Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

62 reviews

openhearts_openbookshelves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Torture, Racism, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

miachalupa's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

longlostreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, Racial slurs, Torture, and Violence

kristynpittman's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

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: Racism, Child abuse, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Rape and Pedophilia

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

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

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

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

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, Racism, and Racial slurs

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

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Bullying