Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

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

16 reviews

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

This is perfection. Yaa Gyasi had an idea and executed it immaculately. There isn’t much more to say for this one. It is a complex story told with such confidence and purpose that its messages cut through clear and uninhibited. 10/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Cannibalism, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Dysphoria, and Stalking

skudiklier's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

This book was incredible, and heartbreaking, and beautiful. I knew nothing about it going in, but I don't think anything could have prepared me. So much of what happens in it is so hard to read, but I'd recommend Homegoing to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Child death, Xenophobia, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Infertility, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Ableism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Pregnancy, War, Vomit, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Genocide, Fatphobia, Cursing, and Animal death

mmefish's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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? Yes

3.25

A very informative read, and I’m glad I read it, but I didn’t love the short stories format (couldn’t emotionally connect to any of the characters).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Racial slurs, and Trafficking

Moderate: Animal death and Rape

gm_vak's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Trafficking, and Violence

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I commend Yaa Gyasi for taking such a fresh approach to storytelling with Homegoing. It was an incredibly ambitious task, but one she handled phenomenally and with care to create two captivating intergenerational stories. The book starts with a split in a family lineage in present-day Ghana during the eighteenth century with two half-sisters, Effia and Esi. Homegoing, and it’s haunting, especially because it lingers in an unexpected way. Despite coming from the same mother, Effia and Esi never knew each other and led entirely different lives; one being married off to a British slave trader, while in the dungeons below, the other was enslaved and sent to the United States. From this point on and across seven generations, we get a chapter that gives a glimpse of each descendant’s life, often during significant moments in history (such as the Great Migration).

What was most powerful about Homegoing was the afterlives of every character playing a role in shaping their lineage. Through this, we see the repercussions of slavery and colonialism, resulting in the intergenerational trauma that would haunt for centuries (and, frankly, continue to haunt). The word “homegoing” marks death, but also a return to home. Gyasi pushes the reader to contemplate what shapes Black life and death, as well as what “home” means for the forcibly displaced. (There’s also a whole thing we can get into about Orlando Patterson’s “social death,” but that’s a literal essay waiting to happen.)

Homegoing is raw and emotional. While some may not be thrilled that each chapter are essentially like vignettes, I find that this approach precisely captures what Gyasi wants the reader to experience: a haunting full of unresolved ache.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Infertility, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts

sarah984's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was a beautiful but difficult read about one family on two continents grappling with the legacy of slavery and colonialism. Each chapter was told from the point of view of one individual, moving forward in time but still linking back.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Excrement, and Vomit