Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Transcendent Kingdom

This novel by Yaa Gyasi is incredible. The narrator reflects on her life story when her depressed mother comes to live with her. It tells a moving story about immigration, addiction, depression, and science and religion. The language and writing style is exquisite. I binged it in four days.

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indranna's review

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reflective slow-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

3.5

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kalyaniwarrier's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

The childhood weariness of having to belong somewhere, and the wanting of acceptance is unfortunately a common occurrence as we grow up to our visioned idealism.

In this state of mind, Gifty, the protagonist, despite living the life of professional quixotism, is met with broken familial arrangements, suicide of her brother and her skepticism towards the religion she was bought up in.

The plot is highly philosophical - questioning one's beliefs and the entirety of human existence, which leads the protagonist to right the wrongs in life to bring meaning to her existence. Transcendent Kingdom also highlights the racial profiling of African-American communities, immigrants and their struggle of belonging to an unknown community, in spite of the marginalisation.

Berry's model of acculturation in cultural studies (further divided into four parts: assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalisation) plays a huge role in this text; parts of assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalisation are widely discussed in this text that give nuance to the cultural phenomenon observed in immigrants and migrated populations. For further details on Berry's model, please check out this website: https://open.maricopa.edu/culturepsychology/chapter/berrys-model-of-acculturation/

The book is beautiful in form, content and structure. It gives a hope of wanting to believe in something, be it a religious inclination or a secular one, and gives meaning to life. This message of self-preservation has allowed me to rate this book in such a manner.

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rach_reads_books's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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skylerreads28's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

3.5

This is not an easy read if you have any type of strained relationship with your mother. Or religious trauma. Luckily for me I have both! I enjoyed this read and it gave me a thought to think about as I read. I had hoped more would happen, so the ending fell flat for me, almost like the story was given up, but the ending was also fitting for the story and I was happy to see Gifty got the life she worked so hard for. All her work came full circle and in a way that was healing.

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