A review by terhangus
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

4.0

i finished this book just before i saw ocean's post that his mother lost her battle with cancer. im thankful i was able to exist in the same time with the 2 of them. this book was honestly really beautiful,& i rlly do applaud ocean's way of blurring the line between prose / poetry / nonfiction. the southeast asian rep here is... amazing. & maybe its asian fiction but the r/l btwn family is always complex as hell & it uust felt really real.

i honestly get though, why some critics criticize the prose in this book, saying it is v. purple prose, because sometimes it does take me out of the story and makes me think of poetry instead. but maybe that is the point!