emma's Reviews > On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Sometimes, a book just hits you.

I read 200+ books a year. This month, I’ve read almost a book a day. When I’m reading that much, it can just be because the stars aligned and gave me an insane amount of free time and I chose to spend it all on Bettering Myself Through Literature, but more often, it’s because I’m trying to escape from my snoozefest daily life and my annoying brain.

Currently, it’s the latter.

When I read that much, it can put the stories at a distance. Or really I want to immerse myself so much that I remove myself from the equation altogether and it’s all story, no impact on me.

But sometimes you get a good book at the perfect time and it cuts all that away, whether you want it to or not.

(I did not.)

This book is so, well, gorgeous. The writing and the story, the characters, the setting - none of it gives you a moment’s mercy. It’s unrelenting in its pain and its reality and its loveliness. I kept thinking this was a memoir, because fiction that feels like this is so rare, an incredible feat.

For the last 25% of this book, I kept thinking it had to be over at the next page, or the next - every sentence felt like another paper cut, every paragraph break a scrape, chapter endings f*cking road rash. It was unbearable. I had tears in my eyes through a third of it and I pride myself on being the coolest and least emotional person alive.

Jeez louise.

Bottom line: A book so good it makes me talk like an elderly person.

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pre-review

oh, worth the wait.

review to come / 5 stars easily, obviously, painfully

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currently-reading updates

i saw this for the first time in a bookstore two years ago and have wanted to read it ever since.

better late than never?