Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

89 reviews

emmareeser's review against another edition

challenging hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

Wow… this book is incredible. Devastating from the start and unrelenting in its harrowing depiction of Cora’s life of enslavement on a plantation and subsequent escape, The Underground Railroad manages to tell so many stories of America’s violent and insidious history while still including moments of perseverance, hope, and kindness. It’s a challenging, heart-breaking read, but the story is expertly crafted and thought-provoking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

jackmiossi's review against another edition

dark 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Violence

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: Rape and Sexual violence

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

travisppe's review against another edition

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

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, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Colonisation

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

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

impla77's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.25

I really liked the prose, character and thought the start of the book was very strong. HOWEVER, the almost episodic nature of the chapters with quite clumsy transitions didn’t tie the book satisfactorily together for me. A chilling and visceral series of vignettes, but doesn’t all come together as a story

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, and Torture

charlotteih's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.5

heart wrenching, tragic, sad, disgusting, humorous, beautiful. an epic portrait of the black american experience, and the complex, nuanced machine driven by white oppression. whitehead’s characters are vivid and consuming, his reflections and storytelling just the same. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

helen's review against another edition

4.0

The book is divided into sections that show different aspects of slavery and anti-Black racism in the US. It’s set around the 1850s but the author messes around with reality and time (the underground railroad assumes a physical form, and he draws on the eugenics movements of the early 20th century) as we follow the protagonist, Cora, on her journey to freedom.

The first section on the Georgia plantation is brutal. The matter-of-fact way that Cora describes the horrific experiences makes it even more harrowing and I probably wouldn’t have carried on beyond that chapter if I wasn’t reading it for a bookclub. I’m really glad I did though because Cora is a really engaging protagonist - daring, despairing, hopeful, traumatised, defiant and funny - and it’s given me a greater understanding of the human cost and legacy of slavery.

Four stars rather than five because I questioned the author’s choice to devote word count to the slave catcher, Ridgeway, at the expense of other characters, like Caesar, the man Cora escapes with.

Content notes:

racism, slavery, violence, torture, rape, murder, lynching, forced sterilisation, medical experimentation, eugenics, suicide, child death

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Medical trauma