Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

44 reviews

minnow's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

A stunning, heartbreaking book. This book follows two branches of a family throughout generations, telling heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story. We see slavery at its peak from the viewpoints of both the slaves and the African slavers, and then we follow the echoes of those experiences through multiple generations. The story is lush and vivid, graphic scenes are delivered with an edge but never go too far. 

I deducted a partial star only because there is one storyline that was paced too slowly, in my opinion. I found myself caring a little less about that character and the story dragged in that part. All other storylines were perfectly paced and engaging.

The ending of this story is beautiful, and very satisfying. All in all, a masterpiece of a book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, Vomit, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying

merakiforest's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Gore, and Mental illness

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

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

chelle22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

Minor: Infidelity

fionafsw's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This book was an epic spanning generations and continents, showing how we are the product of our history and how trauma doesn't get erased with every new generation but instead accumulates. Each character and her/his story was immensely interesting in and of itself and of course in connection with all the others to create a multi-century history featuring, through a feminist lens, the deepest shames of humanity (namely the slave trade and all related injustices). Well-written and a very rewarding read. I'd love to read more from Gyasi in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation

rkwaterski99's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

If you are a fan of interwoven vignettes and connections, I highly recommend this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction and Fire/Fire injury

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying

crybabybea's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

badgergatan's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Colonisation

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, and Rape