Merry Wanderer of the Night + tlc book tour

Finny

I have always been a huge fan of bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novels (see I did use that useless piece of information I got out of my major). When I was asked to read Finny

by Justin Kramon for this TLC Book Tour I could not have been more excited because it was described as a coming of age novel about a girl. From what I've read, Kramon feels like me: coming-of-age novels are great but there are very few about girls- and he decided to fix that with Finny. The novel follows Finny through about 20 years of her life, from 14 to 34. From the opening lines I knew Finny was my kind of girl; "She started out life as Delphine, named by her father for the city where the Greek oracle was from, but she'd always had an independent mind about things like names, so she'd gone by Finny ever since she was old enough to choose" (3). Gee, that doesn't sound like anyone I know.

The story begins when Finny meets a boy, Earl. I was initially a little put off by the fact that Finny's story had to begin with a boy, but it was so much more than that. With Earl came Earl's father, Mr. Henckel, a pianist who falls asleep every so often- "It just comes upon me" he says after each snooze. Earl is a bit eccentric as well, you'd have to be growing up with a father like that, and he tells Finny he wants to become a writer. The Henckels are completely different from Finny's family. Her father, Stanley, loves to quote famous writers and philosophers and is a wee bit pretentious. Her mother, Laura, constantly gives Finny unwanted advice about what people think is rude. Her brother, Sylvan, is incredibly intelligent and despite a few blows he gives Finny they turn out to be great friends. Later in the novel Finny goes to boarding school, which is where she meets Judith who is that friend. Judith likes to stretch the truth a little bit and she doesn't always think of who she hurts in the process.

So as you can see, the cast of characters in this book has a lot to offer, and two of my favorite characters I left unmentioned so you can read the book and discover them on their own. In some ways, the characters are fairly average, but they are necessary because they are so important in Finny's (or any girl's) life. Honestly, the book started out a little bit slow for me and started to pick up about halfway through. I think this is because about halfway through the novel Finny is my age and I could just relate to her more easily. Actually, I could relate to her at the beginning of the novel, but it was hard for me to take that trip back to adolescence because I made some of the same mistakes Finny did and not too long ago. This book is a coming-of-age novel, but beyond that it's just a story about people. How people disappoint us, how we forgive them, and how we learn to be more careful in our judgment. Another aspect I loved was how Finny seemed to lose some parts of her personality at the beginning of her adolescence and then slowly started to regain them as the story went on, which I think is true to life. If I had to pick a phrase that described Kramon's writing best that is what it would be, true to live. The story is majestic and sometimes far-fetched, but at the end Finny is real.

I give this bildungsroman (see, I did it again) an A.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. Thanks to Trish of TLC Book Tours and the publisher for providing me this book to review.

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Finny + tlc book tour