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A review by jessalex610
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.5
Apparently this only took me two days to finish, but it felt so much longer than that. This is a hard hard read. Whitehead has such a good way with words and Griff’s story will always stick with me. There’s just something about the way he painted the scene, described the surroundings, the desperation for a second chance. Oh i’m gonna cry again. It’s a fictional story, but the inspiration is all too real. The Dozier School, the horrid, putrid racism of Jim Crow, the corrupt predators in power who help keep each other in power. To think that similar stories actually exist in real life…it’s almost too much to think about.
Graphic: Confinement, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault