Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

212 reviews

amandabethrose's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

What an absolutely beautiful book. We begin with two sisters, born from the same mother but have never met, whose lives follow starkly different paths. One marries a white man and lives at the Cape Coast Castle, one is sold into slavery and imprisoned at the Castle before being sent across the Atlantic to America. Each chapter is a snapshot into the life of their descendants, alternating between the family lines.  

There is a line in the second chapter around which the story unfolds, "And in my village we have a saying about separated sisters. They are like a woman and her reflection, doomed to stay on opposite sides of the pond." Each story is a mirror of what could have been. What if they had been able to live in Ghana, what if they had been ripped away. Without giving too much away, the story does end with the threads coming together and the family saga returning full circle to where it began. 

Absolutely gorgeous prose and an excellent balance of leaving me wishing for more, while being completely satisfied with the story given.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Slavery, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, and Self harm

sammykay25's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Rape, Drug abuse, Excrement, Slavery, Colonisation, and Racism

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

I don't have words for how incredible Homegoing is. The blurb cannot do justice to the journey it takes you on. Two Ghanaian half-sisters with divergent paths (one as a wife to a white colonizer and slaver, the other captured and sold into slavery) is only the beginning. This book follows Effia and Esi's lineage for seven generations, one line primarily in Ghana and one line primarily in the United States. It is a sizzering, raw, unflinchingly honest depiction of the experience and the legacy of the slave trade, in all its awful minutia; the creation and the evolution of the systems that still oppress black people. Truly, I've never seen a clearer depiction of generational trauma. It's incredible. That's all I can say. Cannot recommend enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Suicide, Mental illness, and Ableism

Minor: Car accident and Medical content

c_serpent's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

This book was truly sensational.

Total score: 5/5 stars 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Colonisation, Classism, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Slavery, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Racism, Confinement, War, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Pregnancy, and Trafficking

bek_p87's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a highly ambitious, deeply moving, incredibly profound saga of intergenerational trauma. This will stay with me for a long long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Rape

seaschells's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Addiction, Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, and War

mondovertigo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• 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, Slavery, Racial slurs, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Excrement, Addiction, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Confinement, Child death, Abandonment, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit

124smilehd's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

It was cool to see how two half-sisters and their descendants' lives are changed due to the slave trade, where one family benefited from it and the other was a victim of it. Both families faced their own hardships and I loved the constant reference to fire within the novel. It was almost 5 stars for me but I just wanted a little bit more from each character, as each chapter was a different characters perspective, although the previous generation are still mentioned and involved. The stone played less of an important part than I thought it would as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Colonisation, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Excrement, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Addiction, and Confinement

c_wilkinson's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Drug abuse and Rape

lizclark81's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-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

4.25

A powerful read about the generational trauma of slavery in West Africa and the United States. Cleverly structured around multiple characters in different time periods, Gyasi weaves together a narrative that manages to touch on many important issues in history. A little heavy-handed at times, IMO, but a well-crafted first novel with serious themes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Racism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, and Slavery

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Colonisation, and Torture