Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Homegoing

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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lizhrdr's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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nataliecoyne's review against another edition

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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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rizky's review against another edition

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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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alyssalindsey's review against another edition

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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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melbell222's review against another edition

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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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petrareads's review against another edition

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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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katlau's review against another edition

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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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