A review by whitneyonline
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

Wow... the ending took an unexpected turn that was rather bleak and sad. After all Cora went through she deserved happiness, so to watch her run fight struggle only to have such an ambiguous ending leaves one feeling down trodden. 
I am fully aware that the realities of slavery were completely bleak, and Cora's journey and ending with so much loss and loose ends runs very accurate to real-life accounts. But the one-two punch of the revelation about her mother's fate paired with the ending of the book shortly after is just utterly depressing. Cora deserved a resolute happy ending and we readers deserved to see it. 
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