Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Penguin Readers Level 7: Homegoing (ELT Graded Reader)

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-

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.
It was hard at times to step into the other family’s story again after becoming to engrossed in one story honestly.
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.
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).

Content Warnings

rieviolet's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

uisimportant's review against another edition

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This was the story of two enslaved sisters. Unless enslaved tale that I read was “The Prophets” and that story was a lot. I don’t think that I will be reading any more, following this. Story was beautifully written, and I have no complaints from the author. As an African-American woman., these stories are hard to hear - in the depths that the author decided to reach.

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hannahbailey's review against another edition

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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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seullywillikers's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful. Stunning. Heartbreaking. The language cuts right to the bone, and the structure of the storytelling is unique and powerful. I believe this is a must-read for everyone.

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