Reviews

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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boithorn's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

jfaberrit's review against another edition

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5.0

There were some great books written in the past year (I was partial to Moonglow by Michael Chabon), but this was the best book of 2016, hands down, by some margin. There might be a clever little novel out there that takes the idea of the underground railroad made into literal railroad and runs with it; this book is so much more by taking it as simply a conceit. Instead, we get the entire history of race in America (and elsewhere in the world), told symbolically as the stages of a journey, moving in fits and starts toward freedom and toward modernity, but never unaware of the continuing struggle for equality and justice that marks the present day. I never realized until I read this that "the State of North Carolina" could be a mental state as well as one of the constituent parts of the union. Whitehead manages to find universality in control, domination, terror, and struggles through anachronisms, anecdotes, and more, all while threading a plot with rich characters and momentum. It's masterful, the most moving novel of the year, storytelling and structure wrapped in one.

kmcfall's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

alogalbo's review against another edition

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challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

katnortonwriter's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

I was going to say that I had no notes, but right at the end there’s some information that changes the whole shape of Cora’s story and it’s a punch to the gut. Great writing.

Read this on audiobook, which may have added something, as each character’s voice really stands out in this performance. I see a lot of other people had trouble with the narrative distance, which may have struck me differently if I was reading text.

dcunitz's review against another edition

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4.0

"It was a bother to be stopped on the road in a Free State when the lost property turned out to have a silver tongue. Get them off the plantation and they learned to read, it was a disease."