A review by scobjob
Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes

The fourth-wall breaking when the main character (author?) was describing hula at the hula school was odd? I felt like I was being chastised as a reader when a non-expected statement about how this book is not comprehensive about hula and not instructional and that I shouldn’t expect that. I wasn’t expecting it to be instructional, so it seemed strange that I was being told I shouldn’t expect something I wasn’t? I don’t align with the idea of family cohesiveness as a great life goal, so it was interesting to hear an in-depth perspective about how this family ideal arises. Really enjoyed the clever interspersing of Hawaiian language so that a reader unfamiliar with the language could readily grasp the meaning of the word and feel immersed in the cultural milieu.