Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is “as good as anyone.” Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South in the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called The Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides “physical, intellectual and moral training” so the delinquent boys in their charge can become “honorable and honest men.”

In reality, The Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors, where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear “out back.” Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr. King’s ringing assertion “Throw us in jail and we will still love you.” His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naïve, that the world is crooked and the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.

The tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys’ fates will be determined by what they endured at The Nickel Academy.

Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative.

Out July, 2019

224 Pages approx

MY THOUGHTS:

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a dark, horrific, blatant, no holds-bar book depicted during the Civil Rights era that outlines beatings, cruelty, sadism, sexual assault, and, unbelievable treatment of black boys in Tallahassee. Whitehead is such a prolific writer, a master of words and prose and has the ability to make his readers feel every word, see every injustice and feel every heart-break written in his work. If you like a knock you on the seat of your pants type of book, then this one is it.

Based on a real story about a reform school in Florida that affected thousands. This story is just devastating.

Read it, and bring lots of tissues–you’ll need them. This book will haunt you after you’ve read it for a very long time.

 

I gave this book: