Reviews - James | The StoryGraph

23.5k reviews for:

James

Percival Everett

4.52 AVERAGE

lanijah13's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

sonjiag's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

lucyseward's review against another edition

4.0

Such a powerful story that confirms the wisdom of, as John Green advises, imagining "people complexly." While at first, I hoped that we would learn a reason for James's erudition and eloquence (e.g. Was he tutored surreptitiously by a brave and generous mistress? Did he trick others into teaching him to read and write as Frederick Douglass did as a youngster?), it finally hit me that perhaps Everett put these verbal jewels into the mouths of the enslaved to achieve characterizations congruent with Green's advice. Because Everett depicts unspeakable cruelty in much of the book, it's often difficult to read, which makes James both a brilliant and a necessary book for those who not only seek to imagine the enslaved complexly, but also sense their own privilege, opportunity, and obligation to learn our devastating history so that we may do better in the future. BTW - didn't see the twist coming, either.