Reviews - The Emperor of Gladness

2.2k reviews for:

The Emperor of Gladness

Ocean Vuong

4.26 AVERAGE

itsvegatimeee's review against another edition

4.0

4.5

As usual, Ocean Vuong builds a world poetically. Such a mundane setting, but built in a way that’s so deeply human and shows the raw experience of a simple but complicated life.

vicckh's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

ceegrim's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

dogpound's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This worked really well as an audiobook. More than once I had laugh out loud moments. Some of it is absurd yet believable.

fryguy88's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective sad 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

It’s certainly interesting as a coming of age tale, and exploring how shared experiences and realities define a part of our purpose as people. Despite actively trying to not compare this to On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, I can’t help but feel the divide in the beauty of each of these. Ocean seems to have an incredible capacity to explore a rich internal experience so deeply, and seems to have done a great job with exploring the experiences of a larger cast of characters but it just hits different. Both are notable reads. One is extra ordinary. And this is great but not that. I cared about the characters which will always be my most important metric.

sametzger's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A lot going on between the wide cast of characters and the several subplots. I found it really hard to get into and couldn’t quite trace how the different layers were supposed to mesh. The constant lying to his mom also threw me off. Vuong’s excellent prose was the book’s saving grace.