Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

138 reviews

joshuapeck's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was a challenging read, to experience a fictionalized version of slavery and the underground railroad with so many connections to the true history and true themes of that era — the arbitrariness of death and survival, rape, freedom and bondage, and what freedom really means. It was at times hopeful and joyful, and at other times completely devastating. It was an amazing read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

nycsquirrel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Whitehead mixes truth and fiction by creating a world with a physical underground railroad, which establishes the tweak on reality to allow the story to pull together true horrors from various points in American history as inflicted by the white populations

(e.g., slavery, Trail of Tears, the Tuskegee experiment, stop and frisk)

. Each state crossing presents a different demonstration of race relations, though the hierarchy is clear no matter the presentation. Whitehead's language is beautiful yet cutting, and the story is justifiably jarring.  An excellent and important read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Torture, and Racism

Moderate: Rape

modryzamek's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense 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? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence

lifesarosch's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

5.0

Devastating and beautiful and a searing look at what America is and was and will be. If republicans could ban books for adults, they'd ban this one, and that is a complement. Wow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, and Violence

catherinemb's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, and Sexual assault

01ivia'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Body horror, Colonisation, Rape, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Slavery, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent

tigerkind's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

„A plantation was a plantation; one might think one’s misfortunes distinct, but the true horror lay in their universality.“

A capitivating read, especially interesting if you’re familiar with other (neo) slave narratives. Focusing purely on the reading experience I found the book a bit predictable and the style alienating from the character’s emotions and suffering - but I think it fits the narrative. The story is not indulgent in recounting the emotional and physical horrors of slavery (though they’re there, no doubt about it) but focuses more on perseverance and persistence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Sexism, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Confinement, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Blood, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Rape, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child death, Classism, Death, Excrement, Hate crime, Misogyny, Trafficking, Genocide, and Violence

travisppe's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Kidnapping, Rape, War, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Racial slurs, and Self harm

gilroi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I don't go for most media about slavery, for the same reason I don't touch the Holocaust. When I was little, as one of the only Jewish children in my elementary and middle school, atrocity was shoved down my throat. I was expected to be okay with it. It was my history, after all. When I watched narratives about slavery (inevitably written and directed by white people), I saw the same lurid fascination with martyrdom and pain that I saw in Holocaust movies, in Holocaust books. Atrocity was entertainment for people, and I didn't want to see its implications: that to be as good and worthy as WASPs, people had to come from a legacy of torture. The torture needed to be replayed endlessly. See the bad go down again.

This book dispenses with those themes quickly and easily. People are not 'good' for their suffering. There is horror, and that is never shied away from. But its depiction is not the point. What cruelty does to someone, how it twists them inside, that's far more important. Cora is not a smiling martyr, she does not exist to make us all feel better about the present moment. She has her moments of selfishness, of unsmiling wrath, of twisted bitterness and uncharitableness. And who could blame her? Certainly not me. 

This book asks: Who built America? We know who stole it, but who built it? Who put their labor into it? We know who stole the labor, but <i>who made America</i>? 

People like Cora, who were never perfect, who never had any responsibility to serve as a model, whose existence is not to educate. She-- and by extension, this book-- is not here to make anyone feel better about themselves. And for that, the book made me feel, just slightly, at peace with history. Pain is not a model, so we should not rely on it to teach. 

Finally among other free blacks, Cora learns to enjoy living, to fight against fear. Pain taught her nothing.

Cora's kindness is not for the benefit of white people, so they can be forgiven by the dead. Her kindness is hard-won, something she fought for, something she had to make room for within herself. Her kindness for herself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racial slurs, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Racism, Trafficking, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape

whitneyonline's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

4.0

Wow... the ending took an unexpected turn that was rather bleak and sad. After all Cora went through she deserved happiness, so to watch her run fight struggle only to have such an ambiguous ending leaves one feeling down trodden. 
I am fully aware that the realities of slavery were completely bleak, and Cora's journey and ending with so much loss and loose ends runs very accurate to real-life accounts. But the one-two punch of the revelation about her mother's fate paired with the ending of the book shortly after is just utterly depressing. Cora deserved a resolute happy ending and we readers deserved to see it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Racism, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Rape, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, and Torture