Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

68 reviews

soupy_twist's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Death, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Death and Death of parent

marabeeee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

A beautiful and heart-wrenching story deeply rooted in love of family, no matter how imperfect. I cried countless times throughout this book: navigating loss of family, lacking community, loneliness, yet finding a way to live through it. Love is at the heart of it all. At times it was hard to get through only because of how well it captures how painful love can be. 

Otherwise, the book moves along quickly, and shifting between present and the past helped me reflect on how we’re all a product of our past. There were many times I wished I could hug little Gifty as much as I wish I could hug little me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Abandonment

chsm8's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Cursing, Death, Racism, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

siomaii's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, and Grief

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Death of parent

avocadosocks's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death

Minor: Death of parent

leonormsousa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

I really liked this one. It is beautifully written, and the constant time jumps were done perfectly, which is something quite rare. It hooked me from the start, and I found myself wanting more at the end, even though I know this was the perfect size for this story.

Small note that I was pleasantly surprised by the queer representation in this one (MC is queer). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

violerwolf's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Realistic fiction, especially as slow paced as the “plot” is in this book, isn’t typically my cup of tea. But Gyasi, through masterful prose and a constantly shifting timeline of events, makes this such an engaging story about addiction, depression, family, and religion. The way she interweaves themes through various points of the main character’s life and places them throughout the narrative is beautifully done. My one critique is that the main character’s internal reflection can be a bit heavy handed at times, but don’t let that stop you from checking this book out.

I picked up this book because Homegoing had such a long waitlist at my library, and I’m so glad I did. I can’t wait to read Gyasi’s other works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

brekaboujie's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.25

I really enjoyed this, despite it being intensely sad basically the whole way through. I liked the narration a lot, it was a little hard to follow sometimes as it jumped around constantly but it felt very natural and very much like I was planted into Gifty's brain. It was somehow a mix of a very intense and deep story and a very shallow day to day one - I think in some ways that really added to understanding Gifty's experience, as the vulnerability in her writing was constant but also you only ever got slivers of time on each topic/moment. It was clever and made me want to keep reading.

The end was a mix for me - it felt realistic and basic which isn't a bad thing! About 15 pages before the end I suddenly thought "wait a sec this is ending soon and I have no idea what would be a good or satisfying ending here". I think the fact that it wasn't super satisfying weirdly made it work, it's just life, you just keep going with it and that's fine. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the way it was written and Gifty was an interesting character to follow. Different from what I'd usually go for, but a positive different!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Death

Minor: Death of parent

mrlsdevos's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Dementia and Death of parent

siebensommer's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

my need to diy my mother‘s mental health 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Medical content, Death of parent, and Pregnancy