Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

53 reviews

readingpicnic's review

3.0

The Amazon history chapter broke me and had me crying in the bathroom. Ocean’s narration is excellent as always, although a lot of the poetry just didn’t hook me like I expected it to. 
My favorite lines: “Do you know how many hours I’ve wasted watching straight boys play video games? Enough.” Highly relatable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, and War

draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

5.0

I usually don't date non fiction/poetry, but I really loved this. I think I just related to some aspects of it, and a lot of lines really jumped out at me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and War

Moderate: Cancer and Racism

Minor: Homophobia and Car accident

ckingcolorado's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

I thought this might be too out-there for me, but I actually really enjoyed it. There is an unexpected, jumbled quality to many of the poems that made me chuckle, despite the heavy subject matters. There is a narrative woven into the seemingly unrelated lines. No one I have ever read uses words quite like Ocean Vuong. Striking, dark, hilarious, beautiful. Worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Racism, Car accident, and War

Minor: Sexual content

isadora_in_the_stars's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Sexual content

butlerebecca's review

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

Ocean Vuong is so special

Poems I liked
- Beautiful Short Loser
- Dear Sara
- American Legend
- The Last Dinosaur
- Not Even
- Nothing
- No One Knows the Way to Heaven
- Almost Human
- Dear Rose

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and War

emmareeser's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Grief

Moderate: Addiction and Cancer

nineinchnails's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

i don't usually read poetry so i think a lot of these went over my head. i didn't really connect to or understand much of the poems in the first half of this collection which was a little disappointing because i've heard such good things about vuong's work. there were more than a few poems in the second half that managed to grip me though. 

'Künstlerroman' was my favourite here. if i'm remembering correctly it was the longest poem, which might be why i managed to connect to it more. it was gutting and felt very raw. a shorter poem i really enjoyed was 'Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker'. i don't think i've ever had a list poem make me tear up like that. vuong is no doubt a talented poet but i think the formatting and structure of most of these poems just didn't work for me - that's not to say that they'll never work for me, but as it stands i don't read much poetry so i much preferred the longer poems in this collection.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, Terminal illness, Car accident, and War

Minor: Suicide and Police brutality

calcijade's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Suicide, Grief, and Death of parent

robinks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Similar to Night Sky with Exit Wounds, the run on sentences made some poems really hard for me to follow. Overall, however, I felt the impact of these poems, their imagery and select phrases.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, War, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, and Alcohol

mirandyli's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

4.25

Exquisitely beautiful poetry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War