Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

40 reviews

katievh's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Minor: Rape and Homophobia

rochellem's review against another edition

challenging 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? No

5.0

One of the most beautiful books that I have ever read. It is truly a great gift. In my view this should be essential reading everywhere. I think this is the only book that has ever given me goosebumps. I just finished it and would like to read it again right now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, and Slavery

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Excrement, and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

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

eloiseisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, and Adult/minor relationship

mandkips's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Sexual assault, Rape, Racial slurs, Death, Trafficking, Torture, Sexual violence, Child death, Child abuse, Genocide, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, Homophobia, and Infertility

quirpele's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• 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, Slavery, Sexual assault, Rape, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Homophobia, Hate crime, Genocide, Excrement, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Child abuse, Blood, and Addiction

achingallover's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

• 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, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Genocide, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

paigieodo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Never will you read a fictional novel that feels so honest as Homegoing. Never will you read a book so saturated and vibrant, even as it lays out bleak, grey histories. These stories, these family lines—they're made up. But they're real. Yaa Gyasi does not need to dramatize or embellish history to drive home a point about ancestral trauma or about systemic racism; The history tells the story, Gyasi simply uses her beautiful words as a vehicle. Her characters, all of whom are stunningly rich and full, almost feel tangible in the real world. They endure the mundane much more often than the extraordinary. Gyasi wants us to understand that suffering lies in the average and the simple as well as the audacious and the repugnant.  Her characters feel real to me. I feel like I know them, and like I will always remember them. This is both because Gyasi is fantastic at writing characters, and because the history she pulls them from is so rooted in truth. They feel real because they could be, and in many ways, are.

We all carry our families—the ones we know and the ones we don't—in ourselves.  We are all traumatized by their traumas, imbued with their loves and their fears, holding all of their good and their bad as well as the good and the bad that was done to them. Yaa Gyasi understands this better than any other author I've encountered.  Nothing speaks more to this than these words from the closing chapter:

"How could he explain to Marjorie that what he wanted to capture with his project was the feeling of time, of having been a part of something that stretched so far back, was so impossibly large, that it was easy to forget that she, and he, and everyone else, existed in it—not apart from it, but inside of it."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Racism, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death, and Rape

Minor: Excrement, Kidnapping, and Homophobia

sherbertwells's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

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

4.0

In case you’re reading this review because you’ve recently heard of Yaa Gyasi’s bestselling novel Homegoing and are considering “getting around to it” but have no idea whether it’s as good as the professional, respected reviewers say it is: yes. Almost.

But how is that possible? Can a debut novel by a twenty-something author that frames itself as a family saga (a well-trod structure in Western literature) really earn an average rating of 4.44 on Goodreads? How can Gyasi effectively convey 250 years of slavery, racism, colonialism and human suffering in only 300 pages? Is there a point at all to reading popular books because of someone else’s recommendation?

1. Yes.
2. Good characters.
3. Maybe.

The third question is the easiest to answer. Homegoing had been on my TBR for several months before I received a copy of it, and I had read rave reviews and seen Booktubers’ recommendations. I had loved some popular, oft-recommended books before it (Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel) and disliked others (The Overstory by Richard Powers), but the story of two half-sisters who experience history and raise families on both sides of the Atlantic also seemed inherently interesting to me. Still, it was hard to ignore the overwhelming hype surrounding this book and Transcendent Kingdom, Gyasi’s second novel. What was it about Gyasi that could make centuries of disenfranchisement into a bestseller?

For one, she observes the less-explored corners of that history. The early chapters explore the Transatlantic Slave Trade from the perspectives of African leaders complicit in selling slaves. Big topics like the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement are skipped entirely. Yaa Asentewaa’s war and the struggle for independence are fought squarely from the home front. Instead, Gyasi focuses on things like the wrongful incarceration and forced labor of black men in America during Reconstruction, and the implementation of Cocoa planting across Ghana. 

“Every time he saw the bomnoys set off with a canoe fall of slaves, he thought of his father standing on the shores of the Cape Coast Castle, ready to receive them. On this shore, watching the canoe push off, Quey brimmed with the same shame that accompanied each slave departure. What had his father felt on his shore?” (62)

But Homegoing is more than an account of historical events. While history is the focus of the story, the incredibly human relationships tether one character to another. I was invested in every love story Gyasi presented, from the uneasy affection of Effia and James, to the adolescent pining of Quey and Cudjo, to the heartbreaking partnership of Willie and Robert. Gyasi’s cast is neither historic nor histrionic. Each character is believable and many are lovable.

Gyasi, having accomplished the Herculean task of writing a story that encompasses the sweep of history while remaining intimate and original, is on the cusp of brilliance. What earthly force could fetter it?

“In Hell, the sun scorched cotton so hot it almost burned the palms of your hands to touch it. Holding those small white puffs had almost felt like holding fire, but God forbid you let one drop. The Devil was always watching” (74)

The prose.

The prose is alright. It’s not bad. It’s just not as good as the characters or the history. Gyasi writes from the perspectives of 14 different characters, but their voices blur together a little by the end. Perhaps Gyasi is still finding her literary voice, and by Transcendent Kingdom, her second novel, it will be more developed. But without this crucial element I cannot quite give Homegoing the five stars that its scope and characters might otherwise indicate.

Nevertheless, I’m very glad I read Homegoing and that I can recommend it to you. I’m not going to insist that you read it. That’s obnoxious. But if you choose to pick it up, you will soon find yourself staring across a black and unrelenting tide which might just sweep you away.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Sexism, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Homophobia, Violence, and Suicide

the_literarylinguist's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence