A review by knotekerin
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

brutal, honest and gut-wrenching historical (fantasy-ish?) fiction about American history and specifically a gory and unapologetically realistic telling of of “The Great War… between the white and the Black” (Whitehead, 275). Whitehead doesn’t just tell a story of slavery, escape and the “underground railroad”, but he expertly and subtly delves into the constant and ongoing racism and prejudice that persists throughout the years after the abolition of slavery and into present day. Cora’s character herself is an ingenious representation of slavery and all the injustices perpetrated by white people against Black people until now, as she is maintained to be fairly one-dimensional in her very own story. through his main character’s story, Whitehead comments on forced sterilization, colonialism, manifest destiny, overt & covert racism, the KKK, colorism and so much more of the horrors that white America inflicted and inflicts on the Black population before, during and after slavery. so many white people are mad about this book in their reviews and Cora herself in the book predicts this rejection: “nobody want[s] to speak on the true disposition of the world. And no one want[s] to hear it. Certainly not the white monsters…” (Whitehead, 113). basically imo this book unmasks the current and ever-present delusion of America while following Cora’s escape, and it’s not limited to the horrors of slavery, it’s exposing the true injustice that this country even exists as it does today
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