Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

242 reviews

silverrose187's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Racism, Mental illness, Addiction, and Death

streetmuseums's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

reading this on a plane was a mistake.  so good 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, and Suicide attempt

maggies's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

4.0

A beautiful and poetic meditation on love and loss

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Child death, Drug abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Racism 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

sketchydelusion's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Racism, and Sexual content

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

brianareads's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Excrement, Mental illness, Drug use, Grief, Vomit, and Death of parent

diaratewi's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Addiction, Death, Drug use, Grief, and Mental illness

annabulkowski's review

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

c_flint's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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: Racism, Addiction, Death, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Mental illness