The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: James
Author: Percival Everett
Published: April 2024
Genre: Literary, Historical
Themes: Slavery

One sentence summary: James retells the Mark Twain’s The Tales of Huckleberry Finn from his untold perspective.

One sentence review: Thoroughly enjoyable and I can’t recommend on audio enough.

Review:

It’s a story of escape, and adventure if you can call it that, and the push and hope of freedom. It’s a relatively short tale at just over 300 pages and as a result is pretty pacey.

James’s story is one of those that’s a great read because of the writing and more, but it’s also hard to say that because of the devastation and cruelty contained within.

I listened to this on audio and I wholeheartedly recommend reading it that way. The narrator added another layer of depth I wouldn’t have got through reading alone.

I’ve seen a lot of love and high praise for this one all over bookstagram and I’m here to add to it too, it’s well deserved.

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops and my work while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here or as an audiobook here.

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And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 22/05/2026