Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

16 reviews

mxpringle's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book talked about really hard topics, but it was beautiful enough to where that was completely okay and warranted. It had such a unique reflection on both the value and harms of religion to a person's life that I found so inspiring. All of the hard topics that were brought up were like experiencing them the way real people experience them, not merely for a plot point, but intentionally crafting those as background to a person's character. This is the best book I have read in a long time. It was so stunningly beautiful that I'm honestly left a little bit unmoored after finishing it. 

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dannythestreet's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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silverrose187's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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paulasnotsosecretdiary's review

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Transcendent Kingdom is an intimate portrait of a young Ghanaian scientist trying to care for her severely depressed mother. As Gifty hopes her mother will come out of her struggle with mental illness, she reflects on her upbringing and how religion and emotional neglect keep her from having friendships and relationships with her peers and colleagues. The book explores the question of the soul as it relates to science and if religion has a role in scientific inquiry. It also explores facets of racism in the sciences and religion. These are the best bits. Although it's a far more personal story than Homegoing, there are a lot of plot points that feel not only familiar but well-worn. The writing draws the reader in and proves once more the talents of the author.

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kelly_e's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Title: Transcendent Kingdom
Author: Yaa Gyasi
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.50
Pub Date: August 31, 2020

T H R E E • W O R D S

Captivating • Heart-wrenching • Introspective

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Transcendent Kingdom came highly recommended to me by several book friends, yet I knew because of my deeply personal connection to the content that I would need to be in the right frame of mind when I finally picked it up. This awareness helped create a safe, deeply emotional reading experience for me that I am grateful for.

What an absolutely powerful book! Yaa Gyasi delivers a raw and compelling take on how science and faith merge and diverge. Written from the first person perspective with short chapters, it read more like a memoir, allowing a deep look into Gifty's internal battle in her search for understanding. Snippets from childhood and the past, really brought each of the characters to life, making them real and relatable. The writing is profoundly beautiful. Every word, every sentence has it's place. The science is easily digestible and the religions aspect aren't preachy. In all honesty, the author tackles mental illness and addiction with grace and respect, while also exploring themes of love and loss, of healing and belonging, and of family and identity. Underneath some of the bigger themes also lies an exploration of the immigrant experience, including racism.

There are so many emotional and thought-provoking passages sprinkled throughout the story, a few of which I have chosen to highlight below. However, it is how in the end the reader is left without answers that truly sticks with me. Isn't that the whole point? It's a testament to how we can search for answers, yet there are some things we can never know and therein lies the beauty of being alive.

Every now and then there is a book comes along and burrows itself deep into your soul and changes your perception, Transcendent Kingdom was one of those books for me. It is a book I will revisit in the future. One that contemplates what it means to live without answers. And one I hope is an invitation for readers to consider people living with mental illness and addiction with more understanding, empathy, and compassion. I will definitely be looking to get my hands on a copy of Gyasi's debut, Homecoming, and look forward to hearing about future books from this incredibly talented author.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who love profound writing
• anyone looking for a thought-provoking read
• book clubs

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"The truth is we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t even know the questions we need to ask in order to find out, but when we learn one tiny little thing, a dim light comes on in a dark hallway, and suddenly a new question appears."

"Nothing teaches you the true nature of your friendships like a sudden death, worse still, a death that’s shrouded in shame."

"If I've thought of my mother as callous, and many times I have, then it is important to remember what a callus is: the hardened tissue that forms over a wound."

"What I can say for certain is that there is no case study in the world that could capture the whole animal of my brother, that could show how smart and kind and generous he was, how much he wanted to get better, how much he wanted to live. Forget for a moment what he looked like on paper, and instead see him as he was in all of his glory, in all of his beauty. It’s true that for years before he died, I would look at his face and think, 'What a pity, what a waste'. But the waste was my own, the waste was what I missed out on whenever I looked at him and saw just his addiction." 

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pagesofkenzie's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-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? Yes

4.0


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reddeddy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.5


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tawneylee's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

This was an emotional and beautiful experience to read. The detailed and in depth exploration of family trauma, grief, addiction,religion and finding meaning was phenomenal. I loved the non linear fashion of the narrative and felt being inside Giftys’s head to be so realistic and raw. Her journey of self discovery was harrowing at times but I loved seeing her find herself and start to open up and work through her and let go of her trauma. An important glimpse into the life of a immigrant family from Ghana. Also loved the family dynamics between characters and how it showcased hoe they affected eachother. 

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aseel_reads's review

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emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

5.0

hello my first five star fiction read of 2021 😍 this book was something else, it keeps coming to my mind randomly through my day.

a lot of this is to do with the adjacent relations I have to certain parts of the book, I'm doing a PhD, in psychology, looking at depression, I am a person of colour, I am religious. I just relate to a lot of different parts of the book, in slightly different ways so a lot of it hits me. 

the writing was phenomenal, the weaving style of narration was powerful, the plot was heartbreaking, the occasional psychology/neuroscience facts were lovely. big fan.

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emmagreenwood's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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