The Underground Railroad

In many ways, The Underground Railroad is worth the hype. It is an intelligent novel based upon an exceptional idea. It's constructed with vivid scenes and formidable sentences. It is the kind of novel that can easily entice a reader.

At the same time, The Underground Railroad lacks in some areas that may alienate other readers. While the idea of using an actual underground railroad is promising, it does not add depth to the story. In fact, by deviating from historical events, The Underground Railroad loses some of its gravitas. The primary issue arising from The Underground Railroad is one of characters. Largely, I think they fail to connect with the reader. Characters who are central to the plot—characters like Caesar—can be snatched away and barely missed. Even Cora, our protagonist, fails to elicit the kind of emotions given to the protagonists of other well-known neo-slave narratives. Overall, the characters feel rather flat and the result is a story that meanders with only one central thread: a cold railroad beneath the ground.

In the end, the story relied completely on very well-written, vivid scenes, pieced loosely together by a connection to the railroad. For those readers who are able to connect to the story without the use of characters, or those who do connect with Cora, the outcome will be more favorable. Personally, despite some exceptional writing, my interest faltered the longer the story went on.