The Nickel Boys

I read The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead for book club. The book description says, "When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow 'delinquent' Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades."

This was a really engaging read. It actually read kind of like a nonfiction book, so I had to keep reminding myself it was fictional (even though it was based on real events). The book really highlighted the unfair things that happened to the boys that went to the school this book was based on. I really liked all the references to Martin Luther King Jr speeches and the lines that inspired Elwood.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)