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challenging
reflective
sad
tense
My goodness. Yaa Gyasi has written a sweeping family epic with two branches of the family tree across several generations, packed into just over 300 pages. To me, this read like a collection of short stories until the last two chapters, with each person’s story unfolding in their own independent voice.
This is not the easiest book to read, with loads of generational trauma, but it carries hope as well. It also helps to know some of the history in both the U.S. and the Asante Empire/Ghana, since Gyasi did not take the space to explain all those threads (or else the book would surely triple in size.)
Each person felt very real to me. I want to know more about each of their lives, and yet, I deeply appreciate the full arc of history and family shown in this novel.
I listened to part of this on audio, and the narrator is excellent.
This is not the easiest book to read, with loads of generational trauma, but it carries hope as well. It also helps to know some of the history in both the U.S. and the Asante Empire/Ghana, since Gyasi did not take the space to explain all those threads (or else the book would surely triple in size.)
Each person felt very real to me. I want to know more about each of their lives, and yet, I deeply appreciate the full arc of history and family shown in this novel.
I listened to part of this on audio, and the narrator is excellent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I usually avoid family sagas but enjoyed this one. Great debut novel, the many characters presented were given different enough voices to be distinct, I liked some more than others. Each of the chapters, (characters), could probably stand alone; this was a little distracting. I wanted to find more ways that the characters were connected beyond relationship but didn’t see that. Overall a great read.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
informative
sad
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated