Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

217 reviews

baearles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Mental illness, Rape, Excrement, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ravina_b's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews about this novel and as someone that loves historical family epics, I wasn’t sure how a telling of multiple generations could be conveyed completely within 300 pages.  HOMEGOING is about two sisters, one who marries a merchant and one who becomes enslaved.  Yaa Gyasi takes us through seven generations of each woman, exploring the different journeys their lives take and providing an insight into the extent of the damage that the slave trade inflicted on African communities.

I learnt a bit about how the Fante and Asante people dealt with British colonisation, and actually how little I knew about what exactly was happening when Europeans arrived in regions of Africa — gaps that I now know to learn more about.  In fact, I’ve read that Gyasi tied each character to a significant historical event and I’m not sure yet that I’m able to identify them all, so there’s a bit more work to be done on my part.

This was a tough read and some parts were extremely upsetting but, whilst I would have liked to learn a bit more about each character than I was able to with each getting roughly 20 pages each, it’s something I would turn to again.

📌 Set across Ghana and the United States.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Rape

katiesmolz's review against another edition

emotional reflective

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Colonisation

dowleyrachel's review against another edition

challenging hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.25

I liked the structure of the book, staying on a single character for only a chapter before moving onto their child. The book covered a myriad of topics and fully explored blackness both in the US and for those who stayed in Africa. Some chapters were very dark but the book had a hopeful ending where the two sides of the family meet and explore their roots together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

jennazim's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

sparklefarm's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Really incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Excrement, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, and War

Minor: Homophobia

jessieleeh's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Slavery, Violence, Excrement, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Rape, and Fire/Fire injury

victoriaryan89's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

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

cortingbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.0

Heartbreaking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Colonisation, War, and Classism