I don't feel qualified to properly review this book in my position, so I'll keep this short. I thought this was a beautiful book about a terrible subject. It made the characters real to me in a way I wasn't expecting, and while the cast does get a bit large and unwieldy later in the book, I still enjoyed what was shown to me. The story is simple -- a boy growing up in slavery, grown into a man who rescues others in slavery -- and also complex as he considers how he fits into the larger picture and experiences the stories that his fellow Underground compatriots tell.

While the added layer of magical realism added to the beauty of the storytelling, tonally I'm not sure adding it to such a heavy subject worked all the time. Mood whiplash was a thing I experienced, where the beauty of the magical realism would be bookended with terrible things. Maybe that was by design, I'm not sure.

Much like [b:Between the World and Me|25489625|Between the World and Me|Ta-Nehisi Coates|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451435027l/25489625.SY75.jpg|44848425], I think this would make for some good required reading. There's lots to unpack here, both in the words and in the history of the topic.