Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

211 reviews

geraldineleyendo's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

An absolute gem -  It changed something inside of me and it's a book I mourned when it ended! One of the most beautiful threads I've seen, Yaa Gyasi is a genius doing a sort of "worldbuilding" focused almost exclusively on people. She created a portal to the intergenerational Black experience and how time changes everything while it also doesn't. Every story felt like a super powerful vignette, not only emotionally charged but genuinely interesting and funny at times. I am desperate to go to Ghana after reading this book, I feel SO grateful this story (or more like - "these stories" in plural, because there are many!) found me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Slavery, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug abuse and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

alexisvana's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I never say this about books, but I'll say this about Homegoing... I would pay serious money to read an extended version of this that is at least twice as long. Some of these characters I wish I could have more time with, an absolutely incredible read OKAY I'M CRYING AGAIN HAHA

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Slavery

Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse

htedesco's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Grief, Rape, Death of parent, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Blood, Colonisation, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Drug abuse, Vomit, and Homophobia

andrearuthelyn's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

mirandalikesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

My favorite part of this book is that every character is the main character. I was invested in every one. I don't understand how Gyasi was able to construct the life motivations of each character so perfectly with only giving each character like 20 pages. Seeing some of the characters age throught the generations is such a gift. Because so many wonderful characters had their life cut short as a product of white violence. 

It is awe inspiring and heart breaking how many generations were and still are affected by slavery. How slavery has direct ties to the oppression and cyclical struggles of black people in America and in Africa. White oppression has killed generations of black joy. 

This story demonstrates the struggle of being a woman so brilliantly too. How many generations of woman went undefined until a man defined her. 

I learned so much through the course of this book. The birth of our modern prison industrial complex being born of the enslavement of African and Black men is something that makes perfect sense. But it was laid out so clearly here.  Some of the violence was so vividly painted that I keep retracing those scenes in my mind. Some of the heartbreak too.

Absolute must read. We have been privileged to not know these stories for long enough. And we are privileged now to see these stories through the perspective of each of these characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Classism, Genocide, Violence, Racism, Rape, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Grief, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Infertility, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Abandonment, Drug use, Vomit, Xenophobia, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, War, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Suicide

beanew's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Gyasi’s storytelling is a magnificent accomplishment in oral tradition despite being a written book. The many vignettes throughout the generations read like one would expect a great oral storyteller to speak, capturing every detail and filling the listener with emotion and understanding. 
The motifs throughout the book were well explored and neatly wrapped up, and I wish I had could write an essay on the ways Gyasi chose to resolve certain elements (the stone necklaces!!!). I found so many of the characters deeply compelling and empathetic, so wildly different from each other. Gyasi never shies away from the brutality of the slave trade, it feels very painfully realistic in ways that Americans are never truly shown in history class. 
My criticisms are that I felt the very final chapter was not as moving as I expected it to be simply because Marcus is the least fleshed-out character (in my opinion) of the whole book, so to end with him felt weak. I loved the character of Marjorie, but I found that the similarities to Gyasi’s own life experiences took me out of the story many times; instead of being immersed, I found myself wondering which pieces of that chapter were autobiographical or wish fulfillment of the author. Also a pattern of minor fat phobia happened frequently enough that it simply can’t be the character’s perspectives, it’s just Gyasi’s opinion. Beautiful people are “thick”, dumb/mean/loud/gluttonous people are “fat”. Felt weird, but didn’t majorly detract from the story! 
Overall, the concept was so beautifully executed and the book was so moving and heartbreaking in equal measures. I would highly recommend it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Police brutality, Confinement, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Slavery

Moderate: Child death and Colonisation

Minor: Fatphobia

laurenmaria422's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Slavery, Police brutality, Infidelity, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Rape, Racism, Kidnapping, War, Violence, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

caldobotanico's review against another edition

dark

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book deserves high praise for the way it leaps back and forth between times. Each chapter could be meaningful by itself but together they help us see things differently.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Slavery, and Rape

Minor: Child death and Suicidal thoughts

madelinedalton's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Violence, Slavery, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Racism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Death and Addiction

def_ni's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, and Colonisation

Moderate: Mental illness and Drug abuse