On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous– on its own, the title can be a little confusing. But reading this short novel written as a note to his mother, everything comes into perspective. This story follows the author, Ocean Vuong, growing up as an immigrant in America, brought down by the prejudices against the Vietnamese race, being gay, having no father and a somewhat abusive mother, with little money to go around. His life is not an easy one, but through these struggles he still sees the love and the beauty in everything about humans, no matter how small or unimportant an individual is, everyone is gorgeous during their brief time on this planet.

I considered this book to be a work of genius. Vuong captures all the real and raw pain of being human, while also taking what might be considered a small life and making it feel so big it wraps up your heart and brings you to tears. While the actual plotline of the novel may be a little slow at times, Vuong constantly digs at the hard philosophical topics that are usually hard to even put into words, but he does it seamlessly. Overall, I would rate this novel a 9.5 out of 10.