Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Vända hem by Yaa Gyasi

36 reviews

mirandalikesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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

5.0

My favorite part of this book is that every character is the main character. I was invested in every one. I don't understand how Gyasi was able to construct the life motivations of each character so perfectly with only giving each character like 20 pages. Seeing some of the characters age throught the generations is such a gift. Because so many wonderful characters had their life cut short as a product of white violence. 

It is awe inspiring and heart breaking how many generations were and still are affected by slavery. How slavery has direct ties to the oppression and cyclical struggles of black people in America and in Africa. White oppression has killed generations of black joy. 

This story demonstrates the struggle of being a woman so brilliantly too. How many generations of woman went undefined until a man defined her. 

I learned so much through the course of this book. The birth of our modern prison industrial complex being born of the enslavement of African and Black men is something that makes perfect sense. But it was laid out so clearly here.  Some of the violence was so vividly painted that I keep retracing those scenes in my mind. Some of the heartbreak too.

Absolute must read. We have been privileged to not know these stories for long enough. And we are privileged now to see these stories through the perspective of each of these characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Vomit, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicide, and Police brutality

greenan26's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement and Excrement

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

thefall's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

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

cardlikecredit's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Classism

alexiconic's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional

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

4.5

A beautiful collection of narratives and memories, of how a trauma crosses the boundaries of generations and how the way it’s dealt with matters. As is often the case with short story collections, though, that not all chapters sparked as much to me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

uisimportant's review against another edition

This was the story of two enslaved sisters. Unless enslaved tale that I read was  “The Prophets” and that story was a lot. I don’t think that I will be reading any more, following this. Story was beautifully written, and I have no complaints from the author. As an African-American woman., these stories are hard to hear - in the depths that the author decided to reach.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

travisppe's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

shanapike's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism