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A review by meemawreads
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Don’t you hate it when you expect to like a book a lot more than you do?!
This is not a bad book, I just thought I’d connect with it and it was a miss for me. The narrator, Gifty, is the American-raised daughter of Ghanaian immigrants. After a traumatic and religious childhood, she goes into neuroscience and has to grapple with how science challenges her faith and intersects with the substance abuse and depression that has plagued her family.
I didn’t necessarily NOT enjoy this book, I just got bored. Most of the plot happens in the flashbacks to her past and is revealed in journal entries. It made stretches of the book feel like nothing was happening, like the author was just holding forth on philosophy for a few paragraphs. We don’t spend much time with Gifty in which she isn’t thinking about her research, her past, or her mother, so things like her romantic interest in the present seem to come out of nowhere.
I think I would connect with this more if I had experiences closer to the pretty specific ones of the protagonist. This book is resonating with a lot of people if the hype any indicator, so I have a feeling my opinion will be an unpopular one. And that’s okay 🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
PS, I’m officially 2/2 on not enjoying Jenna Bush’s books, OPE.
This is not a bad book, I just thought I’d connect with it and it was a miss for me. The narrator, Gifty, is the American-raised daughter of Ghanaian immigrants. After a traumatic and religious childhood, she goes into neuroscience and has to grapple with how science challenges her faith and intersects with the substance abuse and depression that has plagued her family.
I didn’t necessarily NOT enjoy this book, I just got bored. Most of the plot happens in the flashbacks to her past and is revealed in journal entries. It made stretches of the book feel like nothing was happening, like the author was just holding forth on philosophy for a few paragraphs. We don’t spend much time with Gifty in which she isn’t thinking about her research, her past, or her mother, so things like her romantic interest in the present seem to come out of nowhere.
I think I would connect with this more if I had experiences closer to the pretty specific ones of the protagonist. This book is resonating with a lot of people if the hype any indicator, so I have a feeling my opinion will be an unpopular one. And that’s okay 🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
PS, I’m officially 2/2 on not enjoying Jenna Bush’s books, OPE.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, and Religious bigotry