raissasreads's reviews
249 reviews

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

fav poems:
1) amazon history of a former nail salon worker
2) reasons for staying
3) nothing
4) no one knows the way to heaven
5) dear sara

another reviewer mentioned that some of these poems drop you into personal events with no context, and i agree. there are a few poems that are muddied, jumping between multiple ideas too much to read easily. however, even in ones that were difficult to parse the meaning of, or used structure that felt like it hindered rather than added to the piece, vuong's prose is gorgeous. i especially loved pieces that had a clear reader /addressee or central theme.

some fav quotes:
"because when a man & a man make love, they make only love. there's enough for you, but not enough for you."
"because everyone knows yellow pain, pressed into american letters, turns to gold."
"i was lifted, wet and bloody, out of my mother, into the world, screaming and enough."
"that you can blow a man & your voice speaks through his voice, Like jonah through the whale."
"the words i've yet to use"
& "because this body is my last address."

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

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dark emotional inspiring slow-paced