Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Non dimenticare chi sei by Yaa Gyasi

74 reviews

bootsmom3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Child death, Death, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Ableism

Moderate: Sexual violence and War

emcheym's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Rape, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Confinement, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Death of parent, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, War, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Infertility, Suicide, Cursing, and Death

asset_exe's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a novel that portrays the unknown yet simple relation between Africans and African Americans. The story is illustrated through two sisters, both of whom know nothing of the other, and each birthing generations of people who represent the far past, near past and present. Effia, the sister left behind, is the genesis of the African royal lineage of Ghana, as portrayed in the novel, and takes us back to the pre-colonial African states, which were solely ran by Africans who held trading relationships with Europeans.

Her descendants' stories connect fiction to reality through the presentation of events such as the war of the golden stool (The Asante-British wars), Kwame-Nkrumah's victory to independence and modern day Ghana. Esa, on the other hand, is taken away by slave traders and traded to America as a slave. Her descendants' stories highlight the struggles/hardships that black Americans underwent during slavery, Jim Crow, and modern day USA. Through the two sides being connected yet very different, in terms of struggle and hardship, Gyasi is able to bring out the interconnection between Africans and African Americans and share the struggles that each black generation underwent due to a common denominator, white people.

. In her novel, Gyasi greatly provokes white supremacists by illustrating the torturous acts that were performed on these people. Alternatively, Gyasi also concludes how that while we were all disconnected at some point of our ancestral lives, African Americans and Africans are one in the same. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, Homophobia, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Drug abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Addiction, and Suicide

mysterymom46's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Drug use, Addiction, Pregnancy, Murder, Mental illness, Suicide, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying, Vomit, and Xenophobia

rieviolet's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

It is not easy to cover such a vast temporal space in a single book, so I recognize Gyasi's ability to tackle a story so big in scope. 
Still, I think that this kind of narrative structure (chapters with an ever-changing point of view) is just not my personal preference. Inevitably (as it happens, for example, with short stories collections), there were certain characters' storylines that I appreciated more compared to others. In general, I found the final chapters (those closer to us in time) less engaging. 
There were also sections that I liked but that ended a bit too abruptly, leaving too much left unsaid about crucial events and the characters' fate (and not all of the storylines got mentioned again and expanded upon, further on in the narration).

At times, the book got a bit too graphic for my (I admit a bit delicate) sensibilities, but it does deal with very heavy topics; just be sure to check the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Sexual content, Excrement, Kidnapping, Death, Drug abuse, Slavery, Racism, Colonisation, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: War, Child abuse, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Rape, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Ableism, Murder, Infertility, Bullying, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Child death

cardlikecredit's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Slavery, War, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Rape, and Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Classism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship

uisimportant's review against another edition

This was the story of two enslaved sisters. Unless enslaved tale that I read was  “The Prophets” and that story was a lot. I don’t think that I will be reading any more, following this. Story was beautifully written, and I have no complaints from the author. As an African-American woman., these stories are hard to hear - in the depths that the author decided to reach.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Slavery, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Racism

ahager11's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Pregnancy, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and War

gracegawn's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, and Racism

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Child death, Blood, Death, Child abuse, Slavery, War, Kidnapping, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Xenophobia, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Death of parent, Confinement, Bullying, Mental illness, Grief, and Deportation