Karsten Caparas’s Reviews > On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous > Status Update

Beautifully written and very poetic so far. There are times it feels distracting from the story as it feels so deliberate in the word choices and it feels so carefully crafted. Ex: “Heart is broken in two” followed by a line “As in, broken into”. I appreciate it, but I’m forced to look at writing techniques.

The writing voice is fluid and often reflects the emotional state of the narrator; it’s fun.

I’ve only finished Act II so far.

Vuong paints fairly bleak picture of life. The grass is never really greener on the other side. Whenever there could be moments of beauty, or some semblance that life could be better — pain and sorrow are rarely ever out of the picture.

The title is starting to make sense: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.

The writing style is very rhythmic and poetic. The word choices and the sentence structures are very intentional and really written for effect. I’ve only read the first chapter so far and immediately I feel sad (and I can tell I’ll be wallowing around each time I make progress with this book).