Reviews

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

butch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

3.75

harrietjoseph's review

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

reneek's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

tummasuklaakeksi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense

4.0

chrustek00_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Bardzo mnie poruszyła ta książka, a styl pisania autora jest tak 'normalny' w bardzo ujmujący sposób. Jedyne czego mi zabrakło, to ożywienia tej historii – mimo wszystko czułam, że niektóre postaci oraz plot twist pod koniec mógł mieć więcej wymiarów.

jennie_white2008's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Death, Confinement, Bullying, Blood, Racial slurs, Murder, Violence, and Racism

franchos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

600bars's review against another edition

4.0

I have not been in the reading zone lately and having trouble with paying attention. It also is borrowed from my mom's friend and it was her book club book so she kept taking it (she had more rights to it than me as she was on a deadline) but all of this is to say I read it way more sporadically than I usually read books so I don't know if I gave it the attention it deserved. It moves very brisk and crisp and doesn't dwell too much on any single event or character. I have nothing negative to say. It was just really hard to read because it is so fucked up and dark and so recent in history. Things like sweatboxes seem like mideval torture and it's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that they were used 200 years ago, much less recent enough that boys who experienced things like that are still alive today. I am not really surprised by that as we all know how disturbing this country is but it's just harrowing to read about knowing how recent and the fact that it's about children.

I was listening to the guest list on tape and though that was a fun thriller while this is a serious book, they kinda had inverse plots. The Guest List was about the aftermath of trauma at boarding school because they were rich kids who were able to cover things up because of how privileged they were, and then they spent the rest of their lives being haunted by what happened. This book was about the traumas endured at boarding school because they were so devalued that nobody cared what happened to them. It's not really that insightful of an observation, just interesting that they were both broadly dealing with the same topic (unjust deaths and trauma at a 'boarding school') but in the complete opposite way.

exfeno's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

jgh514's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

3.0