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Nadine in NY Jones
Oct 08, 2019 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, social-issues-social-sciences, nyc, literary-schmiterary, based-on-real-life, era-1960s, pulitzer-winner, r2019-in-2019, ex-con
He’d been scared all the time. He was scared still.


This is a quietly compelling little book with strong undercurrents of doom. It opens in the present, when an old cemetery is unearthed, so you know shit is going down, or there would not have been bodies to bury, right? Then we go back in time to when Elwood was a kid in the 60s. He mostly leads a normal life, with some mis-steps. Whitehead maintains an emotional distance when recounting the bad things, which I find adds to the general off-k ...more
4 likes ·   · see review
Ryan
Aug 01, 2019 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: borrowed, pulitzer, 2019
It was never going to be easy to follow-up "Underground Railroad". If only for that unenviable position, Whitehead should be commended. This is more than just a worthy follow-up; it's a beautiful and succinct companion. ...more
3 likes ·   · see review
Astrid Lim
Jul 19, 2020 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: america, literature, historical-fiction, tragedy, campus-life, african-american, popsugar-summer-2020
Not as powerful as The Underground Railroad, but masterful as always. A historical fiction based on a true story about a reformed school in Florida and how for years it became an embodiment of terror and nightmare for the boys there, especially the Black ones.

I do hope that Colson Whitehead will write a bit longer here, so we can feel really connected with both Elwood and Turner, just like we did with Cora from Underground Railroad. Sadly, the book is too short in my opinion, although you can st ...more
 · see review
Kristen Iworsky
Jan 09, 2020 rated it really liked it
I almost didn’t read this because I am probably one of the few that didn’t like The Underground Railroad, but I’m glad I gave it a try.
 · see review
Scott
Jul 11, 2020 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: bookclub, social-justice
I really got to like Elwood. The book is a wonderful depiction of the time. Easy reading and great story.
 · see review
Jennifer lehman
Nov 19, 2019 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
I really feel like there could have been so much more to this story.
 · see review
Tony
Nov 21, 2018 marked it as to-read-library-dcpl-book
Damian
Jan 05, 2019 marked it as to-read
erin
Feb 24, 2019 marked it as to-read
Ching-In
May 31, 2019 marked it as to-read
Ching-In
Jul 01, 2019 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Vicky
Jul 19, 2019 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: novel
Jen
Jul 20, 2019 marked it as to-read
Sarah
Oct 12, 2020 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
2 likes · 
Lorri
Oct 11, 2019 rated it really liked it
Christina
May 09, 2020 rated it really liked it
alana
Nov 13, 2019 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: find-it-somewhere
Pamela
Nov 24, 2019 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Laura
Feb 10, 2020 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Glynn
Jan 11, 2020 rated it it was amazing
Brian
Jan 16, 2020 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Jackie
Apr 10, 2020 is currently reading it
Lori
Apr 22, 2020 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Katie
May 03, 2020 rated it really liked it
Shelves: male-author, historical-fiction, _us-south, race
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Around the World in 80 Books

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