delaneyanae 's review for:

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
4.0

Ocean Vuong is hands down my favorite poet. His writing is just so beautiful and full of feeling, and this book had a lot of that. The language alone makes it worth reading. Some lines literally made me stop and go "wow" and sit with them for a minute.

But I gotta be honest, the story lost me a bit in the middle. I liked the beginning and the end, but some parts felt kind of all over the place. The plot didn’t always feel clear or grounded, and I kept waiting for it to come together more than it did.

Still, I’m really glad this book exists. Even when I wasn’t sure where the story was going, the writing pulled me back in. If you love Vuong’s voice and how he captures emotion, it’s worth reading.