Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

27 reviews

lectrixnoctis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead is an American author. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut work, "The Intuitionist", and "The Underground Railroad",  for which he acquired the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020 for "The Nickel Boys". He has further published two works of non-fiction. In 2002, he won a MacArthur Genius Grant.

"The Underground Railroad" starts on an evil Georgia plantation, where all anyone wants to do is escape. "Every slave reasons about it, in the morning tide and the afternoon and the nighttime. Dreaming of it. Each dreams a dream of freedom, yet when it didn't look like it." We meet Ajarry, stolen from her West African village and across the ocean on a slave boat. Her daughter, Mabel, flees the plantation and its disgusting owner, Randall, prompting a wild and empty search, and Cora, Mabel's daughter, our protagonist.
Cora and another slave Caesar are led down to a platform where rails extend into darkness and the North.

The novel is written in the third person singular and the past. The story is set during the 19th century.

The central theme of the book is slavery, and it affects people, predominantly black and natives. Although it was fascinating to read about it, it would have been better to read it in the first person since sometimes it felt a bit too objective and even a bit dry to read about the Experience of the people. 

Freedom is another motive of the book. It is explained by which I live version of the railroad; however, since this is the only fantasy element in this book, it was pretty tricky sometimes to grasp everything else could've happened in real life then.

It is hard to rate this book. However, I did not feel connected with the characters at all and even felt like they didn't have any human features of the world as a personality; however, I do have to say that this book is insane research, and I would still recommend reading it just because of that however I do think if you want to learn about American history, it is better to read a novel written by people who have left during bedtime or even hysterical non-fiction books. Overall the story felt a bit lacklustre, And I would have wished to like this book more, but sadly I cannot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

whatannikareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? No

4.5

reading others' reviews helped me verbalize some of the weaker points of the book i didn't have time to verbalize bc i was so hooked on seeing how this all panned out. thus, i dropped my official rating to a 4/5 (but on storygraph i'm giving it a 4.5/5).

i'm rating this book higher than a 4 bc i can't deny that this was the first time in a while i've been absorbed into a fictional narrative. for the most part, i enjoyed the pacing, and when things became stagnant, i enjoyed the flashbacks to other characters' plots; i think it helped me to care about the characters other than in Cora and to tie up loose ends.

i agree with others in that there could've been more done with the actual railroad, as it's the title of the book. i also personally got lost a bit in the wording as well as the names of the side characters; i couldn't remember if someone was white or black as slaves obviously were given anglo names, but the author would name drop people from the past and i'd just gloss over it bc i couldn't remember their storyline.

i think it's overall a really captivating, well-researched book. you can tell the author took a lot of time with this story. it's hard to read as any slave narrative would be, so it requires a lot of attention, but i'm glad i read it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

alicialoebl's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

The twists made the book go so fast, such a tough topic but really informative and emotional 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

ehmannky's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense 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

4.0

This book is excellent, but it's not a particularly easy or pleasant read. It's an unrelenting look at the myriad and downright creative ways that white Americans caused violent trauma towards Black people. Turning the Underground Railroad into a literal railroad was a creative masterstroke, though I wish more had been done with the setting in the actual story). I also feel like it's important that this book is set decades before the Civil War, because it emphasizes that yes freedom came eventually, but for many people like Cora's mother and so many of the Black people she meets along her journey, that freedom never comes and they die at the hands of white people and their system of pain and suffering. Although

Cora does makes it out to freedom in the fabled North

, this isn't a particularly hopeful novel and the ending is about as downer as I can imagine. I feel like this book is going to get embedded in the literature as a Classic, and rightly so.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Child death and Suicide

stevie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Murder

lena_and_her_books's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Trafficking

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, and Religious bigotry

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I recently watched a YouTube video explaining the grimdark genre. The video described the origin of the genre, Warhammer. But I wonder—what could be a better indication of grimdark than the gruesome horrors and cruelties visited upon enslaved Black people in the United States? I'd consider this

(very nearly)

part of that genre.

Note: the book doesn't go into more detail than is needed, so I wouldn't consider it trauma porn.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Torture, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol