Review: The Nickel Boys

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The Nickel Boys The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Dozier School For Boys is the site of a shameful period in Florida's history, and the abuses and horror stories are still being uncovered with each gravesite that's revealed, each survivor's tale. Colson Whitehead, author of the fabulous and Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Underground Railroad gives us a fictionalized Dozier in the Nickel School, and a tale that's deeply tragic and also life-affirming.

I couldn't turn away from this engrossing book despite its bleak reflection of Jim Crow Florida and the abuses of a penal system rife with corruption, crime and cronyism. It's a searing story beautifully told.

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