nycsquirrel 's review for:

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

4.75

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Whitehead mixes truth and fiction by creating a world with a physical underground railroad, which establishes the tweak on reality to allow the story to pull together true horrors from various points in American history as inflicted by the white populations

(e.g., slavery, Trail of Tears, the Tuskegee experiment, stop and frisk)

. Each state crossing presents a different demonstration of race relations, though the hierarchy is clear no matter the presentation. Whitehead's language is beautiful yet cutting, and the story is justifiably jarring.  An excellent and important read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence

Moderate: Rape