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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
fresh from finishing this and hm. i like it a lot. liked the distinction of each voices in every narrative. like. there's always a hint of their personality bleeding through, and it's nice. perfect. it's a little hard to get used to, but it gets pulled off in a way that a few chapters down the road, you'll recognize who's who and it's nice. i guess.
you get to see their thoughts, their struggles and it makes it feel like everyone in this really matters and isn't just there as a background character.
plotwise it's not really the most cohesive. like i feel there's a before and after. before feels like a straight line but the after is a little messy, scattered. you get to see how their life falls apart, how they cope with grief and it's different. varied. kinda feels like it's gunning to be something different and bigger all at once but kinda fell flat.
liked the deconstruction of noa's character + that onr spoiler i wont say. adds a little twist to the novel, more meaning. liked the ending too - it's not a magical fix it where everything's all right at the sudden and it's something i really appreciate. it's realistic, open, very hopeful. not really a happy ending as far as it goes, but it's nice, and it's apt to the overall tone of the novel.
really ties down to that one chapter where malia talks about hope, and how it's a god you can pray to. very neat.
you get to see their thoughts, their struggles and it makes it feel like everyone in this really matters and isn't just there as a background character.
plotwise it's not really the most cohesive. like i feel there's a before and after. before feels like a straight line but the after is a little messy, scattered. you get to see how their life falls apart, how they cope with grief and it's different. varied. kinda feels like it's gunning to be something different and bigger all at once but kinda fell flat.
liked the deconstruction of noa's character + that onr spoiler i wont say. adds a little twist to the novel, more meaning. liked the ending too - it's not a magical fix it where everything's all right at the sudden and it's something i really appreciate. it's realistic, open, very hopeful. not really a happy ending as far as it goes, but it's nice, and it's apt to the overall tone of the novel.
really ties down to that one chapter where malia talks about hope, and how it's a god you can pray to. very neat.
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was beautiful and really sad - I found that it tended to drag in some places, but almost skim over others. I would have loved to have spent more time with Dean and Kaui, and often even Noa. It felt at times like we were speeding through time and I barely had time to keep up.
It was very well-written though and I enjoyed it.
My god. The cultural appropriation.... like god dammit. Don’t let the marketing fool you—this isn’t written by an Indigenous man. It had good emotional depth, which is why I kept it at 2 stars, I did get invested in what I read, but I only found out half way through my reading that he wasn’t Native Hawaiian, and now decisions made throughout the book leave a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t know. Someone I follow said this book is the American Dirt of Pacific Islanders. Just a forewarning
edit 2022: this review said it best— https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3705952899
Y’all should be promoting Indigenous voices instead of speaking over them. Do better
edit 2022: this review said it best— https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3705952899
Y’all should be promoting Indigenous voices instead of speaking over them. Do better
DNF at 35%. The promised magical realism elements were not fully realized, but that should have been fine by me if the narrative still works. Most of my issues are the unlikeable characters and awkward scenes. It’s possible that the conflict is due to cultural differences, but I found a lot of things cringey, e.g. how the family members would joke around with each other about intimate body parts and sexual acts so casually; and another scene that I will be mentioning below.
***SPOILERS AHEAD—At the start of the book, we have the mom addressing her son in a monologue. I just find it weird how she had to describe her sexual relationship with her husband (the father) in too much detail to her son. There’s also a lot of focus on Nainoa’s siblings, mainly about how unhappy and jealous they are of all the attention Nainoa is getting. Still, I continued reading because I was honestly curious where the story is going. I gave up because of a scene where the main character’s sister Kaui is in a bathroom stall with her friend Van. Van ate a lot of cheese during a party, but it turns out she’s lactose intolerant. So Kaui ended up helping her remove her shorts so she can take a sh*t. After the deed, Kaui even described things as really stinky. But while they’re still inside the stall they ended up kissing and making out. I’m sure this situation could be somebody’s fetish, but it’s just a no for me. It made an already tedious reading experience simply unbearable. —END OF SPOILERS***
There’s just too much weird things going on and too little of what I was hoping for—which is to read about the life of a simple boy who can perform miracles. I am grateful to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this. I‘m sorry it didn’t work for me but I still encourage other people to read this unique book, you may enjoy it more than I did.
***SPOILERS AHEAD—At the start of the book, we have the mom addressing her son in a monologue. I just find it weird how she had to describe her sexual relationship with her husband (the father) in too much detail to her son. There’s also a lot of focus on Nainoa’s siblings, mainly about how unhappy and jealous they are of all the attention Nainoa is getting. Still, I continued reading because I was honestly curious where the story is going. I gave up because of a scene where the main character’s sister Kaui is in a bathroom stall with her friend Van. Van ate a lot of cheese during a party, but it turns out she’s lactose intolerant. So Kaui ended up helping her remove her shorts so she can take a sh*t. After the deed, Kaui even described things as really stinky. But while they’re still inside the stall they ended up kissing and making out. I’m sure this situation could be somebody’s fetish, but it’s just a no for me. It made an already tedious reading experience simply unbearable. —END OF SPOILERS***
There’s just too much weird things going on and too little of what I was hoping for—which is to read about the life of a simple boy who can perform miracles. I am grateful to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this. I‘m sorry it didn’t work for me but I still encourage other people to read this unique book, you may enjoy it more than I did.
I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley. It is an uneasy read for several reasons. The author has switched between snippets of Hawaiin patois and dictionary English using odd words here and there The narrative has no substance but nothing that binds into one complete story - is it about the strange experiences of Noa or the absolute mess everyone else seems to make of their lives. I feel like there were nuggets that could have made this book great if the Author had stuck to one but not the other. It is defined on GR as magical realism but I personally don't think it has enough magic in it to warrant that label. It also falls into the trap of having to include a little of all supposed ly important contemporary issues. The obligatory lesbian relationship, the struggles of the people of colour with money and the police. I didn't feel as if either had a real place in this narrative about the effects of being saved by sharks on a young Haawaiin boy.
It was not an awful book just not what it said on the tin
It was not an awful book just not what it said on the tin
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Lesbophobia
I cannot recommend this book enough. It is a charming, well written modern tale. I listened to the audiobook, which had outstanding narration.
Well . . . It was certainly an ambitious debut. There were pockets of especially rich storytelling, mostly towards the end, but the majority of the narrative fell flat for me, with a disappointing resolution. Some of the sections from the women's perspectives were particularly off-putting. Overall it wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't a book for me. Maybe that's a mood thing, or maybe it's because I went into it expecting something like "Freshwater," and who can really compare to Akwaeke Emezi? Be sure to check the trigger and content warnings.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book is of a Hawaiian family dealing with its members’ destinies and their flickering sense of the reality of their legends. Being audio, I very much enjoyed hearing the portrayals of Hawaiian ways of speaking. I know that knowing even a very little of indigenous culture here in Australia deepened my appreciation of this very good book.