Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

442 reviews

cecilialau_'s review against another edition

4.5

This book was an absolute epic. The ambition and talent that went into this - and a debut as well!
It was gut-wrenching and tragic and criminally cruel, and heart-achingly stunning/heavy all at the same time.
Full of individual experiences - all including prejudice, discrimination and injustice - of about 250 years and seven generations. The subtlety of our world’s history and relationship with racism lives on to this day, and we cannot deny that or deny the history lesson that this book provides so vividly and thoroughly.

Favourite stories/chapters out of the 14 would have to be Ness, Kojo and H.
I need this to be required reading. But I also acknowledge the very heavy subject of colonialism and white superiority complexes. It is confronting but that’s how reality works… 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Excrement, War, Homophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Slavery, Violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Colonisation, Drug use, Torture, Vomit, Rape, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Racism, and Religious bigotry

kendler's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Racism, Slavery, and Racial slurs

rhi_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Violence, Confinement, and Slavery

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Child abuse, and Police brutality

Minor: Pregnancy, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Sexual harassment, Classism, Terminal illness, and Rape

chelle22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Genocide, Infidelity, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Classism, Racism, Infertility, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, War, Suicide, Torture, Homophobia, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Cultural appropriation, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Colonisation, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Police brutality, and Sexual content

shlymiller's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, War, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy and Suicide

estherk809's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book takes you on a multi-generational journey. So much so that you feel every ache, burning anger, and joy. It’s a way to find your roots and settle down. I’m glad that I was ready to read the book this time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, War, Slavery, and Racism

maya_venkatesh36's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Addiction, Slavery, Trafficking, Racism, Sexual violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Colonisation

mcplank's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? N/A

5.0

This book is so beautifully written, it captures you and doesn’t let you go. The ability of the author to so deeply connect you to each character in just one chapter is artful, and a testament to the craftsmanship of the writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Death, War, Kidnapping, Rape, Colonisation, and Racism

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.75

This author could not go a single chapter with talking about women’s breasts and that’s before the one chapter where a man uses at least a. Paragraph to describe the ass of the woman he married and after she is kidnapped into slavery after the fugitive slave act is passed he literally sees her in other women regardless of ass based on if they have a big ass to the point a woman catches his attention to slap him for staring. On that end while  a book that discusses Africans who will become Ghanaians and Americans will cover and discuss violence of all sorts into black Women especially sexual a lot of the violence to women in the book felt contrived and not taken that seriously or confused inherently for depth.

 Many of the chapters felt like they were shoehorning American milestones or historical events or topics surrounding racism. As well as in my opinion using Ghanaian faith and religion at multiple points it mystically move a plot point forward the author clearly wrote herself into a corner for. I hated the mother burning all of her children but one alive scene in a dream, bc I don’t think the book took the murder of the daughters seriously especially to insist spirits made her do it when she literally did not know she did it. Also at times her protagonists had very ahistorical social norms where they’d either be the most special or educated or the most suffering or ostracized person among their environmental or all those things at once while clearly trying to represent general Ghanaian and Black American history it was very lazy and off putting to see constantly. 

After reading it I’m not surprised to see a lot of reviews by Ghanaian nationals disliking the book or thinking it’s at least a mess of the Ghanaian cutler and history it tries to represent. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Murder, Racism, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Slavery, Violence, Sexual assault, and Sexism

Moderate: Drug use, Confinement, Child abuse, and Addiction

Minor: Infidelity

murve's review against another edition

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Trafficking, Racism, and Violence