Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad was a book that I was excited to read and had high expectations for! I expected a hard-hitting narrative tackling slavery in the American South with a unique take on what the underground railroad actually was, portraying it as a physical railroad that helps runaway slaves escape. And to an extent, I did get that...

However, I ended up experiencing the same problem with Whitehead’s writing that a lot of other people had too: it was just too cold. I had exactly the same problem with Pachinko, I just didn’t connect with the detached tone. I understand that slavery is an upsetting enough topic that the writing doesn’t need to be overdone with emotions... but I need SOMETHING. I like to feel my books with the force of a thousand suns, and by the end of this one it just felt like he was stating the story line by line, possibly with the intention of making the reader feel shocked with how blunt and brutal it is, but it achieved the opposite effect on me.
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The main character Cora was the only character that felt memorable to me, the others were fleeting. But Cora herself is such a brilliant character that you only want to read about her anyway, you root for her, agonise for her. What she undergoes is horrific and Whitehead’s depictions of the brutality towards slaves couldn’t be faulted for their rawness.
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The last 100 pages my attention definitely waned, the story chugged along at a fine pace but it was more just the telling of a story rather than making me feel it. So definitely a mixed bag of a novel for me personally!