THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

By: Colson Whitehead

Plot: About a slave named Cora, who escapes from her plantation on the underground railroad that is an actual underground railroad. A book about slavery so you know it's going to be bad.

My Thoughts: I read the synopsis about the underground railroad being a literal underground railroad and I thought that'd be really interesting. Then upon reading the book, I realized that the underground railroad had hardly anything to do with the story at all. I don't understand what the point of having it be a real railroad was then. Just to make her travel fast, maybe? I think it would have been more interesting from the perspective of one of the conductors on the railroad or something! I just thought it would play a much more significant part of the story.

I shouldn't have read this book during the summer. It's not an easy, breezy summer read. I can't think that much in the summer heat. I think the plot is the best part of this book. The escape scenes always had me drawn in. The author would sometimes give things away though and that took some of the suspense out of it. It was just so dang depressing to read. I definitely can't say I enjoyed reading it, but it was a good book.

I thought the slave hunter was one of the best characters. He was the most complex character and the most interesting, I thought. (*SPOILER*) it was also a letdown reading about Cora's mom. If you are going to sacrifice everything for your freedom, even your daughter, then it's upsetting to have her go out that way. But I guess the whole book is upsetting.

Favorite Quotes: "It was a magnificent operation, from seed to bale, but not one of them could be prideful of their labor. It had been stolen from them. Bled from them."

"He'd worried the paint from it these last months."

"People always got things wrong, on purpose as much as by accident."

Rating: 4/5 

BEFORE WE WERE YOURS

By: Lisa Wingate

Plot: This story is told from two perspectives, in the present there is Avery who believes that her grandmother is hiding something and starts digging into her past. Then the story of Rill Foss being told from the past. Her and her siblings are basically stolen from their parents and put into a children's home and 'adopted' out for large sums of money. It's a huge scam and travesty!

My Thoughts: This book was so dang sad!  It took me a really long time to get through this book.  I just didn't have the heart to read it because the story was depressing. I decided I'm too post-partum to read about anything bad happening to children.  I enjoyed the writing, I liked the characters, and the plot was interesting but sad!  I probably only made it through this book because every other chapter was from Avery's perspective.  There were quite a few times when I had to look and see how many pages were left until I would get to Avery's chapter. The fact that anything like this ever happened is horrifying!

One thing that I thought was so weird was that the sisters decided to keep everything secret. Who cares that you already are married and with families of your own? All the more reason to get your families together! Wouldn't they want their children to know their aunts and uncles? They did nothing wrong, why should they keep this as some deep, dark secret that they are ashamed of?  Also are Senators really that scrutinized?  Maybe I'm just naive but that seemed over the top.  They acted as if he was the President.  Am I the only one that thought that Grandma Judy was Camille the whole time?  It was reassuring to think that she made it out okay, but how they never found out what happened to her! Crying face.

Rating: 4/5 I don't know that I can say that I enjoyed this book, just because of the subject matter, but it is a good book. Good but sad. Have I mentioned how sad the book is?