his novel read like poetry and I though reading his poems would be such a treat. So I was quick to pick up his poetry collection. But, the strongest pieces in his poetry collection were the paragraphs of poetry that read like flash fiction. I think he’s a great writer, and that he needs to find the balance between his story telling and purple prose.

His poems aren’t completely relatable to me, and his themes can be a bit repetitive. I think you can only talk about the same idea so many times. Vuong does a good job at bringing a new structure to his ideas, but the story is just the same. This isn’t bad, but it did take me out of his work. It’s already a taxing read because of its theme and complexities, so I wish the collection removed some redundancy.

Overall, a good read. I will be looking back at it. I’m also looking forward to reading his other poetry collection. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Grief

divyareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Grief

m4rtt4's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

Beautiful.

Nothing negative to say, but obviously not every poem can hit the same. My favourite ones were Dear Peter, The Punctum and Not Even — a million stars for those.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Racism, Death, Death of parent, and Cancer

Minor: Violence, Medical content, and War

locke_reads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Car accident, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, Medical content, and War

emory's review against another edition

reflective sad

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Racism, Suicide, Addiction, Bullying, Death, Car accident, Cursing, Cancer, Drug use, and War

ejanephillips's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Bullying, Cursing, and Homophobia

alyssajp's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Moderate: Physical abuse