Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Lyhyt maallinen loistomme by Ocean Vuong

715 reviews

hannahnadeshda's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

buffy87's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• 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

This is not a casual read that you can just blow through. This is a book that you tear chunks from, chew on, break it down, let it sit then swallow it. 

I think this book is for someone who wants to take the time to make the connections, analyze the structure and writing. If you're not that personality then this novel might just piss you off and come off obnoxious. 

Spoilers ahead.

I find it hard to rate this book as well. It is complex on purpose. As if it is meant to be inaccessible. I think that's where you start to get into pretentious/obnoxious vibes that other readers have mentioned. There's a lot of recurring themes and motifs, tied in with extended metaphors. The table metaphor at the end I'm still struggling to really understand. Part of me is defaulting to that's lame, but another part is thinking it's probably beyond me.

I'm most confused why the gritty sexual details needed to be included in a letter to his mother. It didn't seem to fit the relationship that he was building throughout. And in fact, there was a middle section where it was mostly focused on Trevor which felt out of focus for the book. There was a lot of content shoved in the story and I feel like it overcomplicated something that didn't need to be. However, I think the point is that by writing to his mom about the things he loves (Lan, her, Trevor, writing, Hartford) they are all acts of honour because he loves her. Writing about love to someone you love, demonstrates how deep the love you have is. I'd say the scene where they confess parts of themselves to each other is what this whole book is.

What's interesting is I feel like the reader is deprioritized in this book. We don't really matter. Whether we get it or not doesn't matter. We're just voyeurs - and it really felt like weird trauma porn voyeurism. This book that is apparently a letter to his mom, where he lays out all the shitty things that have happened to his grandmother, mother, Trevor, and himself and somehow it has to do with love. 

There's a small part of me that is judging the content as quite exploitative. 

All that aside? There is no doubt that Ocean can write. He can WRITE. There were a lot of lines I highlighted in my mind that really made me think. I thoroughly enjoyed the actual words and way the sentences were built. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and War

kelisabeth's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

acacia_happy_hour's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and War

chaosbumblebee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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? Yes

5.0

Such a beautiful book it makes me want to go back and lower my rating of everything else so that this is the only 5 star read I have this year--or ever. Heartbreaking, poignant, perfect and imperfect, Vuong puts words to feelings I didn't know words could be put to. I need to call my mom.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

n7n0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

so berührend. irgendwie hat ocean vuong auf diesen paar seiten einmal über alles geschrieben, inklusive dem schreiben selbst. ich wusste nicht immer worauf genau eine passage hinauswill, umso erfrischender, dass er selbst manchmal schreibt „i don‘t know what i mean by that“ als finden wir gemeinsam heraus was da liegt und entdeckt werden mag. heavy heavy heavy und gleichzeitig so leicht und angenehm, nie pathetisch. hab noch nie ein so poetisches buch gelesen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Abortion, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, and Car accident

cielosiluminado'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? Yes

4.5

holy shit i need a second

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and War

Minor: Cancer, Excrement, and Abortion

mishsofil's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Wow, not my usual style of book, but after finishing chapter 1 i knew i had to read the whole thing because of the writing.
I’m not a literature student at all but if i was, i swear i would be highlighting and analysing every single sentence. Every line is so beautiful and packed with meaning, its almost hard to wrap your head around it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, and Death

Minor: Homophobia, Xenophobia, and War

vaykay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

clovetra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

i really don’t know what to say about this book. i don’t think it is possible for me to convey my thoughts surrounding this book. it was breathtaking.

ocean vuong’s prose is unlike anything i’ve ever read before and is incredibly addictive. the form in which this book takes only adds to the brilliance of this story, and made me keep coming back for more.

the only “downside” in my eyes of this book is that the story’s nonlinear structure made it hard to follow at times, and the main character felt devoid of personality. it’s highly likely that those features are a metacommentary on the main character themself, but it doesn’t make me like the book any more when the reason behind choices are explained.

i quite enjoyed the characterisation of lan & rose, and seeing the effects of generational trauma was handled amazingly. i especially liked reading about lan and her relationship with little dog.

i don’t really think there’s more i know how to say. i have a lot of feelings about this book that are stuck in my head (question of the century: is it because the book is that good it’s rendered me speechless or is it because i’m on day 2 of cymbalta.. the world will never know). but this book is legendary, and deserves all the hype it has surrounding it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Terminal illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, and War