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

emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.25

masterful!!!! so so detailed and the pictures he paints are incredible. incredibly vibes based to the point where 1 paragraph could jump to 3 different years and all be in present tense. sometimes it worked and sometimes it didnt

the strongest parts were the character based excerpts. from mom, to lan, to trevor, they were all thorough, complicated character studies that i devoured. i especially loved the trevor parts of course . will be rereading many of those excerpts they were SO beautiful and vulnerable. that being said i think the weakest parts are the stream of consciousness writings

esp the many pages after trevor dies. voungs style is so free flowing that i get lost in his paragraph’s sometimes.

his concrete scene based writing is strong and his wonderful voice compliments it well. you can tell he loves writing in the clouds also, and while that works in poetry, the headspacy excerpts did not always work in novel format. i relate to this 100% as a poet trying to fit their voice into paragraphs. 

obv gave me so much insight about the vietnam war which was very interesting and tragic. would love to read more abt it