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vedpears's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
The depicted relationships and family dynamics are realistic and dive deep without bogging the reader down. The very real occupation of Hawaii is both a backdrop and a nemesis in this book and I appreciate Hakes' willingness to lay out all the pain that comes with that here, without softening the language to make the invaders uncomfortable. I think Hakes does a fine job balancing fact and fiction to ensure the readers walk away being able to trust this view through a literary window of the ongoing theft of Hawaii from her people.
The only thing that keeps this from being a 5-star is that I felt the first third of the book didn't fit as well or flow as nicely as the rest of the novel. The beginning didn't have the same raw emotion/depth that the remainder of the story did, and I initially found it very difficult to push on - glad I did, but that took effort to push through.
Content warning: maternal estrangement, miscarriage, colonizers, bullying, cancer, car accident, death.
Graphic: Blood, Abandonment, Death, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Grief, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Deportation, Car accident, Colonisation, Cancer, Bullying, and Body shaming
creativerunnings's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Colonisation, Bullying, Classism, Domestic abuse, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Cancer, Grief, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Death, Miscarriage, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Drug use
booksemmahasread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Miscarriage, Colonisation, Classism, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexism
Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, and Cancer
careinthelibrary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
This never quite got off the ground. I kept waiting for the story to take off, the pace to pick up, and it continued to plod along. The book was overall too long for my liking, especially the beginning section which was weighed down with intermittent historical details that I think would have been more effective and less dry if they had been sprinkled throughout the novel rather than clumped at the beginning. I felt I was taken away from the main characters and plunked into historical detail just as I was beginning to understand their motivations and personalities. The historical detail was fascinating and helpful to understand the context of their actions and their current dispossession of their homelands, but the way it was dispersed in the story wasn't helpful to me.
I really wanted the approach to Hi'i's place in her community to be more dynamic rather than the stalemate we arrived at early in the narrative. For instance, her cousin is in her hula class and she is skillful and well-liked by many, including the teacher. It would have been more effective, in my opinion, if the two cousins could have overcome their rivalry and become friends, the divisiveness was irritating and after a point, didn't serve a purpose in the story. Instead, we see that Hi'i and her cousin fight and look down on one another and that seems to never be resolved. The girls never see the value in each other, only see one another as a threat. I thought this would have been a great opportunity to show character growth and interconnectedness of those raised in their culture, but instead it was a jagged seam in the story.
I liked the mirrored nature of mother/daughter relationships in the book, the way we, at first, think Laka isn't supportive enough of her daughter then realise the rationale from her point-of-view. Laka was a really interesting character, she tries to be a different kind of mother than her own but ends up making different and similar mistakes.
This was probably my top anticipated release of the year, and it unfortunately didn't click for me like it seems to for lots of other readers. So while this was disappointing (I expected to really love it), I did get lots out of it and didn't mind the reading experience.
Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Racism
Moderate: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, and Domestic abuse
internationalreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Cancer