There is so much going on in this book that I think I'll still be processing it for awhile. This book is such a complex look at the institution of slavery. I think so much of the portrayal of slavery can be very cartoonish villainry, but Colson Whitehead really explores so much more than that; I was particularly appalled by all the medical experiments: the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment and the forced sterilizations. It's a horrific travesty in the history of science, and there's a need for some serious reparations for all the of people who were egregiously affected by it.

The really fascinating part of this story is that the Underground Railroad is an actual railroad; a series of underground tunnels with single car locomotives connecting the country. I'll admit: there was a decent stretch of my childhood where I thought the Underground Railroad was a true railroad, so I was so intrigued by this concept. However, it's a really small fraction of the book. I was a bit disappointed, and would have really loved a whole book about the operation. But what Whitehead did include was disjointed and varied, which was probably was a more fair representation of how an escape route would work.

Honestly, I'm conflicted in this book. Some passages in this book were really engaging and kept me on my toes. Others just seemed to blur past so much information. I started with audiobook on this, and had to switch to the ebook because I just couldn't concentrate enough. The narrator had a great voice, but I don't think this writing works well in the audio format. I also really wish we got more from Cora. She's our focal point of our story, but it still feels like we're lacking her perspective. It's so clear that Whitehead did extensive research, and he paints an intricate picture of the US, but I would have just loved a bit more character work.