I normally make some attempt to prioritize the most quickly forthcoming books when I'm reading ARCs, but this time I went straight for The Nickel Boys as soon as I'd finished The Rosie Result, which had the advantage of being a part of a series I'd already been following. I was a big fan of The Underground Railroad, and I was excited to find out what Whitehead had done next. His latest is an entirely different sort of novel aside from its grounding in the horrors of history, based on a real reform school in Florida. It follows Elwood Curtis, a black boy bound for college in the 1960s when his life changes course terribly not even so much because of one mistake as because of an accident. Abuse, corruption, and the threat of being disappeared hang over the school, where Elwood fights to declaration "Throw us in jail and we will still love you" as a way to hang onto hope and his humanity while his friend Turner focuses on staying out of trouble and scheming to survive by any means necessary.
On some levels this is a simple book; the bulk of the plot can be summed up in the paragraph above. But in addition to its powerful and brutal prose, it manages to be impressively surprising for a book in which there is so little of what you'd call intrigue. This is in no way a comfortable book, but it is an important one.
Overall: A
The Nickel Boys will be available July 16.