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The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead







The Underground Railroad is an adult fiction novel by Colson Whitehead. It was Oprah Winfrey's book club selection for 2016 and also a National Book Award winner. I picked this book up to read after it was recommended by one of my favorite adult authors, Jodi Picoult.

Sex: Women are raped. There is one explicit sex scene at the very end of the book. It caught me off guard. It's two or three lines, so a reader can easily skip over it.

Language: Mild to moderate. Lots of racial slurs.

Drug/Alcohol Use: A few mentions and scenes of drunkeness.

Violence/Gore/Frightening Scenes/Death: The violence is the kicker in this book. It's very detailed and extremely disturbing. Unfortunately, it's also historically accurate. There are many deaths and scenes of torture. The entire book is suspenseful. The main character spends the entire book trying to escape.

Final Note: I personally had to read this book in spurts. The chapters tended to jump around and sometimes they switched perspectives. The Underground Railroad in this novel is an actual underground railroad. I thought the story had a creative twist on history and was well written. Out of 5 stars on Goodreads, I gave it 4!

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