Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

68 reviews

lindsloveslit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

The novel is short but tells an extremely powerful, gut wrenching story of our not-so-distant history. It is fictional, however, it is based on factual events that happened at Dozier School for Boys. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

katjoyphil's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

masscrafter's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Murder

emakay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization

bookreviewsgr's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Μια σκοτεινή και σκληρή ιστορία που παρ'ολα αυτά δημιουργεί στον αναγνώστη μια παιδικά αθώα ελπίδα. Διαβάστε αναλυτικά την άποψή μου στο  <a href="https://bookreviewsgr.home.blog/2021/02/10/ta-agoria-tou-nickel/">blog μου</a>.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Sexual assault

thefoxyreader's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

Short and bittersweet, Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys is an unsettling look at the failings of the reform school system in the American South in the 1960s and its impact on young Black men.

You know historical fiction is good when the story feels authentic. With this book, you can tell that Whitehead did his research in order to present an accurate portrayal of what life would have been like for boys in these institutions. Everything feels very real.

This book focuses on two young men who are sentenced to the Nickel School after unfortunate events. Elwood is a smart, promising young man, who is arrested after unknowingly hitching a ride with a carjacker while he is on his way to take classes at the local college. Despite the terrors that he experiences at the school, he remains optimistic and idealistic that eventually he will find a way out and justice will be served.

Taylor is Elwood’s opposite. He’s been in Nickel for longer, serving out a sentence after he gets tired of feeling like he’s “performing” for the white people at the bowling alley he works at. He is jaded and operates without much hope but helps out Elwood when he can.

From the outside Nickel may appear as a wonderful reform school that takes care of its students and puts on community events; however, it is a nightmare hellscape for the boys, who are whipped, malnourished, sexually abused, and sometimes killed by the heartless, evil men who run the place.

Overall, I was really impressed with Whitehead’s writing. This book is pretty short at only 210 pages, but he manages to paint a picture of the school really well while also establishing the connections between the Nickel Boys. I really did feel their pain and the hopelessness of their situation. Whitehead also brilliantly ties in many details of the Civil Rights movement, and I was really moved by the way Elwood derived hope from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words.

My one critique of this book, however, is that the chapters in the present day just aren’t as interesting as the chapters at Nickel. I get what he was trying to do with the present day chapters and

the narrative twist at the end is mostly effective

, but it just didn’t connect with me as well as the chapters at Nickel. I feel like a present day chapter at the beginning and one at the end would have made a great narrative bookend and have been more effective.

That one critique aside, this book is extremely well-researched and will lead to many great discussions about the inequality in our education and justice system that still remains today.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

jainnyreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Dementia

remainsofabook's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Nickel Boys is a remarkable book that packs so much into 200+ pages. So much history and realities of Black Americans but there was something lacking that stopped me from rating the book higher or want to put another Whitehead book on my tbr. I don't think it is Whitehead's writing style, like some wrote in their reviews that his writing approach is too journalistic. In my opinion, the ending was really well-written. Even though I'm on the fence about the plot twist. This made me realised that the reason I couldn't rate it higher was the lack of depth in the exploration of the boys' psyche. Elwood is a very interesting character and so much more could have been written on him. If I wanted history, facts and realities to educate myself, I would have picked up a non-fiction. I expect something more from a fiction, especially one that won the Pulitzer Prize. Regardless, The Nickel Boys is still worth a read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

jhartsoe's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

Minor: Gun violence and Rape

patch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense

• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Forced institutionalization