Reviews with content warning for Racism - Homegoing

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

449 reviews

artemisg's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

Brutally beautiful. How Gyasi managed to make every character and their voice distinct in 20ish pages is a miracle to me. We spend so little time with everyone, but their stories feel told; they feel real and whole. That is an achievement.

This is the problem of history. We cannot know that which we were not there to see and hear and experience for ourselves. We must rely upon the words of others.

This feels like an essential novel. Through reading this, I came to understand things I didn’t necessarily enjoy. In this novel, we follow two different familial lines from Ghana. One ancestral line stems from a women who was married off to an English slave trader, and one from a woman who was captured and traded as a slave. The stories heartbreakingly mirror one another in some ways and are heartwrenchingly different in others.

If we go to the white man for school, we will learn the way the white man wants us to learn. We will come back and build the country the white man wants us to build. One that continues to serve them. We will never be free.

So much was stolen from the people in this book, and so much was stolen from enslaved people and indigenous communities in the slave trade. This book examines the prison complex and, segregation and drug abuse. It is also beautifully written, and emotional and important and everything to me.

Content Warnings

noahsingh's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad

4.25

Enjoyed a lot of aspects of this book:
- Love a family/generational story.
-Colonial resistance storylines were really interesting.
-Felt like I heard some perspectives I hadn't heard before, and learnt some historical stuff about the exploitation of black people post-slavery I hadn't heard about before.

Ending was a lil disappointing to me tho,

in the sense that I wish Marjorie had been aware of her families past a bit more through Akua and therefore somehow able to recognise Marcus as familiy

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emilylovesgoodbooks's review

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

bookdrunkard78's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.5

Content Warnings

badgergatan's review

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Unfortunately a touch too dark for my tastes, and a plot structure that’s difficult to follow. I may revisit it someday - this was far enough beyond my typical comfort zone that I wasn’t quite ready for itZ

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vexbatch's review against another edition

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challenging fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

A captivating look at the effects of slavery through generations. I absolutely adore the alternating perspectives between two branches of this same family tree, each two chapters moving us forward a generation. I could not put this book down; the stories were captivating (to repeat myself) and just urge you forward through the years.

Content Warnings

takarakei's review

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emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

"We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask your self, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there, you begin to get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.”

This is not my typical kind of read, but I did think it was well done for the most part. Particularly the beginning stories were very lush and I think there's some extremely important perspectives to be gained by reading this book. As the quote says - there are many sides of history to be told and many perspectives are often left out. Towards the ending few stories I was a tad less engaged with, perhaps these were more familiar stories to me and that's why? Having the family tree at the front was very integral to be aware of how people were related. For sure an important read!!

Content Warnings