Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Transcendent Kingdom

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

173 reviews

aidareads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

i am so sad

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soupy_twist's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

3.75

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hrushton01's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

I was so scared that Gifty’s mom would die at the end but relieved in the final chapter omg.

It was an amazing read and definitely an emotional rollercoaster. Highly recommend to anyone.

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megelizabeth's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

"That was the thing that was at the heart of my reluctance and my resentment. Some people make it out of their stories unscathed, thriving. Some people don’t."

This is a gorgeously written book and I adored the bittersweet sibling relationship at its heart. It also has so much to say about science, religion, and their interconnectedness, and about race, family, loneliness, mental illness, being an immigrant in America, and perhaps above all about grief and loss. Additionally, while I'm always going to struggle with any book focusing so closely on the topic of animal experimentation, I did feel as if it was dealt with in a nuanced enough way and didn't take away from everything else being explored.

I will say that I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more to the family secrets/family history element hinted at by the blurb - I don't at all mind a character-driven story with minimal plot, but as I went into this expecting that element I found myself waiting and waiting for it and so that did dampen my experience a little and make the book feel just a bit disjointed and incomplete. I definitely didn't love this in the all-consuming way I loved Homegoing, but it was still a really strong book overall and one I'm glad to have read. I so hope that Yaa Gyasi writes more books in the future as she's so ridiculously talented and I just know has so much more to gift us!

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sujanyar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

This book is well-written. I blame myself for not researching the topics this book deals with better before reading. The super religious background being at loggerheads with her scientific field of research was probably the theme I didn’t expect. The complicated relationship between mother and daughter and as an onlooker of opioid addiction was fleshed out so well.

Overall I expected more plot, and this book is also really sad and made me feel murky and desolate after reading. The ending of the book doesn’t provide the closure you’re looking for either.

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