Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Sublime Royaume by Yaa Gyasi

33 reviews

alisonannk's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Medical trauma

Minor: Hate crime, Misogyny, and Sexism

jaynovara's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

reddeddy's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cursing, Sexual content, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

storykath's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Transcendent Kingdom tells the story of Gifty and her family, alternating between her childhood in Alabama and her present-day life as a PhD student in California. As her brother faces drug addiction, her mother mental illness, Gifty deals with their effects on her life while also growing up with complex views on religion, race, and love.

While much of the subject matter in this book was heavy, it never felt like a burden to read. Gifty's narration, both as a child and as an adult, is engaging, raw, and immersive. Her inner world is complex, flawed, and wholly believable, and there is similar nuanced characterization given to all the other characters in Gifty's life. The world of the story, including Gifty's neuroscience lab, Ghanaian culture, and evangelical Christianity, are all described in fascinating detail, and are just as well thought-out as the characters.

I found the alternating timeline to be refreshing and ideal for the pacing of the book. Key childhood moments occurred in conjunction with relevant parallels in Gifty's adult life. The switches also provided some relief and variety when one storyline would get particularly dark. At some points, the switches weren't perfectly chronological, and it would be briefly unclear what time period we were in, but this was a minor inconvenience at most.

Altogether, the stunning care and attention to detail in Transcendent Kingdom made it an unforgettable read, at times relatable, at times eye-opening, and always heart-wrenchingly real.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racism, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racial slurs, Self harm, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Xenophobia, and Medical content

amyford's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

habertoes's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Child death, Death, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Animal death

Lab scenes with discussion of animal testing and experimentation.

winn_e's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

mmefish's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-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

3.25

Thinking about the book a few months later: a very forgettable read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Grief

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Racism

shereadytoread's review against another edition

This book unfortunately was not a good experience for me. I DNFed a little over halfway through. While I think this book has a deep basis that I could have loved, it turned more into an internal pull of the MC between her religion and science. A lot of philosophy and a little plot. The background story of addiction and depression in her family as well as the cultural struggles of immigrant parents falls to the side as she continues to cycle through being a religious scientist. Great idea but the execution wasn’t for me. If those topics interest you, I definitely think it’s worth the try.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Addiction and Animal death

Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy

This book unfortunately was not a good experience for me. I DNFed a little over halfway through. While I think this book has a deep basis that I could have loved, it turned more into an internal pull of the MC between her religion and science. A lot of philosophy and a little plot. The background story of addiction and depression in her family as well as the cultural struggles of immigrant parents falls to the side as she continues to cycle through being a religious scientist. Great idea but the execution wasn’t for me. If those topics interest you, I definitely think it’s worth the try.

scruffie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.0

Heavy book. My first Gyasi read and I have to admit that I really liked the writing style: clearly literary, but also direct. I really appreciated the book's nuanced view on depression and addiction, the focus on understanding, not judging.

I also liked the book's perspective on the internal conflicts people who have been brought up in a religious setting face, and in particular how that interacts with the scientific point of view. Coming from a similar place myself I found that part very relatable.

Time to look for Gyasi's other books :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit