Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

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

11 reviews

nad_books623's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

As an African American and descendants of slaves this book was amazing.

I did not expect them to meet to meet at the end. I was so shocked to read that Marcus met Marjorie. The ending was everything and I did not think it would connect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Grief, Suicide, Violence, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Drug use

Moderate: Trafficking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Minor: Toxic relationship, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Homophobia

crybabybea's review against another edition

reflective sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Torture, Drug use, Misogyny, Slavery, Colonisation, Death of parent, Murder, Classism, Racism, Sexual content, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, War, Confinement, Excrement, Grief, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Child death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Religious bigotry

beanew's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Gyasi’s storytelling is a magnificent accomplishment in oral tradition despite being a written book. The many vignettes throughout the generations read like one would expect a great oral storyteller to speak, capturing every detail and filling the listener with emotion and understanding. 
The motifs throughout the book were well explored and neatly wrapped up, and I wish I had could write an essay on the ways Gyasi chose to resolve certain elements (the stone necklaces!!!). I found so many of the characters deeply compelling and empathetic, so wildly different from each other. Gyasi never shies away from the brutality of the slave trade, it feels very painfully realistic in ways that Americans are never truly shown in history class. 
My criticisms are that I felt the very final chapter was not as moving as I expected it to be simply because Marcus is the least fleshed-out character (in my opinion) of the whole book, so to end with him felt weak. I loved the character of Marjorie, but I found that the similarities to Gyasi’s own life experiences took me out of the story many times; instead of being immersed, I found myself wondering which pieces of that chapter were autobiographical or wish fulfillment of the author. Also a pattern of minor fat phobia happened frequently enough that it simply can’t be the character’s perspectives, it’s just Gyasi’s opinion. Beautiful people are “thick”, dumb/mean/loud/gluttonous people are “fat”. Felt weird, but didn’t majorly detract from the story! 
Overall, the concept was so beautifully executed and the book was so moving and heartbreaking in equal measures. I would highly recommend it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Police brutality, Confinement, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Slavery

Moderate: Child death and Colonisation

Minor: Fatphobia

seaschells's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Addiction, Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, and War

jae_bird'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Child death, Child abuse, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Slavery, Infidelity, Confinement, Death of parent, Violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Blood, Colonisation, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Police brutality, Murder, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Drug abuse, Bullying, War, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Suicide, and Homophobia

jesshindes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

I came to Homegoing a bit late, or a bit backwards; I read Yaa Gyasi's second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, in book group last year (great choice, thanks Rosie) and only got around to reading her first this year. That wasn't because of any lack of enthusiasm; I loved Transcendent Kingdom and had heard a lot of great things about this novel. All of them were correct! Homegoing packs several centuries, two continents, and dozens of characters into just over 300 pages and somehow manages to give the reader a meaningful insight into all of them.  The novel begins with two sisters in what is now Ghana - one who marries a white slaver, one of whom is sold into slavery - and continues on through the line of their descendants up until the present day. Each pair of chapters steps forward another generation along its parallel lines: the branch of the family which stays in Africa and those who are taken to the USA. You drop into a moment of each character's life - maybe a few months, a year - and then whoosh, the baby you've seen toddling around in the previous chapter is an adult and you're seeing the world through their eyes. It's such a compelling narrative effect but in the hands of a less skilful writer, it's easy to see how the characters might have felt flat or emblematic; this is the enslaved character working in the cotton fields, this is the character in early 20th-century Harlem who wishes she were a singer, etc. But it doesn't feel like that. They're all beautifully rendered, complex people and - what I really, really liked - they're all reasonably well-informed about the family who preceded them. They're connected to their ancestors. The people who you know up close are remembered by their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, part of the story of itself that each branch of the family tells. I loved that. Even under circumstances that would make it very easy to lose touch with the past, these histories are not forgotten but rather become a crucial part of how each character sees him or herself. 

That connection and that memory is I think particularly important in the context of a novel that necessarily deals with a huge amount of brutality and suffering. Obviously the history of the slave trade and its historical ramifications is a horrible, bleak history of colonial violence and Gyasi doesn't shy away from that (nor should she) but she finds a counterbalance in the way that her characters hang onto their humanity - their family, their community - in the face of everything that is done to them. It's an incredibly tricky balancing act to pull off, I think - to depict the pain clearly and honestly without making a book that's so unrelenting it becomes unbearable - which is one of the very many reasons that I cannot BELIEVE this was a debut novel. What a thing to have written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Child death, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and War

vaniafernandez_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Police brutality, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Racism, Stalking, Murder, Addiction, Child death, Classism, Rape, Trafficking, War, Violence, Torture, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

brittany_jean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

5.0

Wow. What an incredible book. Each generation read like it’s own short story, yet it all flowed in such a logical way. A beautiful, haunting book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Grief, Violence, Sexual violence, Slavery, Rape, Racism, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Confinement, Colonisation, and Child abuse

Moderate: Drug use and Child death

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

sweekune's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I went into this book blind, based on a friend's recommendation and the vague description of "It's about two black sisters and their descendents. It's sooo good." I'm not sure "good" is the right word for the raw, serrated emotions this book brought from me. I cried with almost every chapter and have come away forever changed by this book.

- Each chapter has a different point of view, starting with the original sisters and flowing down the generations to modern day. You feel the weight of the ancestor's experience influencing the lives of the descendents. Despite the short time spent with each protagonist, the author's writing draws you in and you feel in your heart for each and every one of them.

- This book documents extremely well the challenges of black people from the slave trade, colonialism, segregation, gaining independence, workers' rights, drug addiction and so much more. This is the sort of book that should be studied in schools and used to spark discussions on history and the awful things white people did (and still do) to black people and forge a better future.

- The language used is beautiful and Gyasi's prose paints all these places and points in time so it's like you're there. The ending of one chapter almost made me vomit the imagery was so strong. It takes amazing skill to write something that produces such a visceral reaction and I am in awe of her talent.

Absolutely and irrevocably scarring in the best way. I will carry Homegoing with me for a long time and I felt it within me. Everyone should read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Vomit