11.7k reviews for:

O Reformatório Nickel

Colson Whitehead

4.32 AVERAGE

foodandfun103's review against another edition

3.5

reflective sad medium-paced

bpr101's review against another edition

4.25

emotional sad slow-paced

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i ended up crying in the coffee shop  , this was such a devastating read. it’s not the first novel i read by whitehead, so i am used to his heavy prose. i do feel like the structure jumping back and forth interrupted a lot the reading experience. still, it was such a poignant book. 

i haven’t watched movie

steph_ramos's review against another edition

3.0

dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

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This took me way longer than normal to finish a pretty regular-sized novel. I will say that I am excited to watch the film, I think this novel is better suited for that medium.

I found the subject matter engrossing, and I appreciate that it was written with a lot of nuance and care about the (real life and fictional) survivors. I could tell that was very top of mind for Whitehead. But something about the structure really kept me from getting engaged with the characters as much as I thought I would. I especially didn't care for the back and forth between present and school days in Part 3 of the book, it felt really out of place. And the school portion of the story is told more in vignettes rather than chronologically. Again, I think that must translate well to a film, but it didn't work for me and kept me from emotionally connecting with the story or characters (to an extent, of course I still had a lot of feelings reading about what the characters went through). 

bananahanna_92's review against another edition

3.75

funny inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

wagnerw1's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark 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: Yes

blerdmominthe6ix's review against another edition

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Immersive reading marked digital version as complete.

blerdmominthe6ix's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

kdaigh's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark hopeful 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: Yes

queerbrian's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

living_in_books's review against another edition

4.0

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Whitehead is such a fantastic writer. I also love that is refuses to be confined to one genre and he does them all well. This is historical fiction and reminded me quite a bit of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and The Reformatory, both of which I liked a lot more. This book didn’t hold my attention and I think that was partly because I wasn’t in the mood for it and there are some storylines (like boxing) that contributed to the story, but bored me. I think it’s a great book, however, and I’m not going to knock off stars because I’m feeling tangential. Read it knowing you’ll learn something, and it’s more substantial and reality-based than books with similar storylines.

Also, I bought this book on Audible YEARS ago and I am just getting around to listening to it and others I passed up for things I wanted to read more. This is why I do not buy books.