Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

52 reviews

fengxin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Car accident, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Animal death

m4rtt4's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

Beautiful.

Nothing negative to say, but obviously not every poem can hit the same. My favourite ones were Dear Peter, The Punctum and Not Even — a million stars for those.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Racism, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Violence, Medical content, and War

kers_tin's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Gun violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Addiction

earlydecember's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Xenophobia, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault

growintogardens's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, Sexual content, and Violence

locke_reads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Suicide, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

emory's review against another edition

reflective sad

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Racism, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and War

kia_y_k's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Cursing, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

courtneyfalling's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

It feels strange and sad to rate this collection noticeably lower than I rated Night Sky With Exit Wounds years ago or On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous earlier this year, mostly because I can't stop thinking about the interviews with Ocean Vuong where he calls this his proudest book, the one that feels most like him. I'm glad that's true, procedurally and theoretically I love that, but this feels a lot more narrative and plainly descriptive than what I usually love in his other writing, which is his capacity for unusual, imaginative metaphor that totally upends how I think of something and guts into the emotional heart of it. A lot of the poems fell really flat and ultimately felt unmemorable, here, to me. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, and War

krys_kilz's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

This collection was incredibly moving and several of the poems brought me to tears, especially the poem Nothing. I liked this collection better than his first, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, but it's similar in the way he plays with language, emotion and form. It's definitely a collection I plan to return to.

My favorite poems in the collection were: The Bull, Dear Peter, Beautiful Short Loser, American Legend, Not Even, Nothing and Ars Poetica as the Maker.

"I'm not sad, he told me once, laughing, I'm just always here."

"I know. I know the room you've been crying in is called America.
I know the door is not invented yet."

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, and War

Minor: Suicide