A review by lenareadsstuff
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

If we make it to shore, he says, I will name our son after this water. I will learn to love a monster.

Vuong has such a way with words, it never ceases to amaze me. The poems of this collection feel both sensual and violent which gives them a certain rawness. I read this after Time Is A Mother and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, so it was really fascinating to read this through the lense of his more recent works – themes of identity, war, and family are already strongly present here. It's a wonderful debut collection that I'll keep thinking about for sure (especially Immigrant Haibun from which the quote above is from).