Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Vända hem by Yaa Gyasi

191 reviews

pagesbeforesunrise's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

What a feat this book is! Yaa Gyasi really did an amazing job telling the story of these two families and connecting it to real life. These characters are not just characters, they’re real people over the how many years/centuries and Yaa Gyasi communicated it in such an intriguing way. The format, at first, took some getting used to, but wow it quickly became more than a story as the book  progressed and we got introduced to more of the family. It even felt like I was hearing from my ancestors. At times it was def tough due to the content, but I couldn’t recommend enough! The ending made me tear up and I’m so glad it ended  the way it did. It really brought it all together in the best way. All in all, Homegoing makes me want to build out my own family tree and find out as much as possible about my ancestors.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, and Sexual assault

wovenquiry's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, and Slavery

Moderate: Addiction and Fire/Fire injury

soapsoapsoap's review against another edition

dark informative reflective 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

cecereads__'s review against another edition

4.5

This book was an absolute epic. The ambition and talent that went into this - and a debut as well!
It was gut-wrenching and tragic and criminally cruel, and heart-achingly stunning/heavy all at the same time.
Full of individual experiences - all including prejudice, discrimination and injustice - of about 250 years and seven generations. The subtlety of our world’s history and relationship with racism lives on to this day, and we cannot deny that or deny the history lesson that this book provides so vividly and thoroughly.

Favourite stories/chapters out of the 14 would have to be Ness, Kojo and H.
I need this to be required reading. But I also acknowledge the very heavy subject of colonialism and white superiority complexes. It is confronting but that’s how reality works… 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

rhi_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Grief

Minor: Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Classism

chelle22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

maya_venkatesh36's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Colonisation

mcplank's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? N/A

5.0

This book is so beautifully written, it captures you and doesn’t let you go. The ability of the author to so deeply connect you to each character in just one chapter is artful, and a testament to the craftsmanship of the writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Abandonment

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.75

This author could not go a single chapter with talking about women’s breasts and that’s before the one chapter where a man uses at least a. Paragraph to describe the ass of the woman he married and after she is kidnapped into slavery after the fugitive slave act is passed he literally sees her in other women regardless of ass based on if they have a big ass to the point a woman catches his attention to slap him for staring. On that end while  a book that discusses Africans who will become Ghanaians and Americans will cover and discuss violence of all sorts into black Women especially sexual a lot of the violence to women in the book felt contrived and not taken that seriously or confused inherently for depth.

 Many of the chapters felt like they were shoehorning American milestones or historical events or topics surrounding racism. As well as in my opinion using Ghanaian faith and religion at multiple points it mystically move a plot point forward the author clearly wrote herself into a corner for. I hated the mother burning all of her children but one alive scene in a dream, bc I don’t think the book took the murder of the daughters seriously especially to insist spirits made her do it when she literally did not know she did it. Also at times her protagonists had very ahistorical social norms where they’d either be the most special or educated or the most suffering or ostracized person among their environmental or all those things at once while clearly trying to represent general Ghanaian and Black American history it was very lazy and off putting to see constantly. 

After reading it I’m not surprised to see a lot of reviews by Ghanaian nationals disliking the book or thinking it’s at least a mess of the Ghanaian cutler and history it tries to represent. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, and Drug use

Minor: Infidelity

porkkutletbowl's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Addiction, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Colonisation