Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

167 reviews

penhaligon's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Having also read Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, going in I knew it’d be intense, and I knew it’d be worth it.

First, I found the writing style very interesting in The Nickel Boys. Much like the environment and happenings in the book, the writing style was not flowery or flowing. At times it was curt, it was precise, it would cut a sentence into two or three short ones. Very contrary to what I normally read and enjoy, it really made me stop, literally, multiple times to make me focus on the “why” of the styling chosen, which I think made things more impactful for me; at times I even reread to see if there was a hidden meaning of intent. It wasn’t so much that it was difficult or confusing, but more so gave me pause.

The tale itself is sad: full stop. Sure there are moments of positivity, of hope and optimism. But ultimately, it is a tragic, yet necessary, fictional telling of the worst of humanity. And being fiction, it is easy to understand and digest. I will say the ending threw me - I guessed it a bit before the Epilogue, but not early enough that it spoiled anything. And honestly it makes me want to reread it to see if I can pick out the context clues which were sprinkled along the way.

Can definitely understand why this won a Pulitzer. Definitely recommend. I finished it in ~6 hours over two days.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Racism, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Rape, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, and Bullying

agavemonster's review against another edition

dark reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

"When he was little, he kept lookout on the dining room of the Richmond Hotel. It had been closed to his race and one day it would open. He waited and waited. In the dark cell, he reconsidered his vigil. The recognition he sought went beyond brown skin—he was looking for someone who looked like him, for someone to claim as kin. For others to claim him as kin, those who saw the same future approaching, slow as it may be and overfond of back roads and secret hardscrabble paths, attuned to the deeper music in the speeches and hand-painted signs of protest. Those ready to commit their weight to the great lever and move the world. They never appeared. In the dining room or anywhere else."

A sober, cynical, heartbreaking work written in the long dark shadow cast by true history. As in the great American novels, each character serves to symbolize a social role or system, but is starkly and truthfully etched in the details of their own specific existence as well. Elwood and Turner could be perceived as ciphers of the two survival strategies of Black Americans pre-civil rights—standing up straight in a shirt and tie to demand your dignity like Elwood's hero MLK, and doing what needs to be done to run the "obstacle course" in which Turner has lived his whole life—but they're also two young boys who are caught in the crosshairs of this Jim Crow-era torture house, and you can't forget it. The daily degradations are inescapable, and the horrors you don't see are sketched in light pencil contour, just enough to wrench your gut as you fill in the rest of the picture. This happens again and again. The intimately depicted evil of the white superintendents and staff runs the gamut from complicity to sadism. "The sons held the old ways close." Griff and Chet's boxing match really killed me. Finally, I should have seen the well-foreshadowed turn near the end, but it still blew me apart: brilliance and tragedy. One of my best books of the year.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Pedophilia, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Murder, Racism, Racial slurs, Confinement, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Torture

ominous_emu's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Racism, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Classism, Pedophilia, Abandonment, and Cursing

princess_marie's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Gun violence, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Murder

ragoreads's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Death

knitterscasket's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Devastating. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Torture, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual violence and Racial slurs

sophiabee3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Murder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Classism, Grief, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Hate crime, and Police brutality

Minor: Vomit

thissagreads's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.0

A solid historical fiction, based on a reform school for boys, back in the 1960’s. It was tough to read sometimes, due to the violence and messed up, unjustifiable things that happened to the boys at the school, but the ending was a solid surprise <spoiler Turner ends up surviving the getaway/escape but Elwood dies, so Turner (once at a diner safely away from the school) takes Elwood’s name and lives for Elwood essentially. It’s really fucking sad that the both of them didn’t make it out alive. This book had me thinking and reflecting about the world and the evils in it, including the people, and and the broken and racist systems in play still today.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs

avareadsbookss's review against another edition

emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

this book has ruined me

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Racial slurs, and Racism

maria_49's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Racism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Sexual violence