Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

45 reviews

maxthebeetlesheep's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

A stunning book that i knew i would rate 5 stars from the very first chapter. absolutely captivating and such an important read. if i could only choose one book to read this year, it would be this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Grief, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Blood, Cancer, and Sexual content

Moderate: Car accident, Classism, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Medical content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Abortion, and Violence

Minor: Religious bigotry, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

chrisljm's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Ocean Vuong writes so beautifully and so poetically. I felt I was able to enjoy this book because I saw it less as a novel and more as a poetic memoir in the form of vignettes, which he uses to narrate his experiences growing up as a child in the United States as a Vietnamese immigrant post-Vietnam war to a parent with PTSD. Vuong's writing is so vividly melancholic and haunting, and these feelings follow even during the soft vulnerability of his childhood and youth. There's so much introspection but also a stillness as if no matter how far time and space takes you, you will always be haunted by this current time, place, and feeling. 

I want to include one of my favorite quotes from the book: "I know you believe in reincarnation. I don’t know if I do but I hope it’s real. Because then maybe you’ll come back here next time around. Maybe you’ll be a girl and maybe your name will be Rose again, and you’ll have a room full of books with parents who will read you bedtime stories in a country not touched by war. Maybe then, in that life and in this future, you’ll find this book and you’ll know what happened to us. And you’ll remember me. Maybe." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, War, Homophobia, Abortion, Drug use, Bullying, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Cancer, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

arainey's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Racism, Racial slurs, Grief, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Death, Cancer, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Addiction, Physical abuse, Abortion, War, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Violence

Minor: Car accident and Dementia

violetbentbackwards1036's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Addiction, Hate crime, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Gore, Abandonment, Abortion, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, War, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

marena02's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide, Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Deportation, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Vomit, Child abuse, Cursing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Addiction, Medical content, Physical abuse, Animal death, Bullying, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Violence, Death of parent, and War

earthsigil's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Abortion, Drug abuse, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Racism, War, and Homophobia

Minor: Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Transphobia

readwithev's review

emotional inspiring 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

Vuong is amazing as expected. I read Night Sky with Exit Wounds and I’m not disappointed with this. It’s not only a love letter to his childhood in Hartford CT, but to his family. It’s a search for identity, a reckoning with the past, finding joy even in fleeting things, and all of life in between. I cried and smiled but was also left so stunned. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is poetic, thoughtful, empathetic, reflective, but also full of rage, grief, and yearning.
We watch Little Dog fall in love, watch him be bullied, but also grow into himself, like skin that he would grow into. It’s beautiful and I cannot recommend enough!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Misogyny, War, Sexual content, Racism, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death, Abortion, Drug abuse, Death, and Bullying

hoiyan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

5.0

“You’re a mother, Ma. You’re also a monster. But so am I—which is why I can’t turn away from you. Which is why I have taken god’s loneliest creation and put you inside it.”

okay. deep breaths everyone (talking to myself).

i don't even know where or how to begin this review/complete emotional word barf because i think this novel just changed something in me.

the whole thing is just gorgeous and poetic prose that just slams into your brain over and over again. this is definitely not an easy read—with both heavy, HEAVY content and dense narratives that may take a couple read-throughs to digest.

"Our mother tongue, then, is no mother at all—but an orphan. Our Vietnamese a time capsule, a mark of where your education ended, ashed.”

touching on themes and conflicts of diaspora, culture and how it intersects with queerness, masculinity, and what it means to grow up with all odds against you, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is, probably, a perfect depiction of the common migrant/first-gen experience. it took me a while to finish this book. it physically hurt me to continue reading after i've read one section that hit a LITTTTTLE too close to home. i've never read a book that captured experiences i thought were unique to me before. having these familiar thoughts and experiences articulated and weaved so nicely within these pages was definitely an amazing feeling. i've never felt less alone than when vuong described his complicated relationship with his mother, or how someone, namely your own mother, can both love you unconditionally yet completely despise you.

i noticed other reviews criticizing the language in the book saying that it was unnecessary to the storytelling, but honestly, i loved it. Vuong mentions repeatedly how English was his weapon—it became a tool in which was used to culturally assimilate into a world that will always see him as an outsider. and that HURT me. he's telling his story in the language that he can. it's ... a really specific experience, i think. incredibly hard to articulate into words that would make sense for anyone who has never had that experience. i think his prose was absolutely necessary in driving home that idea at the beginning of his orphaned Vietnamese. it's ironic, almost, how one's mother tongue can gradually dissolve into close to nothing. a fair sacrifice made to survive in this cruel world, no?

“Sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you’ve been ruined.”

it took me a good while to adjust to the pace and formatting. Vuong jumps between timelines often, and is a bit unconventional. HOWEVER! i do like his choice of these abrupt switches. it resembles how one would reencounter memories and ghosts of the past, and it really help me immerse myself in all the narratives Vuong laid out, whether it be when he was 6, 14, 20.

a lot of internal monologues and thoughts were braided into the rich prose, which made me think "wow, this guy really is a great poet." it's done pretty effortlessly, and i noticed Vuong tends to leave section conclusions open-ended, either with a (seemingly) passing thought, or a vague statement. over time, it could be a bit frustrating to not have a clear answer, but does anyone have an answer anyway? is there even an answer to these happenings in life?

“Afterward, lying next to me with his face turned away, he cried skillfully in the dark. The way boys do.”

i really, really appreciated Vuong's complete honesty here. it helped to match the current speaker (the different ages) to the scene. i think it helped to emphasize that, yes, that is a young boy experiencing these things, and not a young boy's thought process through the mind of an adult, if you know what i mean. 

grief in three different ways was shown pretty perfectly. 1. grief with never having your mother's unconditional acceptance. 2. the grief that comes with being a queer man

and losing the one who was supposed to be beside you for just a little while longer

. 3. grief with a grandparent that raised you through stories. and god, did all of them hurt deeply.

this novel also got me thinking just how differently a mother-son and mother-daughter relationship can be. i think i'm feeling an additional grief after that realization.

“Maybe in the next life we’ll meet each other for the first time—believing in everything but the harm we’re capable of.”

above is probably my favourite quote (of many great ones) in the entire novel. this was a difficult, but amazing read. this is a story of "what could've been," of "what if," and makes you think what little is left of that little boy's naivety and hope for a world free of hate, violence, and bloodshed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Alcohol, Grief, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Racial slurs

Minor: Transphobia

i do want to make a warning note of multiple explicit sexual scenes between two teenage boys

ellornaslibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

It hurts, but the writing is so beautiful. . .

And when I've had time to process this raw, emotional, beautiful read a little more I'll add to this review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Violence, Grief, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Abortion, Alcohol, Homophobia, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, War, Physical abuse, Dementia, Death, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Bullying, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

roouija's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Pregnancy, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, War, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Homophobia