The Universe of Us
By Lang Leav
4/5
()
About this ebook
Lang Leav
Novelist and poet Lang Leav was born in a refugee camp when her family were fleeing the Khmer Rouge Regime. She spent her formative years in Sydney, Australia, in the predominantly migrant town of Cabramatta. Among her many achievements, Lang is the winner of a Qantas Spirit of Youth Award, Churchill Fellowship and Goodreads Reader’s Choice Award. Her first book, Love & Misadventure (2013) was a break out success, and her subsequent poetry books have all been international bestsellers. In 2016, Lang turned her attention to fiction, and her debut YA novel Sad Girls shot to #1 on the Straits Times and other bestseller charts internationally.
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Reviews for The Universe of Us
150 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I liked some of the writing, but it's very heavily focused on romantic love and I just couldn't relate to much of the content.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5some beautiful writing which makes you think about love and life
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Relaxing. I enjoyed it. No regrets reading this. Give it a try!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5it framed the world in a bright-eyed-adolescent sort of view of love and relationships - the type you feel when you're 15 and everything matters so much. overall it was a good read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One important note I think I have to attach in stating my opinion: I also read I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tttekpokki when I was reading this.
I sense A LOT of obsession. Over intimacy, closeness, even memory. These things inevitably related to dependence. However, the obsession I caught from these poems are diverse. One is kinda frightening, as tho if you dare not to do as "she" wants you to, you're about to watch her extremely explode in tears, anger, and psychotic laugh. One is kinda forgone, passive-aggresively still force you to kept her in whatever kind of form, but this obsession isn't going to make you freaked out.
I gotta admit that dependence isn't a thing I'd love to feel, and this book lead me to this feeling I avoid the most. I felt a little disgust of myself which is incoherent and yet so real.
Another unique thing about this book is that it's not merely about love. Mostly, yes, but not entirely. I found myself drown into some poems that describe how it feels to grow as an adult. Although at some moments I do mumbling "Personaly I won't be this naive, oh my..." but the other moment I was like, "Ha, this one hits too hard. Ouch."
Lasttt: what I love the most. "The surprise poem". I thought it just going to be a poem that blatantly describe a circumstances and its vibe and stuff but at the end it's like, "Now that you successfully imagine the settings, I want you to firmly aware that..."
That is so cool. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5so good! it's nice to see someone else's vision about us, since we sometimes seem to look at love so pessimistic and over optimistic too
I loved it because she talks about love like it's the best thing, and you want to feel, but also like the worse thing, and you dear it. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved it, couldn't stop reading it. A must read for anyone who has been in love.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I loved this book! Didn’t realize it will hit me directly through my heart.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A wonderful story indeed. It’s great, thank you so much!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Lang Leav has become extremely popular with her poetry collections ever since her debut collection Love & Misadventure. Misadventure was voted second in the Goodreads Choice Awards in 2013 (beat out by Tolkien), Lullabies, her second poetry collection, actually won the 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards, and her third collection, Memories, was once again second place in the 2015 Awards. Clearly, she’s popular and she’s consistently hitting the mark with her targeted audience. Unfortunately, I am not a part of that audience, and I definitely do not see how her words manage to provoke such a euphoric state. I have admittedly only read Leav’s debut poetry collection, Love & Misadventure. The poems rhymed to an excessive degree, they weren’t particularly moving, and there was even one about flossing. FLOSSING. Yet, as I already stated, her popularity never faltered. I saw the upcoming release of The Universe of Us and thought that I really should give her another shot, because I kept thinking it possible that she had gotten better and her writing could be something I’d be able to appreciate along with the masses.Despite my preconceived notions, I still tried to go into this with an open mind. And at first, I think I was actually enjoying myself. Naturally I thought I had a fever, but I figured there could be a possibility that it was a more evolved collection and that I wouldn’t have to read anything about flossing. The flossing one really bothered me, folks.There were also several pieces of her artwork included for an added flair, except I really have no clue what the fuck is going on in this one. I think she’s setting the boat on fire with a magnifying glass? Honestly, I have no fucking clue. Regardless of the “meaning”, she does have some lovely pieces to admire. And there are actually some lovely poems as well, the only problem is they are few and far between. Leav consistently falls back on her excessive rhyming in order to drive the point that this is a poem, people, bask in its glory. Okay, she doesn’t actually say that but rhyming is not a prerequisite of poetry but it’s a common trend in her work. And then there are the ones that aren’t poetry, some are just declarative statements, and others are nothing more than a simple conversation.To me, this just doesn’t strike me as anything unique or requiring any sort of special skill. It felt like nothing more than filler. While there were a few that even I could appreciate, the vast majority of these still failed to impress me and didn’t help me understand the reason for her ongoing popularity. I feel these poems are targeted to the type of individuals that have always said they don’t like poetry. Reading this and loving it won’t make you a fan of poetry though, because while Leav may have some grasp on how to combine words to make something sound beautiful, there really isn’t any sort of depth. There’s nothing particularly profound or complex and if that manages to work for you, great, but I’m going to go read some Plath now.
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Book preview
The Universe of Us - Lang Leav
Also by Lang Leav
Love & Misadventure
Lullabies
Memories
The Universe of Us
copyright © 2016 by Lang Leav. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.
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For Michael, my universe.
Introduction
Magic tumbled from her pretty lips and when she spoke the language of the universe—the stars sighed in unison.
—Michael Faudet
I believe we think more deeply about the universe when we’re falling in love. I think the mysterious pull that draws you to another person is identical to the one that moves our eyes upward to the stars.
The Universe of Us is my fourth book. As a child, I always loved the romance of the night sky. While writing this new body of work, I revisited that sense of wonder and fascination that I have held as far back as I can remember. The sentiment can be best described as a mixture of nostalgia and longing.
In many ways, a book is, in itself, a tiny universe. Each page is like a newly formed galaxy, fashioned from a single, pulsing thought. A book travels for days, for years, sometimes for centuries to meet you at an exact point in time.
I hope you enjoy The Universe of Us as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. I like to think it has found you for a reason, even if that reason is only to draw your eyes skyward once more.
Much love,
Lang
We drift from star to star,
your soul and mine
as one.
We fall nearer to the moon—
we fly closer to the sun.