Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

52 reviews

tessa52's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Homophobia, Dementia, Excrement, Racism, Car accident, Alcoholism, Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Death, Animal cruelty, and War

roseblossom999's review against another edition

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Bullying, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Death, Terminal illness, Drug use, Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Mental illness

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

spookyaz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Racism, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Dementia, Excrement, Homophobia, Violence, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

pastlifetragedy's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal death, Death of parent, Abortion, Death, Drug use, Addiction, Cursing, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Confinement, Classism, Excrement, Dementia, Cancer, Blood, and Vomit

nadiadhansen's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.5

this is a beautifully written, very lyrical and deeply sad and at times very touching autobigrafical fiction...

and i really wanted to like it a lot more - it has all the things i usually love, queer themes, minority perspectives, genre pushing.. but i have to admit the tangents were confusing to me a lot of the times, and i dont usually have a hard time following stories. i've seen other people write that they missed a narrative they could 'follow', a more gathered story, so you could know where you were going and i feel that too.

that being said i didnt dislike this book, i would probably still recommend it to people who i knew enjoyed lyrical writing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

notapollosdaphne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Grief, Racism, Bullying, and Dementia

Moderate: Racism, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Addiction

caroisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

I almost gave up on this book 70 pages in. The writing felt too decorative for me, like a really, really long poem. Then I saw that Ocean is a poet, and it started to make sense. Something changed in the pages after that, as I got used to his cadence and by the end, craved it. It's a difficult story, triggering, somber, a dry landscape. But the beauty really is in the poetry of every description, half sentences, fragments, trains of thought. This was a long read, because of how much meaning there was to absorb in every sentence.

I'm glad I didn't give up on this. I'll keep thinking about this memoir forever.

You'll like this is you appreciate memoirs, are in a mentally good place with darker content in real-life context, Asian American stories, LGBTQIA+ perspectives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Gun violence, Cancer, Physical abuse, Racism, and Transphobia

pastelmeganes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

Ocean Vuong is a brilliant poet and you can see it in his writing. There are so many good quotes from this book and his perspective and reflection on his Vietnamese identity and how that intersects with his status as a first generation child of a poor single mother as well as his struggles with his sexuality are conveyed with such thought provoking idioms, metaphors and similes that it requires you to try and encapsulate the true feelings he is trying to convey to his mother. He paints such vivid images with his mastery of the english language. His work envoked many emotions within me that i never reflected on. I would adore reading another book by him; I know he writes poems mainly but his work here was just so breathtaking and tantalizing and left me craving either another memoire in the future about his life again OR a work of fiction. This book was so simple gorgeous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Drug use, Cursing, Racism, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Bullying, Dementia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Genocide

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