Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

18 reviews

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

frostjem's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

Incredible writing and an incredible concept of writing to his mother who cannot read it. Some difficult and challenging themes meant I often had to take breaks reading this. Vuong has a way of describing deep, difficult and strong emotions in such a beautiful way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

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

gabriella_'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

4.0

His prose is beautiful and reads like poetry, it is recommended to read this before Night Sky with Exit Wounds, it adds so much more context to that read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Homophobia, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Medical content, Drug use, Addiction, Bullying, War, Violence, Sexual content, Grief, Abortion, Xenophobia, Racism, Terminal illness, Sexism, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Dementia, Death, Cursing, and Classism

emoweaboo's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

this made me cry like a baby on a plane next to confused strangers

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Death, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Physical abuse

_forestofpages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

 This started out so great and then lost me toward the end. I was skimming and the only reason I can think of why is because it stopped making sense. There was a lot of construction at the start, when he was a child, it was focused and moving forward with smaller vignette stories about his mother and grandmother which were great and relevant. Then he started talking about animal abuse and things got very abstract with two boys singing a choir song over a bloody child in the woods. I didn’t understand most of those parts. 

There was more of that near the end with pages and pages of singular lines that read like shower thoughts instead of letters to his mother. Also if he’s writing letters to his mother why would he write her about extremely sexually explicit times with a closeted boy? To each their own, but I doubt his mother would have wanted to read that even if she could, especially considering her homophobia. Good for him for opening up so deeply and allowing strangers to see the most vulnerable cracks like that, but to specifically tailor that for your mother seems strange to me. I kept feeling, especially toward the end as though it should have been a poetry collection not a novel. The early parts felt more like an essay collection, or a literary novel (it tittered between the two often) but toward the end it really lost it’s sense of direction. I just felt disjointed reading it, especially that last 3rd of the book. I do love Ocean Vuong's prose and will be picking up his poetry collections in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Addiction, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abortion, Sexual violence, Death, and Racism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

sahar18's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, Death, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, War, Child abuse, Drug use, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

sakura_m's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

3.5

Stream of consciousness writing often feels too tangential for me, but Vuong has a certain command of the langauge that kept you immersed in the poignant reminiscing of the narrator. Reading this felt dazzlingly disorienting, like a dream where you float through various scenes that are loosely stitched together.

3.5 rating rather than 4 because tw: a lot of trauma and various kinds of abuse, including animal abuse

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I don’t really read poetry but I have now put Vuong’s works on hold at the library. The writing of this is incredibly lyrical almost dreamlike (or nightmare?). 
I also don’t annotate books but I want a physical copy of this book to annotate because there are so many wonderful lines and quotes and more

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Cancer, Drug abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Vomit, Abandonment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Animal death

a_alves00's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, War, Cancer, and Bullying