Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Underground Railroad

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

192 reviews

snailslowreader's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.5

Whitehead did his research with The Underground Railroad and crafted a book that shows the many horrors of slavery—for that alone, I would say it’s worth reading.

The critical weakness of the book was how I couldn’t connect to the characters. Whitehead’s literary and detached writing style worked well for his details (which seem all the more terrible the more casually they were described), but not so much for feeling what the characters felt. In addition, while the ideas and intentions behind all of the alternating perspectives are interesting, I found some of them to be too short (like the slave catcher Ridgeway’s perspective) or unnecessary (like stationmaster’s wife Ethel’s perspective, which could’ve been more captivating when shown through Cora’s point of view). The varying length and importance of the perspectives ended up making the book feel uneven, rather than creating a complex picture.

Whitehead is a talented and ambitious writer, and I look forward to reading more by him. It so happens that this book in particular, even with a great concept and solid plot, didn’t quite do it for me.

Content Warnings

lorenag5's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark inspiring reflective 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

4.5

Content Warnings

ashlynhare's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

Content Warnings

darren_cormier's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

freshbatchofbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark 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

I know I rate a lot of books 5 stars, but this is probably in my top 5 of this year

Content Warnings

jazhandz's review against another edition

Go to review page

DNF at 68%, for two reasons. The first is, put simply, I didn’t care. I put the book down for two weeks and came back and didn’t want to put in the effort of relearning names. Whitehead is a really capable writer, but nothing about this grabbed me. Which brings me to the second reason: he has said before that he wanted to bring the Underground Railroad to life and literalization. And it’s totally wasted here, which I found frustrating. The literal, actual Underground Railroad of trains is not compelling, not focal enough to matter, and not vague enough to stop me from having practical concerns. I think if I finished it, it would’ve been a three-star read, but after my break from reading it, finishing it didn’t feel worthwhile.

Content Warnings

candide_woodard's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful informative sad slow-paced

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

4.0

A heart-wrenching novel about the atrocities of slavery and the high stakes of escape. Personally, Whitehead’s writing style wasn’t my favorite but I loved Cora’s perseverance and learning about the Underground Railroad.

Content Warnings