Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

348 reviews

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

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

Moderate: Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Medical content, 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: War, Violence, Addiction, Grief, Cancer, Racism, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Death

Moderate: Abortion and Homophobia

Minor: Car accident and Animal death

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

chelly_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Child abuse, Death, Animal death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Animal cruelty

solitary's review against another edition

4.5

i think ocean vuong can make even a cooking instruction on how to make ramen poetic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Death, and Bullying

Minor: Cancer

jesshastea's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Cancer and Drug use

Minor: Physical abuse and Excrement

elanuruysal's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cancer, Addiction, and Car accident

natafiguu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

such an amazing read. touches topics like masculinity, internalized and external homophobia, racism, death, it's just an amazing book and you should definitely read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Abortion, War, Animal death, Cancer, Violence, Sexual content, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Racism, and Drug use

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Deportation and Pregnancy

gillian_aftanas's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Abortion, Bullying, Cancer, Grief, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Mental illness, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, War, Homophobia, Death, and Sexual content