A review by mmwiseheart
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This is a fantastic book, which feels weird to say since the content is so heavy and dark. However, it is very well written. More importantly, it tells the story of boys whose stories were largely unheard. It is based on a true story of what happened at a reform school in Florida. The only thing I didn’t like about it is that I felt it wasn’t fully resolved. Which is perhaps intentional. 

I read this for book group and was forewarned that I needed to start reading it earlier than I normally would because I’d need to take breaks from the heaviness of it. And that turned out to be the case. The only other book I’ve read that I remember having to put down and come back to this much was John Hersey’s Hiroshima. 

I recommend this to everyone. It’s a lot to handle, but it’s so important. It’s important to know about and learn to recognize the injustices that have happened, and are still happening, in our country so that we can affect change.
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