A review by molly_dettmann
James by Percival Everett

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

So I’ve never read Huckleberry Finn, but I was familiar with the overall story and main characters (and yes, mostly that was from the movie Easy A). I started this read because it won the National Book Award and I was intrigued by a reimagining of Huckleberry Finn, but from Jim’s perspective (and it was shorter than the original book and I love a short read). Quickly I got so into this story that I’m going to have to go back and read Huckleberry Finn to see the parallels. This is a story about Jim who is enslaved and gets caught up with Huckleberry after Huck escapes his own abusive father, but it becomes so much more than Huck’s coming of age story and really is excellent, sometimes satirical commentary on slavery and the value of humanity. The last part completely blew me away in terms of how it really became its own story set apart from its source material.