Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Penguin Readers Level 7: Homegoing (ELT Graded Reader) by Yaa Gyasi

28 reviews

ran_sophia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

It is an excellently written and pointed book with a very strong story.  Given the subject matter of the story, it was a difficult and challenging read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Slavery, and Rape

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, and Death

Minor: War

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Sexism, War, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Mental illness, Rape, Torture, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Body horror, Blood, Alcohol, and Drug abuse

Minor: Bullying

noahsingh's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad

4.25

Enjoyed a lot of aspects of this book: 
- Love a family/generational story.
-Colonial resistance storylines were really interesting.
-Felt like I heard some perspectives I hadn't heard before, and learnt some historical stuff about the exploitation of black people post-slavery I hadn't heard about before. 

Ending was a lil disappointing to me tho,

in the sense that I wish Marjorie had been aware of her families past a bit more through Akua and therefore somehow able to recognise Marcus as familiy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Racism, Colonisation, Hate crime, Excrement, Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Death, Gore, Drug abuse, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, War, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Infertility, Pregnancy, Suicide, Alcohol, Child death, and Infidelity

tiffyb's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.75

4.75 stars ⭐️ 

Wow wow wow! There are already so many (deserved) five star reviews that I don’t need to add another one, but of course I’ll still write one for myself haha. (Why are five star reviews so much harder to write?? It’s so much easier to complain than compliment 🫢)

This book was incredible. Impactful. Brilliant. Stunning. Harrowing. How can an author (a young, first-time author!?!) encapsulate an entire history of a nation, of racism and slavery and the injustices done to the people of Ghana and the black people in America and Britain?? Hundred of years of history, religion, and culture perfectly written into a book that is only 300 pages long! It made an IMPACT on my thinking and mindset. It tied together many random facts I’d heard or read in a cohesive way that brought history alive for me. I felt the pain of an entire race of people, a snapshot of the horrors lived by generations of Black people.  I really don’t know how else to compliment this book because it was just perfect.  

Even though there was very little space dedicated to individual characters (literally one chapter each!), you CARED what happened to them. The end of every chapter was a bit sad because you would have enjoyed to spend a bit more time with that chapter’s character. 

As for the actual writing~ I am continually reading books by authors who try to squeeze in too much history, too many characters, or too many “morals to the story.” So it’s shocking to me that I liked this book, given the format and the sheer number of characters. I feel like most authors are trying too hard to do too much and falling short, but Yaa tried to do a million things in this book and succeeded every time. For someone who rarely can remember the names of book characters, I managed to keep track of SIX GENERATIONS from two different families! Husbands, wives, children, friends….

I have four gentle criticisms that brought the books rating down one half star- 

1. It was hard at times to keep up with characters, to the point that I did often have to return to the start of the chapter once I figured out/remembered who someone was. I also struggled at times to place where in history the characters were (for example thinking we were in the early 1900’s but we were in the 70’s. But somehow those things didn’t bother me too much, and part of my struggle to remember characters was that I became so engrossed in the last character’s story that it was hard to switch to a new one at times. 
2. It was hard at times to step into the other family’s story again after becoming to engrossed in one story honestly. 
3. I do wish we’d had a way for the original two sisters to have met each other or even interacted. Especially since this was the whole premise of the book. 
4. The amount of tragedy contained in the story of these two families is staggering… obviously meant to encapsulate the experience of an entire race of people rather than suggest that all of these things could possibly have befallen one single family. So I do think this was a bit of a stretch. Still, it felt believable somehow, placed within the context of “cursed families”. 

Overall none of those criticisms even remotely would discourage me from recommending this book, and from what I hear, the physical copies of the books have a family tree (which would have made a big difference for me, since I read this on a kindle). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Violence, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Slavery, Death of parent, Deportation, Drug abuse, Excrement, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, and War

mysterymom40's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Drug use, Addiction, Pregnancy, Murder, Mental illness, Suicide, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying, Vomit, and Xenophobia

rieviolet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

It is not easy to cover such a vast temporal space in a single book, so I recognize Gyasi's ability to tackle a story so big in scope. 
Still, I think that this kind of narrative structure (chapters with an ever-changing point of view) is just not my personal preference. Inevitably (as it happens, for example, with short stories collections), there were certain characters' storylines that I appreciated more compared to others. In general, I found the final chapters (those closer to us in time) less engaging. 
There were also sections that I liked but that ended a bit too abruptly, leaving too much left unsaid about crucial events and the characters' fate (and not all of the storylines got mentioned again and expanded upon, further on in the narration).

At times, the book got a bit too graphic for my (I admit a bit delicate) sensibilities, but it does deal with very heavy topics; just be sure to check the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Sexual content, Excrement, Kidnapping, Death, Drug abuse, Slavery, Racism, Colonisation, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: War, Child abuse, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Rape, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Ableism, Murder, Infertility, Bullying, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Child death

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Child death, Blood, Death, Child abuse, Slavery, War, Kidnapping, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Xenophobia, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Death of parent, Confinement, Bullying, Mental illness, Grief, and Deportation

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

scifi_rat's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

Plot: 5★
Prose: 4.5★
Pace: 5 ★
Concept/Execution: 5★/5★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 4.75★
Ending: 4.75★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Classism, Excrement, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Addiction, Drug use, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, War, Blood, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Domestic abuse

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