Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Verheven koninkrijk by Yaa Gyasi

284 reviews

litlifeguide's review against another edition

5.0

This felt so personal. It didn’t feel like fiction at all, but a memoir instead. Gifty our FMC is a PhD candidate studying reward-seeking behavior, depression, and addiction.  As Gifty is going for her PhD, we also see her grief-stricken past. Her relationships with family, addiction, depression, past lovers, and god. 

This was really, really beautiful. It was reflective, profound, and heartbreaking. I loved it and you should absolutely read it if you haven’t.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

lupitabaeyongo's review against another edition

dark 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Vomit

menomica's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense

• 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? No

“There is no living thing on God’s Earth that doesn’t come to know pain sometime.”

This book broke my heart.

Yaa Gyasi is so amazing at describing trauma without coming off as gratuitous. She manages to capture the multiple aspects of pain and hurt, and even how at certain level you begin to normalize it.

The way Gifty talks about the trauma that she experienced as a preteen—watching her brother strung out on her lap, her mothers attempted suicide—you really get the sense that though she understands the harrowing nature of her experiences, she hasn’t really given herself room to reflect on how she experienced these things at such a young age and how that affected her.

I think this book is very beautiful, especially if you go in not viewing it with the expectation of a narrative structure. A lot of the storlines don’t tie up in neat bows, they simply end, come to their own natural conclusions. And to me, that feels very much like how things happen in real life.

Anyway, I think this book is so amazing. Definitely recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Abandonment

yaelm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, and Suicide attempt

splurglofl's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Death

Minor: Suicide attempt

ralucahuruniuc's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Suicide attempt

ejs2000'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

4.5

This is a really good book that I'll be thinking about for a long time to come. The story follows Gifty, a scientist not only trying to make sense of reward-seeking behaviour in her mice test-subjects, but also trying to make sense of her past too.

It made me feel more open-minded towards those that devoutly follow the Bible (I'm an atheist and quite the sceptic) and I always love it when I learn something new from a book - it's why I read! It's a great way to challenge your perceptions and grow as a person IMO.

Gifty's struggle understanding the events in her life in the context of God, and later in the context of neuroscience was a really powerful way to explore these issues. The impact of her brother's drug abuse in crushing her religious faith was interesting to follow, especially with the first-person narration. The strained relationship she has with her mother added another layer to this book making it a very captivating read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

sarahec's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Suicide attempt

abithoughtful's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

5.0

I loved that this took for granted that religion and science aren't incompatible and instead takes as its central thesis the idea that they're sort of... identical? Miraculous about love and grief and being open about the dark questions you hold deep in your heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death and Suicide attempt

Minor: Racism