Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

110 reviews

eib_21's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia, Violence, War, Death of parent, Medical content, and Drug abuse

readbycarina's review

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, War, Child abuse, Death, Addiction, Physical abuse, Homophobia, and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Transphobia, Gun violence, Pregnancy, and Racism

Minor: Abortion and Abandonment

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Ocean Vuong uses the English language in a more lyrical way that pretty much any other writer I can think of. His prose in this book is just as gorgeous as his poetry that I've read, and the way he connects concepts and images is breathtaking and heartbreaking by turns. 

The use of the second person was striking and affecting. The novel is written as a letter from Little Dog to his mother, Rose, but the overall effect is basically a dual narrator situation. It works beautifully. 

The content is difficult. I knew it would be. It's very much a mommy issues book, which is what I expected from Vuong based on his poetry collections. 

It would be wrong to say that I enjoyed this. I didn't. I appreciate Vuong's craft. I was deeply moved by many aspects of the story. I was triggered and brought to tears. I thought a lot about family and identity. But it's not an enjoyable book. It's deeply harrowing.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is also autobiographical enough that I would feel weird about giving it a star rating, so I'm simply not going to at this time. 

NOTE: This book does contain sexual scenes between teenagers. These scenes are not written for the titillation of readers and are instead in service to the characters' development, but I still think it's wise to warn readers of this going in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Xenophobia, Addiction, Death of parent, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, War, Racism, Death, Grief, and Cancer

I'm sure there are a lot of other content warnings that I'm missing, so please proceed with caution and care.

raelong12's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Animal death, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Car accident, Classism, Addiction, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Racism, Cursing, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, and War

adawada's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal death, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Sexual content, and War

Moderate: Abandonment, Racism, Confinement, Racial slurs, Cursing, Addiction, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/injury detail

sofipitch's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

Beautiful, this book reads like poetry. Extremely introspective, it somehow gives a limited view into a life but every memory seems tinged with meaning. It's hard to sum this book up and I read somewhere that there is a movie planned and idk how that will work out bc this book exist mainly in it's prose

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, War, Bullying, Drug abuse, and Homophobia

Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, and Racism

ardentlyelle's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Mental illness, Addiction, Drug use, War, Violence, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Racism

solybugs's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

This book... God, this book, where do I even begin? It was an emotional and heartfelt rollercoaster, full of beautiful writing and thought-provoking metaphors. The author's poetry background comes to life in this novel, making every sentence packed with some kind of hidden message. This book does take some unexpected turns and strange offchutes in the narrative. While they were extremely important to the overall story and did make sense in the bigger picture, while reading them at the moment, it felt uncomfortable at times. But that shows the beauty of this story, that Ocean Vuong can take the darker sides of a topic (that might not even be related to the characters) and make them somehow significant to the overall story. This is a beautiful story, one I will reread to try to find more hidden meanings in Ocean's beautiful writing style. Easy 4.5/5 stars, -0.5 just because of the uncomfy parts (please read a full list of the trigger warnings before reading this book).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, and Mental illness

Moderate: Homophobia, Child abuse, Alcohol, Sexual content, Racism, Addiction, Death of parent, and Racial slurs

Minor: Alcoholism, War, Hate crime, Bullying, and Cancer

eve_o's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

i hated this. i’m in a state of emotional turmoil. 
five stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Death, Alcohol, Animal death, Drug abuse, Racism, Homophobia, Addiction, Cancer, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Miscarriage, Child abuse, and Terminal illness

Minor: Excrement and Car accident

heyshannonhall's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This was so incredibly beautiful. Other reviewers have said they were left wanting more, which I get, but I love the way this novel was written—scattered, emotional, and poetic. It's like Vuong put into words how you often remember traumatic events in life, when it's hard to bring to memory the full picture, but little details stand out. My phone contains so many pictures of lines from this book that resonated with me (since I checked it out from the library and couldn't write in it). 

CW for drugs and overdose deaths, which I wish I would have known going in, but reading it was actually very healing for me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Homophobia, Hate crime, and Drug use