Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

500 reviews

whatshanireads's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Violence, and Colonisation

nerp's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

WOW. The hype is not wrong. This isn’t a traditional story with plot and character development and what have you—it’s a family epic spanning generations and countries to paint a picture of African and American Blackness. This is a book about pain and intergenerational trauma, but it’s also a book about intergenerational survival and contentment, about the knowledge and stories held in blood and ancestry. This book is about the realities and legacies of colonialism—but more than that. This is a book worth studying for craft, as the storytelling structure and the feeling of the story being told in circles so neatly works with its thematic concerns.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Violence, Religious bigotry, and War

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

rizky's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

alyssalindsey's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

My first Yaa Gyasi read and I really enjoyed the pace and emotional narratives. Loose historical fiction with broad themes of the impact of generational trauma and healing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Colonisation

melbell222's review against another edition

emotional informative 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: Addiction, Rape, Xenophobia, and Police brutality

petrareads's review against another edition

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

4.75

The first half of the book is solidly 5 stars, absolutely excellent. It trails off a little bit (for me personally) in the second half. Still very good. I loved the writing. I often couldn't put the book down, I picked it up before even checking my phone one morning. I learned a lot about history, and the thing about historical fiction is that you can the feel history, viscerally, instead of it being just facts and statistics. I loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Blood, Excrement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War

Minor: Vomit

katlau's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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

4.25

Each character’s story pulled me in and had a distinct voice. Thought-provoking structure, where the final chapters are pretty explicit about what the book is trying to do, put two current day individuals into the context of their ancestors with one path through the Gold Coast and Ghana and one through the U.S. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

hxcpanda's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

4.5

Really impressive piece of work and enjoyable despite having a pretty rigid structure that only allows us a brief time with each character. Clearly well researched and covered a large breadth of the social issues and consequences of slavery not just on the USAmerican side where we tend to focus but equally on the African side for a balanced approach. I also enjoyed how it seemed to get a bit meta toward the end, and you could really see not only what the author was getting at but how they felt about creating this work. 

Also, the narration in the audiobook was great. It took me till I was almost finished with it to notice the switch in accents between the African and American characters' stories but that was a neat aspect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Homophobia

joelcharig's review

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

A fascinating (and disturbing, on occasion) journey down the lineage of two intertwined Ghanian families.

My main gripe is that it was occasionally hard to keep track of the characters. There are so many different lives you follow, and each with unfamiliar names. 
It maybe could've been better with fewer characters, swapping back and forth between their perspectives, rather than just a single chapter for each when there are as many as there are.

I kept a bookmark on the family tree page, which definitely aided me with keeping track.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Trafficking, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault