aodamar 's review for:

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This book put me way behind on my tbr because I could not read more than a chapter at a time. It’s too chilling, terrifying and prescient to read all in one go. My heart and mind ache for all the boys who were incarcerated in places like nickel, for those penalised by the us’s prison industrial complex and fascist politics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism