The Underground Railroad

Between 3 and 4 stars. The story of Cora, a slave's escape and journey across several states during the pre-civil-war era with the not metaphorical but literal underground railroad. I definitely enjoyed parts of this (especially the beginning and the end) and the occasional beautiful wordings, but the main character never really came to life, was lacking in personality development. Sometimes the narration jumped around, and that was disruptive. Either this book should have been double the length - become an opus featuring more adventures, more characters, more details - or should have had a tighter storyline more focused on the railroad. This and Homegoing have been dominating many of the best-of lists of 2016, and Homegoing - which deals with a similar subject matter - is miles better. This reads like a very negative review, though it shouldn't be. This book just doesn't seem to live up to it's potential and that's disappointing.