Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Lyhyt maallinen loistomme by Ocean Vuong

295 reviews

siebensommer's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

what is a country but a life sentence?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Violence, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Drug use, Homophobia, Addiction, Death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: War, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Medical content

blanxx_2102's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Hate crime, War, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Gun violence, Xenophobia, Death, Car accident, Addiction, Racism, and Alcohol

greenan26's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Homophobia, Sexual content, Biphobia, Racism, Grief, Mental illness, Classism, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

Moderate: War and Xenophobia

caroisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

I almost gave up on this book 70 pages in. The writing felt too decorative for me, like a really, really long poem. Then I saw that Ocean is a poet, and it started to make sense. Something changed in the pages after that, as I got used to his cadence and by the end, craved it. It's a difficult story, triggering, somber, a dry landscape. But the beauty really is in the poetry of every description, half sentences, fragments, trains of thought. This was a long read, because of how much meaning there was to absorb in every sentence.

I'm glad I didn't give up on this. I'll keep thinking about this memoir forever.

You'll like this is you appreciate memoirs, are in a mentally good place with darker content in real-life context, Asian American stories, LGBTQIA+ perspectives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Gun violence, Cancer, Physical abuse, Racism, and Transphobia

elliotlea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, War, Homophobia, Classism, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Racism, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Cursing, and Child abuse

tori21's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• 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

3.5

Needed to let the book sit in my mind for a bit to comprehend how I actually feel about it.
And I really wish I could bring myself to give the book a better score. I really do, but the disappointment I felt compared to my expectations and the overall hype, I just can't.
The writing style was beautiful and I loved how refreshing the poetry-like style was, but sometimes it got a little too much and left me confused. Which made me not enjoy the book like I wanted it to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicide, and Cancer

Moderate: Homophobia

telliot's review against another edition

emotional slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Physical abuse

readwithev's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Vuong is amazing as expected. I read Night Sky with Exit Wounds and I’m not disappointed with this. It’s not only a love letter to his childhood in Hartford CT, but to his family. It’s a search for identity, a reckoning with the past, finding joy even in fleeting things, and all of life in between. I cried and smiled but was also left so stunned. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is poetic, thoughtful, empathetic, reflective, but also full of rage, grief, and yearning.
We watch Little Dog fall in love, watch him be bullied, but also grow into himself, like skin that he would grow into. It’s beautiful and I cannot recommend enough!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Misogyny, War, Sexual content, Racism, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death, Abortion, Drug abuse, Death, and Bullying

karin_goodreads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

First time reading something like this. I have to say I'm rather surprised with myself.

This was more of a tough read, at moments it was a lot, but the flow of the book made seamless transitions from paragraph to paragraph. It still left me confused at times, even lost. Not totally jarring, but took me out of the story a few times.
Definitely left some heavy feelings at some parts - it was very raw and organic. Quite strange to understand and not know. 

In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nhớ. Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, "Có nhớ mẹ không?" I flinch, thinking you meant, "Do you remember me?"

I miss you more than I remember you.

The ending had much more of that foreboding element, I suddenly felt on edge. That's when I started feeling like I had a literal rocks stuck inside my rib-cage, when they moved I suddenly felt sick. It was sad, but a better word would be painful. A painfully beautiful story of living, despite everything.

I am thinking of beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful. If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you're born to the day you die, is to be gorgeous only briefly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, War, and Violence

Minor: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Abortion, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

hsitbeenworthit's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Bullying, Car accident, Gun violence, Blood, Cancer, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Excrement