From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

The Underground Railroad

Colson Whitehead

Start date: February 1, 2017

Finish date: February 28, 2017

Discussion: 2017 Monthly challenge

Why we're reading this: The prompt for February's monthly challenge is "written by a person of color." We've chosen The Undergrou…more
[close] The prompt for February's monthly challenge is "written by a person of color." We've chosen The Underground Railroad as our group read. Participation is optional.

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2017 Monthly challenge

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* 2017 monthly challenge: The final list
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What Members Thought

Jun 26, 2017 Joanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017-read

I am really glad to have gotten to read this book. The book is painful. Bad things happen throughout. These things are told straightforwardly and not sugar-coated. There's no ultimate redemption here. Moments of hope imperiled by layer upon layer of drudgery, violence, fear, and unfairness.

This wasn't magical realism. Fantastical maybe, but not magical.

The plot kept the book moving, making this a fast read and one that was wholly absorbing. This book is often compared to Homegoing. It has some ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2017 Megan rated it really liked it

Shelves: tea-and-tomes-book-club-books, historical-fiction, american-stories, library-loans

To be rated/reviewed after this month's book club meeting

While this was a difficult read, I'm so glad that my book club picked it and that I had a chance to read and discuss this thought-provoking novel. I must admit that I set the book aside several times when I first began reading it because the story was so intense. However, the writing was exquisite and the author so deftly incorporated historical facts that the novel was imminently readable, even when delving into the most difficult aspects To be rated/reviewed after this month's book club meeting

While this was a difficult read, I'm so glad that my book club picked it and that I had a chance to read and discuss this thought-provoking novel. I must admit that I set the book aside several times when I first began reading it because the story was so intense. However, the writing was exquisite and the author so deftly incorporated historical facts that the novel was imminently readable, even when delving into the most difficult aspects of the narrative. The overly simplified plot is Cora, a slave, learns of an actual physical underground railroad from another slave, Caeser. Cora and Caeser escape from a plantation in Georgia, but it does not go smoothly. Cora's pursuit of freedom takes her to several states, each presenting different racial realities and challenges. She is pursued by a notorious and relentless slave catcher, Ridgeway, who is haunted by the fact that he never caught Cora's mother and is determined not to allow Cora to elude him as well.

One of the things that I liked most was the structure. Chapters alternate between the stops along the railroad's route and the backgrounds of certain characters who are tied to Cora's journey. Each can be read as an independent, but connected, short story. In the location-based chapters, the author presents the American race reality for that particular state, but takes liberties with certain fact-based historical elements that are woven into the chapter. I found that effective and felt that it added to the story overall. While I agreed with other reviews that some characters were not as three-dimensional as others, I still found myself fully connected to Cora and felt my heart race while hoping that the each stop on her journey would lead her to freedom once and for all.

In addition to being a book club pick, this book was also selected as a monthly group read for the 2017 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge back in February. At the time, the waitlist at my library was too long, so I wasn't able to actively participate in the discussion. Even though the discussion thread was closed by the time I read it, I enjoyed reading the comments and thinking about the ending in a different way. I kept thinking about this book after I finished it, which is always a good sign of an excellent read to me. ...more

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Aug 09, 2018 Marcella rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018-50-book-challenge, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is going to be one of those reviews where I’m going to spend half of it responding to other reviewers. Some readers said that Cora would be more sympathetic in the first person; I have no idea why they feel this way. I had no problems empathizing with her in the third person. I think the third person actually serves a useful narrative tool at points, such as when she goes to South Carolina and you’re not even aware the character being described is Cora, a moment that proves how much she has ...more

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Dec 29, 2019 Graceann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, suspense, audio, pop-sugar-2019

When I was in elementary school, we started to be taught about slavery, and the Underground Railroad. The information most firmly stressed on our eight-year-old brains was that it wasn't really underground, and it wasn't really a railroad. Now Colson Whitehead comes along and says "but what if it was, though?"

Cora is approached by a fellow slave on the Randall plantation about making an escape attempt. She's an outlier in that her mother is the only slave who ever successfully got away from thi ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 Sara rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-reads

I liked this book, but I didn't love this book. Like many others have said, it was hard to develop an emotional connection to any of the characters. I felt for Cora throughout all of her situations, but I never felt connected to Cora (or anyone else). This didn't make the story less interesting, just a little harder to get into and stick with at times. For me there were also some points where skips in the timeline made me lose interest. For example there was Tennessee, then Indiana, but no conne ...more

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Jan 28, 2017 Jen Ifer's Inklings rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-books, library, read-in-2017, 5-star-reads

This book should be required reading. There are a lot of good discussion points that would benefit us all to talk about and remember. My only complaint was the way the book ended. It was very abrupt and I didn't feel it fully wrapped the story up.

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2017, prompt #51: A book about a difficult topic. ...more

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Feb 19, 2018 Amy Ellis rated it really liked it

This is not an easy read, but it is an excellent story: a reimagining of the Underground Railroad as a literal railroad dug underneath homes and buildings where each station seems to lead to a new idyllic life. Good pick, Oprah! It is heart wrenching, but the ending is hopeful enough that I wasn’t depressed after finishing it.

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Jan 07, 2017 Joan rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club-library

Probably closer to 3.5. This book combine historical fiction, some factual information, and a bit of fantasy into a pretty interesting read. What it doesn't have is strong character development, especially of the main character, Cora.
Liked it even better the second time, felt more of Cora's character coming through. ...more

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