The Underground Railroad in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Mar 04, 2020 Renata rated it really liked it

Shelves: grownup, historical-fiction, fiction

This book was challenging to read, but very compelling--I was so invested in Cora's story that I found it hard to put down. The challenges were: of course it's hard to read about the brutal (fictionalized) realities of slavery, but I'd already read several slave narratives and the like, so I mean...horrible to read but not shocking, I guess? But I really struggled to understand what was going on with the alternate history and I really struggled to understand what the point of it was. Would Cora' ...more

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Mar 31, 2018 Jessica Haider rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bipoc-author, magical_realism, fiction, bookriot_2018, 1000_books

BOOK RIOT READ HARDER CHALLENGE 2018 - fulfills #13: An Oprah Book Club selection

I loved this one though I have heard mixed reviews from others. I found it to be captivating! This is a blend of historical fiction with a touch of magical realism regarding a tweak on exactly how the underground railroad operated.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

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Jul 27, 2017 Etchison rated it really liked it

This was good. Really good. Interesting and disturbing and sad and engaging and thought provoking.

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Dec 20, 2016 Melle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, african-american, dakota-county-library-book, read-in-2016, copyright-2016, historical-fiction, slavery, audio, speculative-fiction, adult

This is one of those already really, really, really well-written, well-crafted, and well-executed novels that somehow gets even better in the hands of a skilled reader. (Bahni Turpin is tops. Seriously.) I wanted more of the Underground-Railroad-as-actual-railroad concept (which seems like the only criticism of this novel for readers), but, really, that speculative fiction is totally insignificant compared to the level of historical detail and period recreation and character development. A wonde ...more

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Jan 23, 2017 Kirsten rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-read

A really amazing read. Seriously.

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Jan 04, 2019 Cheryl rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-group, black-authors

3.5 stars rounded to 4.
I wanted to like this 2016 National Book Award and 2017 Pulitzer more than I did, but having said that, I’m glad our book group chose this book and will look forward to talking about it at the end of this month. It has a place in the novels of slavery narratives and not surprisingly is a heartbreaking, violent and a thrilling read as a runaway slave Cora is hunted throughout the book with the slave catcher Ridgeway ever at her heels.

The writing has been described as deta ...more

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Jul 26, 2020 Kerry rated it liked it

This is a story of Cora, a slave on a Georgia plantation, who embarks on a escape with Cesar. I listened to this account of her struggles and progress as she makes her way northward with several stops along the way. She is exposed to a variety of conductors from the railroad and environments in different locations where she adapts to survive.

Some of the stops and the events are horrible situations, sometimes in your face and others tampered down. Nonetheless, it's a challenging life and most of ...more

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Sep 11, 2017 LT rated it really liked it

This was powerful, challenging and reminds me a bit of Octavia Butler. There were some slow portions that made me lose the momentum to finish the story. These parts were usually an effort to close the loop with some characters, but I did not find this necessary in all cases. Generally, I did enjoy reading it.

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