Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

159 reviews

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

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

thesoftestcowboy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Death, Grief, Drug abuse, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Racism, Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Cancer, and Animal death

Minor: Abortion, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Bullying, Misogyny, Mental illness, Sexism, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Drug use, and Addiction

whimpix's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Death, Grief, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Moderate: Excrement, Sexual violence, Racism, Toxic relationship, War, and Homophobia

grcompain's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Blood, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Abortion, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Racism

lucyatoz's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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

5.0

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is Ocean Vuong's debut novel, however it reads more like poetry or prose albeit one that runs to 242 pages. A long letter from son, Little Dog, to his mother with a really moving account of the family's relocation from war torn Vietnam in the mid 1970's ending up in the  US state of Connecticut.  Little Dog is trying to figure out who he is as a half Vietnamese and half American person, having a difficult childhood, experiencing discrimination and prejudice for the way he looks and discovering and exploring his sexuality as a gay man and grieving the death of his grandmother.  

I appreciated the intertwining of the life stories of grandmother, mother and son and the wonderful writing style of the author although at times it does makes a story harder to follow. It is a beautiful first novel which tackles some difficult themes with grace, that is deeply moving whilst also being incredibly hard hitting.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Excrement

Minor: Cursing

mariavdl's review against another edition

emotional sad

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Excrement, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Addiction

Moderate: Vomit and Homophobia

luliloveslulo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective tense 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

The tone of this book is so poetic, it can guide you to flow through even the most difficult passages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Blood, Child abuse, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Bullying, and Death

Moderate: Abandonment, War, and Excrement

hsitbeenworthit's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Bullying, Car accident, Gun violence, Blood, Cancer, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Excrement

sarasreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Stunning and unflinching. I know this almost connected stream of consciousness writing might not appeal to everyone, but wow did it work for me. The way each short chapter bobs and weaves several ideas, or even completely disparate things, together was masterful. And the quality of the writing, the turns of phrase, it was all incredible. I'm not going to forget unicorns stamping in a graveyard for a long time. 

I didn't know much of what this was about before picking it up, only that it was beautifully written, but reader beware. Read the trigger warnings as there are many and some passages were hard to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Excrement, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion, Cancer, War, and Sexual violence