Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

In Sum: Beautiful writing, some significant style issues I can’t get over, and a slew of trigger warnings at the bottom of this review.

The writing is absolutely beautiful and poetic. Striking language is used and really deep themes are explored. Among the themes explored are: race, being gay, drug use and abuse, mental health, death, love. The perspective is equally interesting and nuanced.

However, I had significant issues with the overall writing style. The “pop culture” references were a lot of the time out of nowhere and fell flat for me. I call them “pop culture” in quotations because they are really more references to people and things we all know of in some way, like Tiger Woods. But there are also references and commonly known research into the despicable practices of pharmaceutical companies in marketing and pushing opioids. These factual tidbits fell flat. They seemed out of place even though they were concerned with the story being told.

The book is written as a letter from son to mother. I just don’t see telling my mother stories she told me and events she and I lived through in an extended letter. Nor do I really see ever telling my mother about my first boyfriend or the first time I had sex with a guy or since then. But the author does do that, though he admits his mother will likely never read this.

Parts one and two were good and kept my interest - though the more experimental and poetic stanza-type sections in part two felt gimmicky and didn’t fit or work for me. Part three is where I lost interest and grew impatient with the style and the story. It felt as though the story stalled.

My biggest issue, which is incorporated in the above issues, is that the story being told had no real plot, no real character study with how disjointed and erratic the pacing and topics could be, and felt empty. For example, his mother and grandmother both have (it seems completely untreated) PTSD that pops up several times in parts one and two, then disappears (more or less) as if they never had those issues and visions.

I’m glad I read it for its beautiful language at parts and it’s perspective, but I didn’t like the style and flow. It just wasn’t for me, despite a lot of the contents being interesting.

TW: Death, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Underage Sex, Abuse, Racism, Graphic Animal Death/Abuse

Content Warnings

ladysanctuary's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-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

4.0

Content Warnings

atsundarsingh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

I didn't know what to expect of a poet's first novel, but this is so lyrically written it hurts even when it's good. I love the epistolary format, and even more so because it's written to someone who may never read it. I was also really taken by the way Vuong writes about loving a parent who is violent but whose violence is understandable in a sense, since it comes from a series of overlapping traumas and still being angry or helpless with that parent. Really moving and bold novel, with some hard to read content.

Content Warnings

bencaroline's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

teamoxfordcomma's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

It has to be said that Ocean Voung is one of the greatest wordsmiths of our present moment.

Read his poetry, this book, really anything he's had his fingers on, and you'll see. What he writes is pure literary and poetic gold. This novel (which is semi-autobiographical) is the exact same way.

I knocked it off a star because this took me a long time to get through... Sort of put me into a little bit of a slump. Not because it wasn't good, but because this is very much a character study. The events of the story (which I would argue are not arranged in a way in which you could call a plot) do not matter half as much as the images Little Dog uses to tell his mother about his experiences, and though those images are beautiful and jam-packed with meaning and gorgeous literary technique, it definitely made for a slow reading experience.

I love this novel for what it is – an impossibility – and I eagerly await more Voung books/collections/anything so I can once again gorge on his words.

Content Warnings

orchidd's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

mandkips's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

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