Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

66 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

siomaii's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Racial slurs, Grief, Death, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Moderate: Death of parent and Forced institutionalization

avacadosocks's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Death

Minor: Death of parent

leonormsousa's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

I really liked this one. It is beautifully written, and the constant time jumps were done perfectly, which is something quite rare. It hooked me from the start, and I found myself wanting more at the end, even though I know this was the perfect size for this story.

Small note that I was pleasantly surprised by the queer representation in this one (MC is queer). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Grief, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Racism, and Religious bigotry

violerwolf's review against another edition

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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Realistic fiction, especially as slow paced as the “plot” is in this book, isn’t typically my cup of tea. But Gyasi, through masterful prose and a constantly shifting timeline of events, makes this such an engaging story about addiction, depression, family, and religion. The way she interweaves themes through various points of the main character’s life and places them throughout the narrative is beautifully done. My one critique is that the main character’s internal reflection can be a bit heavy handed at times, but don’t let that stop you from checking this book out.

I picked up this book because Homegoing had such a long waitlist at my library, and I’m so glad I did. I can’t wait to read Gyasi’s other works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Child death, Animal cruelty, Racism, Mental illness, Grief, and Addiction

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Homophobia

brekaboujie's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

4.25

I really enjoyed this, despite it being intensely sad basically the whole way through. I liked the narration a lot, it was a little hard to follow sometimes as it jumped around constantly but it felt very natural and very much like I was planted into Gifty's brain. It was somehow a mix of a very intense and deep story and a very shallow day to day one - I think in some ways that really added to understanding Gifty's experience, as the vulnerability in her writing was constant but also you only ever got slivers of time on each topic/moment. It was clever and made me want to keep reading.

The end was a mix for me - it felt realistic and basic which isn't a bad thing! About 15 pages before the end I suddenly thought "wait a sec this is ending soon and I have no idea what would be a good or satisfying ending here". I think the fact that it wasn't super satisfying weirdly made it work, it's just life, you just keep going with it and that's fine. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the way it was written and Gifty was an interesting character to follow. Different from what I'd usually go for, but a positive different!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Racism, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death

Minor: Death of parent

mrlsdevos's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Dementia and Death of parent

siebensommer's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

my need to diy my mother‘s mental health 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Addiction, Abandonment, and Death

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Medical content

jasmine_peacock's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Drug use, and Drug abuse

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