Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

59 reviews

higherwvrlvck's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Language, which is beautiful and should be celebrated, can be something shameful for immigrants in America. Besides maybe their appearance, their mother tongue is what singles them out from all the rest. Little Dog's mother says "You're already Vietnamese" as a warning to her son. He must try as much as he can to stay invisible in order to stay alive. 

This novel was heartbreaking. Although the primary story was about the main character, Little Dog, his mother, Rose, and his grandmother, Lan, it was also about his friend and lover, Trevor, his grandfather, Paul, and the character of the town Hartford, Connecticut and all those people it contained.

I read this book in about three to four days. Once I began, I could not stop. Vuong's language is captivating for both its beauty and relentlessness. Ocean Vuong puts on display the pain and the joy of having an immigrant mother who suffered through the Vietnamese War and domestic abuse. Vuong examines different standards of sexuality and masculinity in Little Dog and Trevor. He expresses resistance, his anger in words but continually recognizes language's failure to fully capture everything we want to say.

Stories by people of color tend to have this expectation of the characters of color be heroes, pick themselves up by the bootstraps, fight back, and achieve success, but Vuong simply tells it the way it is. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous depicts Asian American life from an Asian American voice. This should be enough. Bodies of color are not just faces for a movement, but lives worthy of being documented in Literature. Ocean Vuong does just this. 

There are many, many topics of discussion in this novel. Depending on the emotional maturity of students, I think this would be a wonderful book to use in a high school world literature class and of course could be used in college curricula. I have heard many teachers argue that we don't read as many works by people of color because of time and lack of literary achievement, but Ocean Vuong has done both in this debut novel. I will forever cherish this story, and I can't wait to come back to it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Drug abuse, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Homophobia, Xenophobia, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Abortion, Excrement, Miscarriage, Vomit, Bullying, and Alcohol

josie9's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.75

Absolutely speechless, Vuong’s writing is truely ingenious, authentic and so freaking devastating 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, War, and Bullying

jmcampbell57's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Animal death

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Excrement, and Racism

Minor: War and Vomit

anotheranomaly_'s review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and War

jojo_'s review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, Cursing, Excrement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

anyname's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, and Abortion

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Drug use, and War

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Vomit

ethab's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and War

Moderate: Blood and Vomit

Minor: Cancer

sadiefc's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, War, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Vomit, and Transphobia

starlit_pathways's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Racism, Homophobia, Grief, Drug use, Drug abuse, War, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Hate crime, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Abortion

bookswithisabel's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I really expected to love this one but I just could not get into the writing style at all. Maybe part of it was that I listened to the audiobook rather than reading the physical copy. I can fully recognize that Vuong has a lot of talent though and I’d love to read some of his poetry someday!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cancer and Physical abuse

Minor: Car accident, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Vomit