Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

35 reviews

meghancolbert's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Read this book, because it contains the raw truth that white supremacists are still trying to ban. Gyasi reveals the ugly legacy of slavery and colonialism that white historians would prefer to sugarcoat. Each character refuses, in their own way, to be a passive victim of white supremacy and their stories are told from their own perspectives, rather than that of their oppressors. 

This is the first family saga I’ve read that is done well. Each successive generation gets an equal amount of attention. Yaa Gyasi has succeeded in showing how the choices of each generation (and the choices that are made for them) impact the lives of their descendants. Yes, there were a lot of generations and yes, it would have been nice to spend more time with each of them. But I feel like the intellectual and emotional effort Gyasi demands of her readers is well rewarded at the end of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide and Police brutality

nataliecoyne's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

The 4.5-star rating instead of a 5-star rating is because it was a bit difficult to really get into at the beginning. But I quickly fell in love with it and the dual storylines of the two branches of the family (one branch that ended up staying in Ghana vs one that ended up enslaved in America). I would definitely recommend this to others, though urge others to keep in mind this is more character-focused than necessarily plot-focused (which is why I think it was a bit difficult to initially get into).

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and War

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

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

pagesbeforesunrise's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

What a feat this book is! Yaa Gyasi really did an amazing job telling the story of these two families and connecting it to real life. These characters are not just characters, they’re real people over the how many years/centuries and Yaa Gyasi communicated it in such an intriguing way. The format, at first, took some getting used to, but wow it quickly became more than a story as the book  progressed and we got introduced to more of the family. It even felt like I was hearing from my ancestors. At times it was def tough due to the content, but I couldn’t recommend enough! The ending made me tear up and I’m so glad it ended  the way it did. It really brought it all together in the best way. All in all, Homegoing makes me want to build out my own family tree and find out as much as possible about my ancestors.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, and Sexual assault

cecereads__'s review against another edition

5.0

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 also our reality… 

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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

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

ran_sophia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

It is an excellently written and pointed book with a very strong story.  Given the subject matter of the story, it was a difficult and challenging read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: War

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying

noahsingh's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad

4.25

Enjoyed a lot of aspects of this book: 
- Love a family/generational story.
-Colonial resistance storylines were really interesting.
-Felt like I heard some perspectives I hadn't heard before, and learnt some historical stuff about the exploitation of black people post-slavery I hadn't heard about before. 

Ending was a lil disappointing to me tho,

in the sense that I wish Marjorie had been aware of her families past a bit more through Akua and therefore somehow able to recognise Marcus as familiy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Excrement, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Suicide, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War