Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

124 reviews

amanda_mh's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

It is a hard read but an important one touching on addiction in the family seen from a young girl. I enjoyed the way the story was told including diary entries and almost felt like a memoir. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Grief, and Suicide attempt

menomica's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense

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

“There is no living thing on God’s Earth that doesn’t come to know pain sometime.”

This book broke my heart.

Yaa Gyasi is so amazing at describing trauma without coming off as gratuitous. She manages to capture the multiple aspects of pain and hurt, and even how at certain level you begin to normalize it.

The way Gifty talks about the trauma that she experienced as a preteen—watching her brother strung out on her lap, her mothers attempted suicide—you really get the sense that though she understands the harrowing nature of her experiences, she hasn’t really given herself room to reflect on how she experienced these things at such a young age and how that affected her.

I think this book is very beautiful, especially if you go in not viewing it with the expectation of a narrative structure. A lot of the storlines don’t tie up in neat bows, they simply end, come to their own natural conclusions. And to me, that feels very much like how things happen in real life.

Anyway, I think this book is so amazing. Definitely recommend.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Abandonment

ejs2000's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

This is a really good book that I'll be thinking about for a long time to come. The story follows Gifty, a scientist not only trying to make sense of reward-seeking behaviour in her mice test-subjects, but also trying to make sense of her past too.

It made me feel more open-minded towards those that devoutly follow the Bible (I'm an atheist and quite the sceptic) and I always love it when I learn something new from a book - it's why I read! It's a great way to challenge your perceptions and grow as a person IMO.

Gifty's struggle understanding the events in her life in the context of God, and later in the context of neuroscience was a really powerful way to explore these issues. The impact of her brother's drug abuse in crushing her religious faith was interesting to follow, especially with the first-person narration. The strained relationship she has with her mother added another layer to this book making it a very captivating read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

vaniavela's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

3.75

Gifty is a sixth-year neuroscience major at Stanford University. Ever since her brother died from an overdose, she has been trying to understand the reason for his addiction. Why was Nana addicted to drugs and why was he never able to quit?

What did I like?

1. As this book questions faith and religion, I think the author did a great job exploring the relationship between religion and science.
2. There is an emotional depth within the writing so I came to empathize with the characters. 

What didn't I like?

1.  The structure was confusing. The jumps in time and space were an interesting portrayal of reading how the pain and trauma affected her life, but it wasn't for me. Especially since these time jumps were not chronological.
2. I would have loved to read the mother and brother's perspective, especially since so much of what Gifty narrates is related to them. 

Transcendent Kingdom didn't manage to impress me, but I kind of appreciated it at the end.

CWs: Addiction, alcohol consumption, child death, death, drug abuse/use, death from overdose, grief, mental illness (depression), misogyny, racism, religious bigotry, sexual content (mild), sexism.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Drug abuse, Racism, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Misogyny and Sexual content

lenneke_roekel'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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Cultural appropriation

jazzeeazz's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

themes: the relationship between science and religion, addiction, effects of addiction on family, Black immigrant experience, Depression

pages 228-229 actually broke me emotionally and i will never recover 🤪

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Medical content, Grief, and Religious bigotry

violentcello's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Suicide attempt

samiaba15's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, and Classism

alisonannk's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Medical trauma

Minor: Hate crime, Misogyny, and Sexism