Reviews

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

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pnwbibliophile's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

Yaa Gyasi is able to tap into the emotional depth of her characters such that I’ll happily read anything she puts out. This authentically captured Gifty’s academic background and experiments, her immigrant background, and the interplay between addiction, loss, and mental health. The plot, structure and central questions were adeptly planned such that the components developed this beautiful synergy and flow. Capturing the intricacies of immigrant families is a complex undertaking, yet the novel gives us four nuanced family members we can empathize with even when they do disagreeable things such as doing drugs, abandoning their family, or withdrawing into depression.

One aspect I didn’t connect as much with was that Gifty, the protagonist, is grappling with her moral questions within religion. But that is a me problem. Despite this, I thought the religious discourse was balanced and nuanced such that it never felt preachy. This did a great job capturing the interplay between grief, addiction, and mental health in a thoughtful way. However, as someone who lost my brother, Gifty felt too detached from her own grief surrounding her brother’s death to feel authentic. Gifty was witnessing the addiction, death, and her mother’s grief rather than tapping into her own emotions surrounding her brother. My last critique is that much of the novel took place within Gifty’s head, causing the writing to drag at times, especially since the topics it examines are so heavy.

Despite my critiques, this is still well worth reading and makes me excited to delve into the author’s next work.

a_lowney's review

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emotional 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

4.5

thebobsphere's review against another edition

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5.0

When I read Yaa Gyasi’s debut, Homegoing, I felt that this was an author who would write a book that will stun a lot of people. I thought it would be by the third novel but I was proved wrong: Transcendent Kingdom is the novel that will have critics salivating , readers going crazy and a ton of prize nominations, currently it’s been shortlisted for The Women’s Prize for Fiction but I’m expecting more.

The question is why do I think this book is so great? For starters Yaa Gyasi adds a lot of layers to the narrative. The main protagonist Gifty is studying the effects of addiction using mice as her test subjects, the reason being that her brother, Nana died of an overdose. The narrative also jumps back in time to Gifty’s childhood when her family were just getting used to life in The States after moving there from Ghana.

Gifty also narrates her constant battle with spirituality, the problems with her depressive mother and her attempts to be in a loving relationship. To add to this there are chapters dedicated to the roots of Nana’s addiction and her parents’ relationship.

If you want more there’s also her parents attempts to adopt U.S. culture while not losing their own and Gifty trying her best to accept that her roots are in Africa, despite growing up in her parents’ adopted country.

As I said, it’s a lot to take in: parenthood, science vs faith, addiction, culture clashes, mental health, relationships, sexuality and motherhood. Homegoing had a multi-layered plot but in Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi takes those layers into the stratosphere. Saying that, the book does not feel overcomplicated, daunting or overstuffed. The prose is simple (not simplistic) and lucid.

Transcendent Kingdom is a perfect novel. There’s a lot to pick apart, tons of metaphors and an addictive plot. Has Yaa Gyasi written her first masterpiece? As hyperbolic as it seems, there’s no denying that this is a grand novel in every sense. I don’t like saying that a book is a must read but I do think it’s an important and timely novel.

gabbyg94's review

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3.0

The book fell short for me. It touches on a lot of really deep topics. Addiction religion science racism. I couldn’t muster a connection but was invested enough to keep reading. I really, really enjoyed Homegoing so I want to follow through with her book.

I think part of that detached feeling was the main POV. Gifty is emotionless towards the most painstaking moments, which makes sense how she’s in this matter of fact science field so deep in academia.

All in all I did like it, but I did have to switch to the audio to force myself to finish it

lynda_ohhh's review against another edition

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4.0

I want to give Gifty a big hug. I’ve never read a book that deals with addiction, grief, faith, family and science in this way so that’s new to me. Although it’s fiction I found it deeply philosophical