A review by siiriainen
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Elwood Curtis is a black teenager living in the Deep South during the civil rights era of America. A driven and strong willed boy, he is accepted to begin college level classes early despite his age. However, the summer before he is set to begin, he gets arrested by the police for a crime he did not commit and is sent to a juvenile “reform school” for troubled youth called the Nickel Academy. At the school he befriends a delinquent named Turner and together they scheme to survive their time at the school which is characterized by beatings, cruel punishment, indentured servitude, and murders by their guards and caretakers. Based on an actual school which was only closed in 2011 after operating for 111 years and where hidden gravesites were discovered on its property shortly afterward, this novel captured Whitehead’s second Pulitzer Prize (the other being for The Underground Railroad), making him one of only 4 repeat winners of the prize. And its success is well deserved as The Nickel Boys is a fantastic novel of the cruelty of the Jim Crow era and its continued legacy today in America told through rich language and a captivating story. Highly recommended.    

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