A review by fasika
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book broke me open. So many thoughts, emotions, and experiences I've had but never took the time to absorb and reflect on were written so thoughtfully in this narrative. I share so much with Gifty, while her pain and trauma are much different from my own, so many of the experiences she had in her childhood and growing into adulthood are experiences I so strongly connected with. The complex identity of an immigrant daughter raised in a religious environment trying to find the meaning of so many of life's questions through science, only to realize science doesn't hold all the answers. Only to realize faith means accepting and believing in something you can never really prove to be the 'true' answer. This is a novel that will stay with me for a long time. Yaa is an incredible author, I appreciate her so much.