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rmeile's review against another edition
5.0
This was breathtaking. Gyasi has created one of the most genuine, thoughtful and compelling narratives i’ve ever read. Truly, truly transcendent.
vevinaw's review against another edition
This book was so good, I had to stop and get a physical copy first. Favourite book of the year so far, it feels intimate, a conversation with a part of myself.
tex2flo's review against another edition
3.0
I’m sure this is a very good book. I just couldn’t get past some of the experiments on mice. Mental illness and family relationships were all there but were overshadowed in my opinion.
kinda_like_shaft's review against another edition
3.0
Good but not great. I felt like so many of the characters acted exactly like i expected them to act, and at the end the author yada yada yada-ed the start and remainder of her married life and her mother’s passing due to old age. Still well written, but not exactly well told.
kendramantz's review against another edition
3.0
I appreciate this book for its beautiful writing and sensitive reflections on religion, science, race, and family trauma. I just didn’t connect with it and found myself bored and skimming, especially through all the regurgitation of scripture and prayers. I’m excited to read her other novel, though!
luce219's review against another edition
3.0
This book has amazing reviews. I didn’t connect with it at all.
sara_bruning's review against another edition
5.0
Most of the book I thought “this is good, but how can I compare it to the masterpiece of Homegoing?” Then somehow I turned the last page and found myself crying and feeling and just completely overwhelmed by the beauty of this story. Yaa Gyasi is amazing.
tashspice's review against another edition
5.0
It's been a few weeks since I read this, and I'm still having trouble putting into words how many layers of brilliance this book contains. Yaa Gyasi has done it again.
The book starts with Gifty taking care of her mother, who is going through deep depression. She's studying neuroscience and is a PhD or MD student, I'm not 100% sure, but she does research on mice to understand addition and depression. Her medical research is highlighted by flashbacks of her family's immigration story and her life growing up in white-Alabama. There are so many topics that were touched upon that didn't feel forced but made you rethink things. The humanizing of her brother who back an addict after a knee injury in high school was a plot that was seamlessly integrated into the storytelling flashbacks. You're living Gifty's life with her, and I'll go on any journey Yaa wants to take me on.
The book starts with Gifty taking care of her mother, who is going through deep depression. She's studying neuroscience and is a PhD or MD student, I'm not 100% sure, but she does research on mice to understand addition and depression. Her medical research is highlighted by flashbacks of her family's immigration story and her life growing up in white-Alabama. There are so many topics that were touched upon that didn't feel forced but made you rethink things. The humanizing of her brother who back an addict after a knee injury in high school was a plot that was seamlessly integrated into the storytelling flashbacks. You're living Gifty's life with her, and I'll go on any journey Yaa wants to take me on.
sbrads17's review against another edition
5.0
"For most of us, mechanically, physically, it’s harder to die than it is to live. But still we try to die. We drive too fast down winding roads, we have sex with strangers without wearing protection, we drink, we use drugs. We try to squeeze a little more life out of our lives. It’s natural to want to do that. But to be alive in the world, every day, as we are given more and more and more, as the nature of “what we can handle” changes and our methods for how we handle it change, too, that’s something of a miracle.”
ebats's review against another edition
4.0
beautiful. a woman struggles through her own grief after losing her brother to addiction, as she navigates through her complicated feelings about christianity. it’s so well written…i was highlighting passages all over the place. most of my reading now takes place in the wee hours of the night nursing my son…that connection to this story was not lost on me and added some poignance, i have to say. felt a taddddd slow in the back half but this was just so good.