Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

26 reviews

chsm8's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Addiction

Moderate: Drug abuse, Animal death, Medical content, Drug use, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Racism, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Death

ksuazo94's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Drug abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Death of parent, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Infidelity

dannythestreet's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Death, Child death, Classism, Drug abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcohol, Religious bigotry, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Racial slurs

carlwheezer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Drug use

Moderate: Racism, Death, Addiction, Suicide attempt, and Self harm

bites_of_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-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

5.0

Transcendent Kingdom beautifully weaves science, religion, and the struggles with grief and addiction. We follow Gifty, a woman who is nearing the end of her PhD in neuroscience, focused on addiction research. In her lab she experiments with mice, making them addicted to Ensure and then testing to see which neurons are responsible for that behavior. At home, she cares for her mother who is in a deep depressive state. Her brother, Nana, died from a drug addiction that started from an OxyContin prescription after an ankle injury, so her research is very much tied to trying to understand why and how her brother became addicted and why he couldn't get out of that toxic cycle. To add to the complexity of this story, there is the religious background that Gifty grew up in. Her mother is deeply religious and instilled that belief in her from childhood. Gifty has journals filled with letters to God as she tried to process what was happening to her family when she was a child. 

All in all, this book is beautiful and heartbreaking. The ways that Gifty's family came together and broke apart are handled so carefully and tenderly that I was able to go through it with Gifty while maintaining a safe distance from that pain. I appreciate Gyasi's writing a lot and so far, both of her books have been excellent in my eyes, she's becoming an auto-buy author for me. I highly recommend this book but do check out the content warnings since it can be a difficult read for multiple reasons. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Addiction, Grief, Death, Medical content, Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

annabulkowski's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Addiction, Racism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

kelly_e's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

Title: Transcendent Kingdom
Author: Yaa Gyasi
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.50
Pub Date: August 31, 2020

T H R E E • W O R D S

Captivating • Heart-wrenching • Introspective

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Transcendent Kingdom came highly recommended to me by several book friends, yet I knew because of my deeply personal connection to the content that I would need to be in the right frame of mind when I finally picked it up. This awareness helped create a safe, deeply emotional reading experience for me that I am grateful for.

What an absolutely powerful book! Yaa Gyasi delivers a raw and compelling take on how science and faith merge and diverge. Written from the first person perspective with short chapters, it read more like a memoir, allowing a deep look into Gifty's internal battle in her search for understanding. Snippets from childhood and the past, really brought each of the characters to life, making them real and relatable. The writing is profoundly beautiful. Every word, every sentence has it's place. The science is easily digestible and the religions aspect aren't preachy. In all honesty, the author tackles mental illness and addiction with grace and respect, while also exploring themes of love and loss, of healing and belonging, and of family and identity. Underneath some of the bigger themes also lies an exploration of the immigrant experience, including racism.

There are so many emotional and thought-provoking passages sprinkled throughout the story, a few of which I have chosen to highlight below. However, it is how in the end the reader is left without answers that truly sticks with me. Isn't that the whole point? It's a testament to how we can search for answers, yet there are some things we can never know and therein lies the beauty of being alive.

Every now and then there is a book comes along and burrows itself deep into your soul and changes your perception, Transcendent Kingdom was one of those books for me. It is a book I will revisit in the future. One that contemplates what it means to live without answers. And one I hope is an invitation for readers to consider people living with mental illness and addiction with more understanding, empathy, and compassion. I will definitely be looking to get my hands on a copy of Gyasi's debut, Homecoming, and look forward to hearing about future books from this incredibly talented author.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who love profound writing
• anyone looking for a thought-provoking read
• book clubs

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"The truth is we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t even know the questions we need to ask in order to find out, but when we learn one tiny little thing, a dim light comes on in a dark hallway, and suddenly a new question appears."

"Nothing teaches you the true nature of your friendships like a sudden death, worse still, a death that’s shrouded in shame."

"If I've thought of my mother as callous, and many times I have, then it is important to remember what a callus is: the hardened tissue that forms over a wound."

"What I can say for certain is that there is no case study in the world that could capture the whole animal of my brother, that could show how smart and kind and generous he was, how much he wanted to get better, how much he wanted to live. Forget for a moment what he looked like on paper, and instead see him as he was in all of his glory, in all of his beauty. It’s true that for years before he died, I would look at his face and think, 'What a pity, what a waste'. But the waste was my own, the waste was what I missed out on whenever I looked at him and saw just his addiction." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Addiction, Grief, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Child death, Drug use, and Death

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Racism, Death of parent, Animal death, and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Sexism, Excrement, and Pregnancy

overdose, depression, sibling death

reddeddy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Body shaming, Sexual content, Cursing, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Classism, Dysphoria, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Bullying, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Animal death, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Blood, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

storykath's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Transcendent Kingdom tells the story of Gifty and her family, alternating between her childhood in Alabama and her present-day life as a PhD student in California. As her brother faces drug addiction, her mother mental illness, Gifty deals with their effects on her life while also growing up with complex views on religion, race, and love.

While much of the subject matter in this book was heavy, it never felt like a burden to read. Gifty's narration, both as a child and as an adult, is engaging, raw, and immersive. Her inner world is complex, flawed, and wholly believable, and there is similar nuanced characterization given to all the other characters in Gifty's life. The world of the story, including Gifty's neuroscience lab, Ghanaian culture, and evangelical Christianity, are all described in fascinating detail, and are just as well thought-out as the characters.

I found the alternating timeline to be refreshing and ideal for the pacing of the book. Key childhood moments occurred in conjunction with relevant parallels in Gifty's adult life. The switches also provided some relief and variety when one storyline would get particularly dark. At some points, the switches weren't perfectly chronological, and it would be briefly unclear what time period we were in, but this was a minor inconvenience at most.

Altogether, the stunning care and attention to detail in Transcendent Kingdom made it an unforgettable read, at times relatable, at times eye-opening, and always heart-wrenchingly real.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Racism

Moderate: Self harm, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Medical content, and Xenophobia

samarakroeger'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? Yes

5.0

one of the best books I’ve ever read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, and Sexism