Reviews tagging 'Death'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

743 reviews

bronade's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, and Addiction

fionystory's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Sexual content, Homophobia, War, Death, and Drug abuse

sierrajhansen'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? Yes

2.5

i don't think i chose to read this book at a time where i would be more receptive to it (i have enough stress in my life without reading about super dark topics), but i still generally don't click with books where i'm at a low-to-medium level of confusion the entire time. i can tell the writing is beautiful, but it feels really inaccessible (which makes sense because ocean vuong's poetry generally feels the same way to me). 

and why did we keep breaking the fourth wall to talk about tiger woods???

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Murder, Violence, Animal cruelty, War, Death, and Animal death

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

elisegmusic's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This novel was absolutely stunning. Told in the format of a letter written from a son to a mother, it weaves through time, meandering through the boy’s past and present and roaming through the time before he was born through the stories told by his mother and grandmother. 

 

All the characters are lovable, though flawed, with filled out backstories and motivations - A boy growing up trying to find his identity. A mother who moves to America but cannot speak English. A grandmother with schizophrenia who isn’t quite sure where she is in the present, but tells beautiful, spiraling stories about the past. 

 

This book is poetic, but accessible, and it could easily be read in one day if you have the time. This is definitely a story I will be recommending time and time again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Abortion, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Minor: Domestic abuse, Death, and Cancer

lauralfp's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.5

I know a lot of people absolutely adore this book. And it’s not that I disliked it — 3.5/5 is a 70% rating, after all — it just didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. 

Written as a letter from the son of a Vietnamese immigrant to a mother who cannot read, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous covers a lot of emotional themes in its 240 short pages, from family and generational trauma, to war, to personal identity and the human experience. 

Vuong is first and foremost a poet. This definitely comes across in his prose, and despite my final rating there were many beautiful individual quotes that I picked out and saved. However, this writing style (I saw a TikTok reviewer describe it as “1000 slam poetry entries disguised as a novel” 🤣) meant that the narrative often jumped around and I struggled to connect with the characters and their stories as a result. 

Undoubtedly an important and poignant read and I'm glad I added it to my repertoire, it just didn’t quite live up to the very high expectations I had set for it (which is probably more of a me problem!) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse

jayg's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Death, Homophobia, Alcohol, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Drug abuse, Racism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

nepheloma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

I expected that this book would shake me very much, but not this much. There is a very gently violent honesty coming with it. The story format, which is not exactly linear but mostly from the perspective of someone floating over the writer's life, serves this book very much, making it not so much a memoir of events but moreso of feelings. It feels like when you're riding the train, gazing out of the window and get an orderly disorganized recollection of your life flooding through your brain. Very sensitive topics are treated with a very kind perspective, that of a kid who has been hurt by the world they live in, yet choose to try to understand where the hurt comes from. 
This book was definitely gorgeous, more than briefly because of my bad reading habits.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, War, Drug use, Sexual violence, and Death

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

misuki's review against another edition

emotional informative 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Drug use, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Mental illness and Sexual violence