Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - Transcendent Kingdom

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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ejs2000's review against another edition

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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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hannahbailey's review against another edition

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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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vaniavela's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

Gifty is a sixth-year neuroscience major at Stanford University. Ever since her brother died from an overdose, she has been trying to understand the reason for his addiction. Why was Nana addicted to drugs and why was he never able to quit?

What did I like?

As this book questions faith and religion, I think the author did a great job exploring the relationship between religion and science.
There is an emotional depth within the writing so I came to empathize with the characters.

What didn't I like?

The structure was confusing. The jumps in time and space were an interesting portrayal of reading how the pain and trauma affected her life, but it wasn't for me. Especially since these time jumps were not chronological.
I would have loved to read the mother and brother's perspective, especially since so much of what Gifty narrates is related to them.

Transcendent Kingdom didn't manage to impress me, but I kind of appreciated it at the end.

CWs: Addiction, alcohol consumption, child death, death, drug abuse/use, death from overdose, grief, mental illness (depression), misogyny, racism, religious bigotry, sexual content (mild), sexism.

Content Warnings

i_dont_know_what_im_doing's review against another edition

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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

4.75

this made me feel a lot of things... Gifty's struggle with religion so closely reflected my own complicated feelings towards it. I have not lost family to addiction but the way Gyasi writes her grief and the confusion that accompanies it, I couldn't help grieving alongside her. There is so much to this book that I cannot unpack right now.
but I HIGHLY recommend this. it took me some time to get through but it was so worth it. I will be thinking about this for a long time & may even pick it up for a reread.

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jazzeeazz's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

themes: the relationship between science and religion, addiction, effects of addiction on family, Black immigrant experience, Depression

pages 228-229 actually broke me emotionally and i will never recover 🤪

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grboph's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

This was one of the best books I have ever read, and certainly my favorite that I've read so far this year. I was initially intrigued by the neuroscience and religion aspects of it, but then the characters and story completely pulled me in and kept me invested until the very end. It was definitely a very sad story and doesn't have a happy ending per se, but it is still very hopeful (as the main plot revolves around Gifty's desire to fix the issues that afflicted her mother and her brother). As a sort-of nerd, I also loved all of the musings on the brain and a lot of them beautifully captured the reasons behind why I also want to study neuroscience. I am also very fascinated by religion and the impacts it can leave on people, so I loved reading about the way this affected Gifty as well as her family members' experiences with addiction and mental illness. I also liked that much of the story was just Gifty's stream of consciousness - that is not something I typically like, but Gyasi is such a wonderful writer that this aspect added to the depth of the story in this case. Overall, this was a very impactful story that I will remember reading for a very long time. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in neuroscience or religion, or just anyone who is looking for a good emotional, character-driven book to read.

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