Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

67 reviews

hmw102's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

marietimus's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.0

Beautifully written, and I loved reading through the family’s history. Perfect ending!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Rape

kissmelicia's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

madelinedalton's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Addiction and Death

isabelgb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

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, Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Colonisation

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

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

vittoriav's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? Yes

4.75

Wow.
Um check the trigger warnings first and foremost. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

tiffyb's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

4.75 stars ⭐️ 

Wow wow wow! There are already so many (deserved) five star reviews that I don’t need to add another one, but of course I’ll still write one for myself haha. (Why are five star reviews so much harder to write?? It’s so much easier to complain than compliment 🫢)

This book was incredible. Impactful. Brilliant. Stunning. Harrowing. How can an author (a young, first-time author!?!) encapsulate an entire history of a nation, of racism and slavery and the injustices done to the people of Ghana and the black people in America and Britain?? Hundred of years of history, religion, and culture perfectly written into a book that is only 300 pages long! It made an IMPACT on my thinking and mindset. It tied together many random facts I’d heard or read in a cohesive way that brought history alive for me. I felt the pain of an entire race of people, a snapshot of the horrors lived by generations of Black people.  I really don’t know how else to compliment this book because it was just perfect.  

Even though there was very little space dedicated to individual characters (literally one chapter each!), you CARED what happened to them. The end of every chapter was a bit sad because you would have enjoyed to spend a bit more time with that chapter’s character. 

As for the actual writing~ I am continually reading books by authors who try to squeeze in too much history, too many characters, or too many “morals to the story.” So it’s shocking to me that I liked this book, given the format and the sheer number of characters. I feel like most authors are trying too hard to do too much and falling short, but Yaa tried to do a million things in this book and succeeded every time. For someone who rarely can remember the names of book characters, I managed to keep track of SIX GENERATIONS from two different families! Husbands, wives, children, friends….

I have four gentle criticisms that brought the books rating down one half star- 

1. It was hard at times to keep up with characters, to the point that I did often have to return to the start of the chapter once I figured out/remembered who someone was. I also struggled at times to place where in history the characters were (for example thinking we were in the early 1900’s but we were in the 70’s. But somehow those things didn’t bother me too much, and part of my struggle to remember characters was that I became so engrossed in the last character’s story that it was hard to switch to a new one at times. 
2. It was hard at times to step into the other family’s story again after becoming to engrossed in one story honestly. 
3. I do wish we’d had a way for the original two sisters to have met each other or even interacted. Especially since this was the whole premise of the book. 
4. The amount of tragedy contained in the story of these two families is staggering… obviously meant to encapsulate the experience of an entire race of people rather than suggest that all of these things could possibly have befallen one single family. So I do think this was a bit of a stretch. Still, it felt believable somehow, placed within the context of “cursed families”. 

Overall none of those criticisms even remotely would discourage me from recommending this book, and from what I hear, the physical copies of the books have a family tree (which would have made a big difference for me, since I read this on a kindle). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

maggie_c_m_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad fast-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: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, and Deportation

rieviolet's review against another edition

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

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

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