Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

116 reviews

thursdd4y's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

alishaabrahamsreads's review against another edition

4.0

i kinda feel like marjorie in the 2nd to last chapter when mrs. pinkston asks her if she likes or loves a book. if she can feel a book "deep within her" 

i think, unfortunately i only like this one. i can acknowledge the absolute mastery of craft Yaa Gyasi holds and the way her characters feel real and layered. but for some reason i didn't feel it "deep within me" -- maybe bc each ch is something new and newly horrific as well, but something just didn't click with me

also please look into TWs bc each chapter has something triggering in it (based on history, real world scenerios) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

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

megelizabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

"...everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else."

This is an absolute masterpiece. It's sprawling and all-encompassing whilst at the same time being deeply, deeply intimate. Naturally I connected to some characters and storylines more than I did others, but it was just such a privilege to be able to get to know so many members of one family over so many centuries. Yaa Gyasi does so much with so comparatively few pages for the multitudes this book contains, and it never feels as if anyone or anything isn't given the time and space and exploration they deserve. I am completely astounded that this is a debut novel.

I'm honestly struggling to form coherent thoughts but this just completely hit me on a level I was not expecting and I am just absolutely obsessed with it. It has so many important things to say about ancestry, history, race, relationships, and so much more, and I honestly cannot recommend it highly enough (but do be aware that it's extremely heavy - pls check content warnings <3).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Vomit

astralfeline's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This book was so well done. Some of my favorite aspects of the book are the way it's organized, the way the characters lives are connected, and just how well it shows how impactful and systemic things like racism and slavery can be that it continues to affect families generations later. I loved the questions included in the end because it really made me reflect on things I hadn't even thought about, like the significance that names hold. I almost wish we'd been able to see more of each character, because we really only saw small glimpses of their experiences, but I did love seeing how later generations interacted with or talked about the earlier characters. Read this for a book club and we have had some great discussion so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Excrement, and War

Minor: Child death, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury

bigolscrewup's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-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

5.0

The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position

Forgiveness, they shouted, all the while committing their wrongs

5/5🌟

How can a debut novel be this good ? Honestly the thing that surprises me more is the fact that it's a short book ( only 300 or so pages ) even though the story spans over two centuries, exploring each sister's family through the years. When I first started the book, I was sceptical, because it has a lot of characters and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep all the characters and their origin in place, but the way it was written, like a collection of short stories all related to previous generation made reading this book enjoyable.

Among all the books I've read in this particular genre, I loved reading it the most and that's all down to author's storytelling and the research behind it. I was able to learn more about slave trade and how it started out in countries like Ghana and the relationship dynamics between the slavers, the middle man and the British.

Especially with Esi's family line, It was disheartening, reading about the cruel laws that permitted the enslavement and wrongful imprisonment of innocent people in those times and it is heartbreaking to acknowledge the fact that it still persists today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

cecereads__'s review against another edition

4.5

This book was an absolute epic. The ambition and talent that went into this - and a debut as well!
It was gut-wrenching and tragic and criminally cruel, and heart-achingly stunning/heavy all at the same time.
Full of individual experiences - all including prejudice, discrimination and injustice - of about 250 years and seven generations. The subtlety of our world’s history and relationship with racism lives on to this day, and we cannot deny that or deny the history lesson that this book provides so vividly and thoroughly.

Favourite stories/chapters out of the 14 would have to be Ness, Kojo and H.
I need this to be required reading. But I also acknowledge the very heavy subject of colonialism and white superiority complexes. It is confronting but that’s how reality works… 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

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

booksillremember's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

Can’t believe this is a debut. I’m not usually any good with large casts of characters, so having 14 POVs felt daunting at first, but character introductions are spaced out enough so it’s not a problem to keep track. I cared for most characters, especially the women, even though they each only get 20-30ish pages. History is storytelling, as one of the characters puts it, and I really think this book should be part of the syllabus (maybe for 14/15+). It gives the reader so much historical information woven into heartbreaking personal stories. The only thing I didn’t care for was the symbolism with the visions, the fire and the water. It’s thrown in quite late and it felt constructed and out of place in its tone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Colonisation