chaoticnostalgia's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Cancer, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Racism, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Animal death, and Excrement
Moderate: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Car accident, Toxic friendship, War, and Xenophobia
reemoony's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Racism, Medical content, Terminal illness, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Hate crime, Sexual content, Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, and War
Moderate: Car accident, Excrement, Rape, Medical content, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Police brutality, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexism
kuttyjunni's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content
_eki_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Homophobia, War, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Racism, and Violence
julia_rose's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, War, Sexual content, Addiction, Sexual violence, Murder, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Abortion
yolie's review against another edition
- 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
But there’s beauty in it too - a nod to the book’s title. Vuong/ Little Dog is able to hold so much compassion for people, he chooses to see them in their gorgeousness - irrespective of the brevity of that moment. Long after the novel is over you’ll keep coming back to certain phrases, marvelling at how stunning and lyrical Vuong’s writing is.
One of my favourite passages from the book reads:
“Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”
Graphic: Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Drug use, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Animal death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Blood, Dementia, Drug abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Violence, Addiction, Racism, Toxic relationship, and War
Moderate: Abandonment, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Alcoholism, Vomit, Violence, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Cursing
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Classism, and Biphobia
radfordmanor's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Grief, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Infidelity, War, Vomit, Animal death, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Violence, Alcoholism, Child death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Injury/injury detail, and Medical trauma
amcghig's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and War
moonbeamflower's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.75
I don’t know how to rate it to be honest, I loved it as much as I wanted to unread some parts. I guess the first two parts were 5 stars, the third one was 3. So.. I rate this 4, but I have no idea if that’s what I really think.
Updt: it’s been 2 weeks and I’ve been thinking about this book every day.. so I definitely loved it way more than I thought I did
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and War
nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Ocean Vuong is undeniably a poet, and I underlined more passages in this book than I have in a long time, appreciating his lyrical language and the way he carried metaphors across chapters. Perhaps my favorite quotation of the entire novel is this paragraph from the last page, pulling together all of the animal metaphors Vuong used throughout the novel in one concise sequence:
I think of the buffaloes somewhere, maybe in North Dakota or Montana,
their shoulders rippling in slow motion as they race for the cliff, their
brown bodies bottlenecked at the narrow precipice. Their eyes oil-black,
the velvet bones of their horns covered with dust, they run, headfirst,
together--until they become moose, huge and antlered, wet nostrils
braying, then dogs, with paws clawing toward the edge, their tongues
lapping in the light until, finally, they become macaques, a whole troop
of them. The crowns of their heads cut open, their brains hollowed out,
they float, the hair on their limbs fine and soft as feathers. And just as
the first one steps off the cliff, onto ait, the forever nothing below, they
ignite into the ochre-red sparks of monarchs. Thousands of monarchs
pour over the edge, fan into the white air, like a bloodjet hitting water.
However, too often, the language veered too far away from the plot, beautiful for beauty's sake without any meaningful contribution to the story.
As for the story, Vuong addresses a lot. Though not quite chronological, the story begins with his mother's immigration to the United States from Vietnam with her mother and the baby, fleeing at the end of the war, connected to what they left behind but also to Little Dog's white soldier grandfather and to Tiger Woods. The boy grows up in a nail salon, then rides his bike to the tobacco fields, where he finds a job and self-discovery, exploring consciousness (through drugs) and identity (through sex). This, too, was where Vuong started to lose me; though the whole premise is that the mother cannot read the letter, and certainly not in English, I was mortified to read such graphic scenes in this context, and it seemed like Vuong started writing an entirely separate book, trapped in the middle of the family story.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, and Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Racism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, War, and Violence