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lil_owl_reads 's review for:
James
by Percival Everett
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I’m honestly having trouble with how to rate this. This might be one I end up coming back to after chewing on it for a while and changing my rating.
As a Huckleberry Finn retelling, this is really moving and a brilliant spin on the Black slave as support character. As a stand-alone book though, this was so weak for a multi-award winning novel. The writing was stilted (which I understand was mimicking the source material, but made the read dry and a little frustrating at points) and the themes seemed very on the nose at points. It really was a good ending, but also I finished and felt like it could have done so much more. I never felt like I empathized with a character beyond objective empathy for situations (or to say this better, nothing about the writing moved me other than “bad thing happened” and thus I feel appropriately bad). Really this was not the winding adventure I was expecting, but it was also not a brilliant retelling language wise.
As a Huckleberry Finn retelling, this is really moving and a brilliant spin on the Black slave as support character. As a stand-alone book though, this was so weak for a multi-award winning novel. The writing was stilted (which I understand was mimicking the source material, but made the read dry and a little frustrating at points) and the themes seemed very on the nose at points. It really was a good ending, but also I finished and felt like it could have done so much more. I never felt like I empathized with a character beyond objective empathy for situations (or to say this better, nothing about the writing moved me other than “bad thing happened” and thus I feel appropriately bad). Really this was not the winding adventure I was expecting, but it was also not a brilliant retelling language wise.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery