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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Niet echt mijn ding. Het verhaal van Kaui vond ik nog het meest interessant. Voor mij was alles net niet. Soms gebeurde er ineens rare dingen, ik kreeg niet echt een gevoel bij de personages
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this book made me mad lol
spoilers right away btw because i have beef here
the kids sucked. they were whiny and annoying. i get not being the favorite child (i have twelve siblings and i’m ranked near the bottom of both of my parents’ lists), but you don’t take that out on the favorite child? that’s a grievance to take up with your parents? so they isolate noa?? as punishment for their parents’ favoritism?? wack.
AND THEN NOA ACTUALLY DIES????????? wtf?????? he was the only perspective i enjoyed!!!! he had actual struggles he was dealing with!! the internal struggle to live up to expectations set by those around him — that was an interesting narrative!! and then he DIED?? wack.
and then we shift into this weird post-noa existence in which i’m suddenly supposed to care about this family now that the chosen one is gone?? like…is the message here that the only way this family could come together is through the death of one of the children?? y’all couldn’t just like…have a productive conversation?? wack.
and so dean becomes a prison drug lord and i’m supposed to be on board with that because the family needs the money. wack.
and the issue of kaui’s sexuality was not addressed adequately to me. i’m all about queer representation, but this felt like it was thrown in for no reason. like kaui’s story didn’t have enough going on so it was like…what else can we add here? oh yeah, make her gay. but her whole relationship with her roommate made me soooo uncomfortable (the bathroom scene??? WHAT WAS THE REASON????) and i thought it was handled poorly. overall? wack.
highlights of this book:
- i found the magical realism interesting. noa’s abilities made for an interesting complexity.
- the prose surrounding hawaii was beautiful. i wish more of the story was actually focused here than in the continental united states.
so yeah that’s basically where the two stars come from.
tl,dr; this was wack
spoilers right away btw because i have beef here
the kids sucked. they were whiny and annoying. i get not being the favorite child (i have twelve siblings and i’m ranked near the bottom of both of my parents’ lists), but you don’t take that out on the favorite child? that’s a grievance to take up with your parents? so they isolate noa?? as punishment for their parents’ favoritism?? wack.
AND THEN NOA ACTUALLY DIES????????? wtf?????? he was the only perspective i enjoyed!!!! he had actual struggles he was dealing with!! the internal struggle to live up to expectations set by those around him — that was an interesting narrative!! and then he DIED?? wack.
and then we shift into this weird post-noa existence in which i’m suddenly supposed to care about this family now that the chosen one is gone?? like…is the message here that the only way this family could come together is through the death of one of the children?? y’all couldn’t just like…have a productive conversation?? wack.
and so dean becomes a prison drug lord and i’m supposed to be on board with that because the family needs the money. wack.
and the issue of kaui’s sexuality was not addressed adequately to me. i’m all about queer representation, but this felt like it was thrown in for no reason. like kaui’s story didn’t have enough going on so it was like…what else can we add here? oh yeah, make her gay. but her whole relationship with her roommate made me soooo uncomfortable (the bathroom scene??? WHAT WAS THE REASON????) and i thought it was handled poorly. overall? wack.
highlights of this book:
- i found the magical realism interesting. noa’s abilities made for an interesting complexity.
- the prose surrounding hawaii was beautiful. i wish more of the story was actually focused here than in the continental united states.
so yeah that’s basically where the two stars come from.
tl,dr; this was wack
"Whatever part of me flowed into you from my body, it turned us tight into two people that shared a soul. I believe that of all my children. Fathers will never understand the way you get deep in us, so deep that there's a part of me that remains, always, a part of you, no matter where you go."
"The whole world was there in your face, beaming out of your perfect brown skin. Everything was made new, over and over. It shook me with something so holy and complete I didn't need a prayer to know there were gods with us, in us."
"The whole world was there in your face, beaming out of your perfect brown skin. Everything was made new, over and over. It shook me with something so holy and complete I didn't need a prayer to know there were gods with us, in us."
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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:
Yes
beautiful beautiful beautiful.
this literally felt like a dream you never want to wake up from. i want to be enrobed in the lightness of it. i haven’t been immediately enraptured in an author’s writing like this since the paper menagerie lmao. i literally stopped reading halfway because i didn’t want to face the fact that this will mean so much to me so quickly; that this is a book that will never leave me. hawaiian culture is beautiful enough on its own but the way washburn makes mundane moments glow with his writing .. i quite literally cannot get enough. i loved this family as if they leaped off of the pages and breathed my air.
also i’m now doing extensive research on night marchers washburn this is literally all your fault…
this literally felt like a dream you never want to wake up from. i want to be enrobed in the lightness of it. i haven’t been immediately enraptured in an author’s writing like this since the paper menagerie lmao. i literally stopped reading halfway because i didn’t want to face the fact that this will mean so much to me so quickly; that this is a book that will never leave me. hawaiian culture is beautiful enough on its own but the way washburn makes mundane moments glow with his writing .. i quite literally cannot get enough. i loved this family as if they leaped off of the pages and breathed my air.
also i’m now doing extensive research on night marchers washburn this is literally all your fault…
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is far from my usual genre, and so I think I didn't truly appreciate it as much as it deserved.
From the synopsis I was hoping for more magical realism, but this is more a story looking at a family that just so happens to have been touched by magic, but the magic is far from the focus of the plot.
The characters are definitely a focus of this, and they are almost tangible in their realness
From the synopsis I was hoping for more magical realism, but this is more a story looking at a family that just so happens to have been touched by magic, but the magic is far from the focus of the plot.
The characters are definitely a focus of this, and they are almost tangible in their realness
It seems contradictory, but I have a harder time writing reviews for great books than the books that were just good, or okay, or straight-up bad. A three star book? I can pretty easily articulate the stuff that I didn’t like so much compared to the stuff I liked. But a great book should be complex, and should make it difficult to sum it up in a couple hundred words. A great book is one that changes you. Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn is a great book.
I’ve heard Sharks described as “the book that got lost in 2020,” and I believe it, because I’m amazed that this gem isn’t more widely talked about. But after a recent trip to Hawaii that gave me some complicated feelings, I was seeking out books written by Hawaiians and about Hawaii, and this one fit the bill.
Sharks follows the lives of the Flores family. Malia, the mother of three kids, describes the challenges she and her husband, Augie face raising their kids on an island where it is increasingly impossible for it’s native populations to remain. She describes seeing the eerie night marchers on the night she and Augie conceived Nainoa, believing that the appearance of the Hawaiian legend correlates to his abilities. Nainoa, the middle child, was miraculously saved from drowning by being carried to safety in the jaws of a shark. While his powers tie him intimately to the islands and their myths, they also set him up for a life of impossible expectations that pull him apart from everyone he knows. Dean, the eldest child, is a basketball whizz who struggles to live in the shadow of his magical brother and tries desperately to make money for his family. Then Kaui, the youngest daughter, a daredevil who lives in the shadows of both her brothers yet is undoubtedly the smartest of all of them.
While the book explores the lives of the three kids from childhood to adulthood, from Hawaii to the mainland, the book also takes its readers on a journey through Hawaiian legend and folklore, then through the problems that threaten the Hawaiian islands and its native people today. The prose in this book is so incredibly poetic, its description both crisp and meandering, vibrant and violent. I found myself texting my friends various lines just to say, ,"isn't this beautiful?" And I’ve never read a book that used so much olfactory imagery so successfully: this is a smelly book, and I loved all of it!
I hope this book will make its way into a lot of people’s hands. Though it has plenty of funny moments, and moments of warmth and tenderness and love, this is not a happy, casual read. But if you’re looking for something that’ll change you, make you think, and make you feel a lot of emotions all at the same time, then I think if you pick up Sharks in the Time of Saviors, you’ll agree with me that it belongs among the greats.
5/5 stars.
I’ve heard Sharks described as “the book that got lost in 2020,” and I believe it, because I’m amazed that this gem isn’t more widely talked about. But after a recent trip to Hawaii that gave me some complicated feelings, I was seeking out books written by Hawaiians and about Hawaii, and this one fit the bill.
“If a god is a thing that has absolute power over us, then in this world there are many. There are gods that we choose and gods that we can’t avoid; there are gods that we pray to and gods that prey on us; there are dreams that become gods and pasts that become gods and nightmares that do, as well.”
Sharks follows the lives of the Flores family. Malia, the mother of three kids, describes the challenges she and her husband, Augie face raising their kids on an island where it is increasingly impossible for it’s native populations to remain. She describes seeing the eerie night marchers on the night she and Augie conceived Nainoa, believing that the appearance of the Hawaiian legend correlates to his abilities. Nainoa, the middle child, was miraculously saved from drowning by being carried to safety in the jaws of a shark. While his powers tie him intimately to the islands and their myths, they also set him up for a life of impossible expectations that pull him apart from everyone he knows. Dean, the eldest child, is a basketball whizz who struggles to live in the shadow of his magical brother and tries desperately to make money for his family. Then Kaui, the youngest daughter, a daredevil who lives in the shadows of both her brothers yet is undoubtedly the smartest of all of them.
“How many nights did we make like that? How long was I stupid enough to believe we were indestructible? But that’s the problem with the present, it’s never the thing you’re holding, only the thing you’re watching, later, from a distance so great the memory might as well be a spill of stars outside a window at twilight.”
While the book explores the lives of the three kids from childhood to adulthood, from Hawaii to the mainland, the book also takes its readers on a journey through Hawaiian legend and folklore, then through the problems that threaten the Hawaiian islands and its native people today. The prose in this book is so incredibly poetic, its description both crisp and meandering, vibrant and violent. I found myself texting my friends various lines just to say, ,"isn't this beautiful?" And I’ve never read a book that used so much olfactory imagery so successfully: this is a smelly book, and I loved all of it!
“…the mist drapes the trees and the trees drink of it and then the sun lights it up and takes it back into the air, and how the plants breathe and their exhale becomes my inhale, the same way so many of the people of these islands once pressed their foreheads together in greeting and inhaled the same air, as one.”
I hope this book will make its way into a lot of people’s hands. Though it has plenty of funny moments, and moments of warmth and tenderness and love, this is not a happy, casual read. But if you’re looking for something that’ll change you, make you think, and make you feel a lot of emotions all at the same time, then I think if you pick up Sharks in the Time of Saviors, you’ll agree with me that it belongs among the greats.
5/5 stars.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
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:
Yes