Reviews - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

5.24k reviews for:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Raymond Burns, Mark Twain, Joanne Gise

3.51 AVERAGE

5.24k reviews for:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Raymond Burns, Mark Twain, Joanne Gise

3.51 AVERAGE

afjakandy's review against another edition

Huck Finn is such a challenging book for me because it's impossible to divorce the story from the context of the world I live in—but I also recognize the cleverness of Twain's writing. I see the extraordinary nuance lying just beneath the surface of Huck's outlandish shenanigans and the deeply uncomfortable portrayal of Jim. Toni Morrison said it best in her 1996 introduction to the book:

For a hundred years, the argument that this novel is has been identified, reidentified, examined, waged and advanced. What it cannot be is dismissed. It is classic literature,
which is to say it heaves, manifests and lasts.

I read this in preparation for Percival Everett's James, who said this of both his book and Twain's in a 2024 PBS interview:

If you get someone laughing, then you have removed some defenses. You have removed some walls. And then you can show them the bad things.

.
So, is Huck Finn a good book or not? I couldn't say, but it is certainly remarkable.

I also have to leave this quote from Morrison's intro here because it made me so emotional:

Earlier I posed the question, What does Huck need to live without despair and thoughts of suicide? My answer was, Jim.

k80thegr8's review against another edition

3.0

idk i think tom sawyer just might beat holden caulfield as the most annoying protagonist ever and this isn’t even his book

ibinbar's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

ugoglen's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous challenging dark funny fast-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: Yes

This is one of the few re-reads of SJC books I've done, and I am so glad I eased back in with Huck! I read it in conjunction with "James," a few chapters of each so that I was getting both perspectives, and I really enjoyed the whole re-read. Also, this edition has a truly amazing amount of explanatory notes -- I often find those boring, but these were actually illuminating.

losersfiction's review against another edition

3.0

Very entertaining, but not nearly as good as Tom Sawyer’s novel. I would recommend reading that one first, especially since it is a prequel to this one, and then if you’re hungry for more, read this one. Mark Twain has a way of Nanking me laugh with his writing, and in Tom Sawyer’s novel he accomplished a well-written and cohesive narrative. This story is much more disparate, but still good.

rasha_reads's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous challenging funny reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A large part of the reading adventure that I have set for myself is to read as much of everything that I possibly can. For me this lies in not only to be able to say, I have read x amount of books, but to be able to give a personal and informed opinion on so many books that I have always wanted to read but never got round to. That also includes going back to read the classics that, for one reason or another, I never read in school or college. Mark Twain’s Huck Finn is a perfect example of this.

So, what did I think?

I wish I could say that I loved it and hail it , as many do, as “the great American novel” (don’t hate me for what follows - this is just a personal opinion). I read it because I wanted to and when I start a book, I don’t like the practice of DNFing (no judgement on those who do). To be honest, it was not a favourite and I thought it kind of dragged on. Plus, I found that the dialogue and descriptions, which were all in these various brogue dialogues, were, to my modern senses, cartoonish and misrepresentative. For a book with such a simple plot, the way it was told was almost tortuous and seemed to take forever to get to the point.

However, for all its meanderings, it is an interesting novel which has some important themes (morality, racism, freedom from conforming - among others) that would be interesting to explore in a group setting (classroom or book club, take your pick). It is made more interesting, perhaps, for anybody who is intending on reading “James” by Percival Everett (which I am going to get to soon 🤞🏻). Although I would not go out of my way to recommend Huck Finn, it is a solid choice for the literary minded and although I do not regret reading it, I can’t gush about it either.

2.75 stars

#theadventuresofhuckleberryfinn #huckfinn #tomsawyer #marktwain

#booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookaddict #reading #bookstagram #booktok #bookreviews #bookdragon #bookworm #lovebooks #booklovers #booknerd #bookrecs

#fiction #classicliterature #adventure

Content Warnings

ashley44's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

noodle0603's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark funny 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

I read this in preparation for reading the new book James, which is supposed to be the same story but from James (the runaway slave, called N—- Jim in huckleberry Finn) perspective. I don’t think I ever read this book before, despite it apparently being a very common part of high school curricula. I mentioned the book to some friends and they were like “I don’t remember much, but that it was about shenanigans while riding a raft down the Mississippi River.” There definitely was that. The duke and the king were all shenanigans, and that part of the book was relatively light and entertaining… until the part where they sold off Jim. There were dark undertones throughout the book, but the last 1/3 was when it truly sharpened. After Jim was sold and Tom made this ludicrous charade out of helping him escape. It was all a game to Tom. Literally another person’s life. It was very dark. It was almost a satire of fun shenanigans. Like Tom wanted to have a fun time, and Jim was just a prop in his game. Awful. I’m glad I read it though. I understand why it is a classic.