A review by and_thats_the_tay
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

challenging emotional sad medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Homegoing is one of my all-time favorite books, so I had high expectations for Transcendent Kingdom… and they were met! 
 
TK is a portrait of a Ghanaian family in Alabama, whose home is ravaged by addiction, depression, and loss.  The book follows Gifty, the youngest sibling, as she attempts to reckon her childhood religion with her dedication to science and the pursuit of academic answers to addiction, an illness that handed her family an insurmountable loss. 
 
This book struck so many chords for me: on a more surface level, it was fun to read a book set at Stanford while calling this campus home, but on a deeper level, I’ve never read a book that so carefully parallels the feelings I’ve had about my own upbringing in a strict and patriarchal church that I’ve since left, yet how that personal history continues to influence my choices and self-worth.  The way that Gifty reconciles her childhood faith and her reliance on science was so beautiful and reminded me that “we [can] contain multitudes” and that is okay.  
 
My favorite quote for anyone who may feel the same: “I believe in God, I do not believe in God. Neither of those sentiments felt true to what I actually felt.”   
 
God may be the traditional God so many worship. God may be a science lab that seeks to cure addiction. God may be be your relationships that sustain you. What I took is that Gyasi wants her readers to know that each of these manifestations is okay.  It was an absolute gift to receive this message from Gifty. 
 
Moral of the story: Anything Yaa Gyasi touches turns to gold. The ways she says things without actually saying them.  Her metaphors, analogies— *chefs kiss*. 
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