Rating: 
Summary: KLIATT Calls Audiobook 'Awesome Audio'
Review: "Olshan's reading of the first person narration by a 14-year-old girl is one of the best I've heard, perfectly paced, matter-of-fact, intimately familiar with Chloe [the protagonist and narrator]. After I adjusted to my initial confusion at the male voice, strangely Olshan began to sound just as Chloe should sound. He makes this wonderful first novel, an homage to Twain, accessible to reluctant readers. Truly awesome in audio."
-- Designated by KLIATT and reviewer/KLIATT editor Jean Palmer as "Starred Review for Outstanding"
Rating:
Summary: A very good young adult novel that deals with social issues
Review: After living largely unsupervised with her temperamental mother, Chloe Wilder feels as if she found paradise when she moves into the home of her grandparents. Though they constantly misinterpret Chloe's natural reticence and quietness for anger, her grandparents provide her material things, an allowance, and loving encouragement. On the other hand when the kind Mexican maid Sylvia begins to show her pregnancy, they toss her out, but not before checking to see if anything was stolen. Everything changes when "Soul Patch" abducts Chloe. It turns out that he is her mother's new husband because not long afterward, her mother's cursing as usual enters the dilapidated, filthy home. They keep Chloe locked away, but she manages to escape with her only hope to survive the mean streets being Sylvia. FINN: A NOVEL like its titled predecessor can be read on varying levels. It is an exciting young adult adventure tale with major social issues turning it into a thought-provoking adult-tale. Chloe with Sylvia as her guide falls from the elite radar screen into a lower class maelstrom where she learns much about class society in America from her experiences on the street. Matthew Olshan accomplishes quite a task blending social commentary that questions who really has "class" into an interesting adventure that never preaches only entertains. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: I Hope There Is A Sequel
Review: Even though I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn some time ago, I think Matthew Olshan's idea of a modern Huck Finn is brilliant, and I can clearly see its connection to Twain's original work. I easily related to everything in FINN's plot (Is the Field School a real school? If not, it is the perfect modern name), and my favorite character, Marian, had a terrific personality and was hilarious! The beginning was funnier than anything, and no one could have asked for a better ending. The ending suggests a sequel. Is there to be one? ... Please!!!
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Summary: What's Not to Love?
Review: Fast-paced plot. Exciting adventure after exciting adventure. Less than typical female heroine. Intense scenes. Expressive language. Surprise finish. And serious "dealing-with-the-world" issues. What's not to love in Finn: a novel?
Rating:
Summary: I Couldn't Stop Reading!!!
Review: I greatly admired FINN's main character, Chloe, for her amazing strength and bravery. I could never have endured all that she went through. As for the story, its many fast paced adventures kept me permanently glued to the book. Any time I gave the slightest thought to putting FINN down, even for a couple of minutes, something new, exciting, and interesting happened, and I just had to keep right on reading.
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Summary: I know everyone else liked it...
Review: I thought that this book was terrible. It became aparent to me in about the 4th chapter. It had it's moments, but Chloe's emotions to everything didn't make sense to me, she was annoyed at everything. I didn't find it genius, the constant repition of phrases like 'as if' and 'whatever' further annoyed me, and I would suggest to all not bothering to read this book. Some teenage girls would probably like it, but I thought it lacked in many areas.
Rating:
Summary: I Loved It, Then Gave it to a Friend
Review: If I really like a book, I lend it to a friend. I lent FINN to my friend Conner. I told him that FINN was fast moving with a surprise finish -- and he'd really enjoy reading it. I told him that the book's heroine, Chloe Wilder, was smart and easy-going, could handle just about any situation -- even the most dangerous ones -- and had an attitude he'd like. I told him that FINN was a bit like Harry Potter because Chloe Wilder and Harry Potter both had serious problems they had to solve. I told him that reading FINN was a good way to find out what Huckleberry Finn was like if he hadn't read it yet. And I told him that boys like him and like me would find FINN cool, even though the main characters are girls. I expect that Conner's gonna read it too.
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Summary: Cool AND Surreal!
Review: If it hadn't been for lunch, I would've finished FINN without a break this past Sunday. As it was, it took me just that single day to ride through this fast-paced, scenic series of unforgettable adventures. The waterfall scene, for example, was a peaceful and calming interlude smack in the midst of an underworld of grime and crime, and was, quite literally, a cool episode. Another superb scene was the one near the end with King D. What an odd but memorable environment that surreal character created for himself. And when James was steering Finn and Silvia around the debris of his life, I felt such a sense of immediacy that I wouldn't have been surprised to look up and see him right there in my living room, doing his street dancing between the chalk marks. Chloe Wilder, a fast-thinking and resourceful girl toughened up by a week of unanticipated exploits, still reminded me of many of my female friends. Though vulnerable, she desperately tried to hide her vulnerability. And, with that mask on, she brushed up against a rough world seemingly not far from her own fairly comfortable existence, but in fact a world away. FINN will appeal to teen readers -- male and female -- wherever jagged cities give way to seemingly smooth suburbs.
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Summary: Conversations with Huck
Review: In an interview on this book's website, finnanovel.com, author Olshan comments, "I thought a lot about what the greatest social evil of our time might look like to future generations. One of the things I came up with is our current hostility towards immigrants-- in a country of immigrants." Grounded in satire, this novel enters into a coversation with Twain's masterpiece. Anyone who loves Huck should give this book a read to see Chloe Wilder plot her course through the asphalt jungle using her knowledge of Huck Finn. Along the way she cements a friendship with Sylvia, her grandparents' Mexican maid.
Rating:
Summary: Conversations with Huck
Review: In an interview on this book's website, finnanovel.com, author Olshan comments, "I thought a lot about what the greatest social evil of our time might look like to future generations. One of the things I came up with is our current hostility towards immigrants-- in a country of immigrants." Grounded in satire, this novel enters into a coversation with Twain's masterpiece. Anyone who loves Huck should give this book a read to see Chloe Wilder plot her course through the asphalt jungle using her knowledge of Huck Finn. Along the way she cements a friendship with Sylvia, her grandparents' Mexican maid.
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