'Time is a Mother' includes one of the best list poems I've ever read - 'Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker' which may be the only list poem I've come across that has the potential to reduce its readers to tears. This collection also has a great 'reverse/going backwards' poem, again not an original form but in Vuong's laser-focus, it becomes something much more than the sum of its parts. With bolder, recognisably queer takes on the American dream and gay utopias/euphoria (without removing the dark side, of course) this is a visionary, uncompromising collection that deserves all the plaudits.

One for poetry fans as this can at times feel dense and inaccessible. Also some dark and challenging themes, but really interesting use of language and something for writers to study.

touching and emotional as always. i love ocean vuong's writing and i will gladly pay to read his grocery list.

- thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC.

A beautiful collection of poetry. I adored the exploration of family and queerness. Ocean Vuong is an extremely talented writer who can bring your emotions out.

Ocean Vuong's writing is beautiful, but this wasn't a collection for me; he's wonderfully abstract, and his imagery is sublime, so this is definitely a Me Problem.

Vuong certainly doesn't disappoint in his latest collection. All the beauty of his previous but I do think you need to be more familiar with his work than I am to get the most out of it.

Completely unsurprisingly, this is a beautiful look at love and grief, and how the two are intertwined.

3.75⭐️ ARC provided by the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"How can we know, in a house full of bread, that it's hunger, not people, that survives?"

Ocean Vuong's poetry is visceral and compelling - it unflinching pulls into the light the dark, complex nuances of grief, survival, love, and heartache. It feels raw, and yet at the same time so meticulously considered that you could imagine each sentence taking months to write, to feel.

Part of such thorough and honest self-exploration through words inevitably means that some poems will resonate more with readers than others - and I definitely found this to be true for me. Whilst I felt some lines and phrases so deeply that it was like holding up a mirror, and others were enlightening and fascinating to me as exploring a new perspective, there were a fair few in the collection that I either didn't understand, or wasn't meant to understand, which limited my enjoyment.

Regardless, though, Vuong's use of metaphor and the earnest, headlong way he confronts difficult emotions will stick with me for a long time.

I tried to read this quickly for the purposes of reviewing but it was impossible; this is a book to savour.

Absolutely beautiful book of poetry. Ocean Vuong's ability to use the English language in such an elegant way is mesmerising. This is also a perfect book to introduce people to poetry. As someone who does not often pick up poetry, it was extremely accessible.

Ocean Vuong knows how to use language to turn beautiful phrases. He finds intimacy moments and closeness to examine in the most unexpected places. My favourite example being, a father and a son during a car crash. There’s a lot of emotion in his work and it always feels honest. Sometimes that honesty is lost on me because the piece is too long for me to follow all the way through. Or because, as much as I love poetry, I don’t always understand Vuong’s poems in their broad strokes, so instead I focus in on the lines that do speak to me. Tonally, something felt missing compared to his previous works but with Vuong there’s always small passages to be admired for what they do with imagery.

REVIEW: Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong explores grief, memory, loss, war and family in his second poetry collection.

I am not a big poetry reader or poetry fan. But I really like Ocean Vuong as a person and how he writes. Some of the poems were really powerful and resonated with me.

Poetry makes me feel really stupid, as I sometimes find it hard to grasp what the author is saying or trying to say, and this happened with this collection.

I think Vuong explores grief, after losing his mother really beautifully. I would highly recommend if you’re a poetry reader and lover. I’m just not sure if poetry is for me personally. I'll definitely pick up On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and other novels that he might write in the future though.

Beautiful and lyrical writing but I definitely preferred some poems over others.

I do not read a lot of poetry so felt some just went way over my head.

Ocean Vuong again creates a illuminons masterpiece with ‘Time is a mother’. These poems seem uniquely raw and delicately allow for your mind to expand with them. Each poem has the reader embarking on the journey along with each word. This collection will tear at organs you didn’t know existed.

"I'm on the cliff of myself & these aren't wings, they're futures."

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with an eArc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I would absolutely love to listen to this collection as an audiobook. Ocean Vuong's poetry is so beautiful and mesmerising. I could honestly read his work forever and never get bored. This collection was no exception.

I adored the poems. This collection talks about relationships, especially between Vuong and his mother who passed away as well as sexuality. I would very much recommend it!

Time is a Mother is so clearly written by Ocean Vuong. The tone and style develops the sadness and anger of his previous work but feels more experimental. He conjures sense of place and the feelings of turbulence throughout. It’s queer and petulant and full of rage and trauma. But he also offers some beautifully delicate and soft lines as well. There is also humour and irony that’s sometimes dry and often dark. One particular sentence made me laugh out loud and I can’t wait to gift a copy of the poems to my best friend with that sentence highlighted.

Ocean’s writing is mesmerising, deep and emotional. His poetry dives deep into human emotion and delves into the core. I’ve only just begun reading his works, but Time is A Mother is so powerful and deals with love, loss and acceptance.

Highly recommended for everyone, particularly those dealing with the aftermath of losing a loved one.

this book was an absolutely stunning collection of poetry. it painted vivid situations, complex emotions and enchanting narratives with nuance and undeniable skill. this collection had some of the most thought-provoking poems that i've ever read, specifically 'the last dinosaur' and 'american legend' (especially this one, it was something else!). and the writing--stunning, Ocean Vuong has to be one of the most promising up-and-coming poets. i'm certainly going to keep following his work! i've copied so many beautiful lines into a notebook, so i can revisit them whenever i'd like. i'm a harsh critic when it comes to poetry (writing a pretty sentence and pressing shift a couple times isn't poetry) but i couldn't find a single flaw in the entire collection. truly masterful!

I don’t feel at all qualified to talk about poetry, never mind review it, because I have no real comparison for what’s good or what’s bad other than all the “classic” stuff I was made to read as an undergrad. But what I can say about Vuong’s work is that I kept reading. I found it fraught with emotion but funny too, in small ways, and there was a rhythm to the writing that hooked me.

Perhaps this is a thing of "its not you, its me", because first of all, Ocean Vuong has beautiful writing. Second, I admit it's been a long time since I read poetry in this style, so maybe I'm just not used to it yet.

There were a few lovely pieces, a personal favorite being Amazon History of a Nail Salon Worker. The way it was written and the elements in it were quite striking. Some of the other poems just felt like your usual modern edgy poetry however, which isn't really my thing. Also, this may also be a me problem, but I didn't understand some of them too. Some felt just convoluted and didn't make much sense, even if the words were pretty.

I don't know, if you have been a long time fan of Ocean Vuong and loved On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, you might enjoy this one too. Hope you have a better time with it than I did.