Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

6 reviews

mxpringle's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

5.0

This book talked about really hard topics, but it was beautiful enough to where that was completely okay and warranted. It had such a unique reflection on both the value and harms of religion to a person's life that I found so inspiring. All of the hard topics that were brought up were like experiencing them the way real people experience them, not merely for a plot point, but intentionally crafting those as background to a person's character. This is the best book I have read in a long time. It was so stunningly beautiful that I'm honestly left a little bit unmoored after finishing it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Drug use, Addiction, Suicide, Racism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Racism, and Sexual content

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

A beautiful and painful book that demands the reader's full attention. Gyasi doesn't lay things out A then B then C; instead, she gives us a puzzle of C then A then Q and trusts that we as readers are clever enough and paying enough attention to put the pieces together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Child death, Grief, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Addiction, Death, Ableism, Drug use, and Racism

Moderate: Blood, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Bullying, Body shaming, Sexism, Violence, Child abuse, and Animal death

Minor: Medical content, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Vomit, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

lenni_sc's review against another edition

emotional informative 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Terminal illness, Death, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Racial slurs, and Racism

lineofbooks's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this, though not for the reason I expected to enjoy it. I picked it because I heard it dealt with neuroscience, and while I don't have a science background myself, I am interested in the intersection between literature and science. I don't feel like Transcendent Kingdom taught me anything about the human brain, but there were so many other things to enjoy that I don't care. I love how this story, despite having multiple tragedies at its heart, is emotional but never a tearjerker. It's written in a relatively dry, objective voice, which fits perfectly with its narrator being a scientist. I love how it forced me to face my own misguided preconceptions about Ghana (I somehow assumed that the family move from there to the US would be motivated by a war or some other atrocity and it wasn't). And most of all, I love its ending - which I won't spoil for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Terminal illness

allisoncc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical content, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Physical abuse, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Misogyny and Sexual content

nibs's review

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is so intimate. It is sad and painful but resilient. It's centred around Gifty's life as her depressed mother comes to stay with her, but surrounds this present with windows to the past. Gradually filling in the stories of her family, their life, her love for her brother and the shame of his addiction. These things all lead to who Gifty is today. Although this book is really sad at times, there is hope shining through it.

I am so glad it ended on a hopeful note.

A book that makes you sit and remember how unfair and messed up this world is, but that people muddle through it anyway. 

Also the writing itself was so well done. 
This quote from p211 was a highlight: 

 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 just saw his addiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Suicide, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Terminal illness and Racial slurs