A brilliant book that twists and turns like the fictional railroad of Whitehead's story. Sometimes I felt completely blindsided by a single sentence that changed everything for the main character, Cora, and that was very effective. I sometimes gasped "no," because this novel is sorrowful and terrifying and almost reads like a horror story unfolding. I mean, it is a horror story in that though this is fiction it is based on so much of reality; of what human beings have done to each other...which is why it's desperately sad. There are light moments, it's not all gloom, but it can be a very difficult book to read. I was riveted but had to pause at times, the ugliness of humanity (then and now) sometimes too much to process.