Nickel Boys (Whitehead) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The Nickel Boys demonstrate the versatile gifts of a writer who is rounding into mastery. The impression left is that Mr. Whitehead can succeed at any kind of book he takes on. He has made himself one of the finest novelists in America.
Wall Street Journal


Whitehead's new novel… is in many ways a continuation of his reassessment of African American history. But The Nickel Boys is no mere sequel.… it's a surprisingly different kind of novel.… Whitehead reveals the clandestine atrocities of Nickel Academy with just enough restraint to keep us in a state of wincing dread.… It shreds our easy confidence in the triumph of goodness and leaves in its place a hard and bitter truth about the ongoing American experiment.
Washington Post


Possibly the single most anticipated novel of the year.
Los Angeles Times


This is a powerful book by one of America's great writers.… Without sentimentality, in as intense and finely crafted a book as you'll ever read, Whitehead tells a story of American history that won’t allow you to see the country in the same way again.
Toronto Star


The Nickel Boys is straight-ahead realism, distinguished by its clarity and its open conversation with other black writers: It quotes from or evokes the work of Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and more. Whitehead has made an overt bid to stand in their company—to write a novel that’s memorable, and teachable, for years to come. The Nickel Boys is its fulfilment.
USA Today


[A] stunning new novel.… The understated beauty of his writing, combined with the disquieting subject matter, creates a kind of dissonance that chills the reader. Whitehead has long had a gift for crafting unforgettable characters, and Elwood proves to be one of his best.… The final pages of the book are a heartbreaking distillation of the story that preceded them; it's a perfect ending to a perfect novel.
NPR


Again [Whitehead is] wrestling with American history's reverberations…. Since its moral concern is multigenerational anguish, the sense of mourning in The Nickel Boys is subvisceral—not detached, but restrained.… We are called to remember [Faulkner], "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
Oprah Magazine


[The Nickel Boys] should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best.
Entertainment Weekly


(Starred review) Inspired by horrific events that transpired at the real-life Dozier School for Boys, Whitehead’s brilliant examination of America’s history of violence is a stunning novel of impeccable language and startling insight.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) Whitehead's magnetic characters exemplify stoicism and courage, and each supremely crafted scene smolders and flares with injustice and resistance, building to a staggering revelation.… A scorching work.
Booklist


(Starred review) Whitehead's novel displays its author's facility with violent imagery and his skill at weaving narrative strands into an ingenious, if disquieting whole. There's something a tad more melodramatic…, giving it a drugstore-paperback glossiness that enhances its blunt-edged impact.
Kirkus Reviews