Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

18 reviews

violetbentbackwards1036's review against another edition

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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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grcompain's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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

4.0

Vuong’s story is as deep and captivating as his writing style. This was a beautiful and heartbreaking story that keeps you down allowing you to come up for only brief and humorous pockets of air. This story was real and vivid. The writing was very poetic and the imagery provided, drops the reader right into the scene in the best and worst ways. I personally disliked the amount of the gruesome and gory details (animal abuse and body horror) which of course added emotional value but also distracted from the rest of the page. I found my mind stuck on horrible images long after turning the page. This book is beautiful and fearlessly describes the gorgeous, and the terrible. 

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montyalmoro's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25


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aprilinao's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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? No

5.0

This book is so beautifully written, and as a queer person raised in a Viet immigrant family, it was a very emotional read. I would love to read it again and again. I hosted a book club through my campus library on this book, and it was difficult to narrow down discussion questions: A high number of lines are filled with meaning, and the book is told in unconventional manners. We could have made the meeting so much longer and would have loved every second of it. 

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dakotahreads's review

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challenging 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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imrereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

I get why people love this book so much. Vuong writes beautifully and emotionally. Yet, I struggled. This was my third attempt reading, and I decided to l give it a last chance because the audio book was narrated by the author. It definitely helped me to listen to hos voice. It helped me "get it" more. Still, I did struggle with it even so. I think it's the jumbled timeline that get pulling me out when I got really absorbed. Still, a good book and I'm glad I got through it in the end. 

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laurenkimoto's review against another edition

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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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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

2.5


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___puddin's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Humbling and harrowing. Utter acceptance at its most impactful. 

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blueberryhotel's review against another edition

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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

gorgeous gorgeous book. it felt like reading a novel-length poem, which i loved. i think i could spend years picking apart each sentence and passage and weaving together all the meanings and symbolism and still not cover everything. so unique and captivating and heartbreaking - this book made me cry and i rarely cry while reading.

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