I always enjoy novels that take a different perspective from that of the original story, so the idea of this one appealed to me. And the novel exceeded all my expectations. I loved James' wisdom and enjoyed his lessons on translating speech to "slave talk."

Although I am familiar with a few episodes of the Huck Film novel I have yet to read it; and this will prompt me to do so soon. I recognized several names from familiar episodes. I assume  that  scenes where James is separate from Huck have their parallel in those where Huck is alone in the Twain novel.  I'm wondering if James ever told Huck anything about his time away after they got back together--whether such telling suggested episodes or not. i'll soon know.

The pacing kept my attention throughout; in fact in many places it is a page turner. I found the various resolutions satisfying, maybe a stretch of the imagination in some cases, but satisfying nonetheless.

(I didn't answer the characters loveably? question because not all were. Though James--though he doesn't insist on the more formal name till the end, I want to honor that insistence by using it throughout--Huck, Norman and a few others are quite lovable, many of the rest are not.)