Reviews

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

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sophierebecca98's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-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

4.0

I’ve only just put this book down, it took me a few weeks to read it despite how short it is because the content is painful and brutal. The pacing is slow but I also found it hard to pick it up, like I didn’t want to know what happened. I was dreaming about the twist at the end last night because it wasn’t what I expected. But I admire when a book shocks you. The characters were really special, this book has brought the history to life of the people who did live through similar experiences in these reform schools. TBC

icoltman7036's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.25

Really fickle ideas in this one. Literally boils down to a gesture towards the past, almost like a ritual, a need to recognize the evils of racism and the US, without much discussion as to how that history can inform changing the future. Where MLK saw history as a spiritual process that directs towards a just future, Whitehead takes a different point of Christianity-- the reason to look back at history is to atone. To recognize sin for sin and to not rewrite the past as better than it was. There's a lot of focus here on who tells history, it emphasizes the importance of the Nickel Boys telling their story, which is shown from the prologue. Yet at the end of the day all the boys are doing is archaeology-- digging up the past, yes, but a dead past. There's no life-force in that history to change the present, it's just left there, waiting to be recognized.

Very strange treatment of racism from this book. Anyways I didn't like it goodbye

lrooks98's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I gasped while doing the dishes there at the very end.

This is my first Colson Whitehead novel, and I loved every second of it. Every word is moving, with a Hemingway-esque ability to pack a punch into very few, and you can't help but connect with each of the boys. It also hit a soft spot for me of books about boarding/reform schools, and the ways that we pass down trauma.