Reviews

Safe Haven by Shankari Chandran

pennyalice's review

challenging inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

miss_randi's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

what a masterpiece.

lauziereads's review

dark informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

m_a_b_w's review

hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.75

nina_reads_books's review

4.5

Safe Haven is the latest book by Miles Franklin award winning author Shankari Chandran. I am a little ashamed to say I still have not read her winning book Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens but I'm absolutely going to get a copy ASAP because she is an amazing writer!

I chose this book to keep me company during and after my teenager daughters tonsil surgery and it was such an engaging read that I started and finished it in one day. How to describe this book? It is an astutely political take on asylum seekers and the Australian detention system while also being a crime novel. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it.

It centres on Fina, a former asylum seeker who was able to secure a visa allowing her settle in the small town of Hastings in country NSW. This allows her to also support other asylum seekers currently being held in a detention centre at Port Camden, a remote island outpost. Following a horrific event involving one of the teenage detainees, Fina speaks out to the media and is subsequently arrested and returned to Port Camden with the threat of deportation hanging over her. A special investigator, Lucky, arrives on the island to investigate this event as well as the unexplained suicide of one of the security guards a few weeks earlier. This mystery and Lucky's investigations become intertwined with Fina's future.

Safe Haven is about displacement and seeking refuge while trying to battle Australia's current laws on seeking asylum. Reading this should make you think and perhaps feel some anger towards the current policies. I found it moving, empathetic and rich with detail. Chandran must have done a lot of research to deliver this book. It was easy to read despite the difficult content and I could not stop turning the pages to find out what happens. There were several layers to this story which I won't touch on so readers can experience it all for themselves. Suffice to say it was immensely satisfying.

I definitely recommend this book and I hope to see Safe Haven all over bookstagram when it is released next month.

Thank you to @ultimopress for my #gifted copy. 

booksweread's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

How do you review a book by an author you admire, adore, are inspired by and think can do no wrong, without sounding like you have a vested interest in their success?

This review is just vibes, read the blurb and just go in blind. Trust me.

As with Song of the Sun God and Chai Time, Safe Haven is a journey.

A journey through the tumultuous and horrific refugee and detention policies of Australia, and a journey to find community and home.

It's also a mystery, there's a death and an investigation, all on the backdrop of a detention centre.

And there are people. Beautifully characterised characters with heart and soul and joy and flaws.

I love how Shankari writes with empathy and care, with love and hope even when all these things seem out of reach.

I also love how she seamlessly weaves the past and the present with the future, with fiction and pertinent social commentary about things that make her angry with the world.

I devoured Safe Haven, and now I wish I'd savoured it more.

Please read this book.

With my eternal thanks to the Ultimo team for a review copy of Safe Haven.

mmmmmm's review

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

heartbreaking and full of rich characters but also … soapy? like a spy thriller built atop a topic that was, granted, given nuance, but ifk. something rubbed me the wrong way. 

i called fina’s deception from the start

persuadingdaisies's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75