abidoodle 's review for:

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
3.0
emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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: Yes
This is a solid book, though I struggled to get through it at times. I think the characters are lovely, and I even laughed out loud during certain parts. And I found some of the implicit reflections on life and different aspects of it quite profound. But I think what I struggled most with it was the narration - I couldn’t tell if it was Hai’s third person narration or an omniscient third, or if it was switching between the two, and sometimes I didn’t like how the narration was sometimes poetic just for the sake of it, when it didn’t always have to be. Overall the writing was beautiful, but I felt sometimes it was that way just to be that way but it actually took away from the flow of the story instead of adding to it. Again, overall a really beautiful and profound story with such individual and unique characters with stories I will probably continue to think about. 
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