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notsobinaryart's Reviews (162)
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Stunning story all around. Highly recommend listening to the narration while reading; it adds so much depth to the experience and allows you to appreciate the beautiful art while hearing the story both in English and a native Hawaiian language that fewer than 100 people now speak on the island of Niihau due to colonization.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Vomit, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity
The first half of this book made my heart so full and happy. The love present, the hope, how they met and fell in love, was all so special.
What deducted most of the points for me began in the second half to last third of the book after a time jump. It got depressing, and after speed reading through the first half, it took a lot of work to finish this book.
Spoilers ahead for what went wrong.
As many people can agree, I hate most third act breakups, especially if they’re solely added to creat conflict.
In this case, the third act breakup was the result of the love interest, Jason/Jackson, doing what he thought was the best for the main character female character, Sloane. I cannot stand when someone makes a major decision like that for someone else, and ESPECIALLY how he majorly broke her heart right after she was learning to trust and love again. The hurt he caused was completely unacceptable for no good reason.
Jason also seemed all too perfect until this point. We don’t see any major character flaws in him, which made him seem a bit too unbelievable.
Overall, the first half was a very fun read, but brace yourself for a rough second half. If you are not prepared for a book that is heavily surrounded by grief, now would not be a good time to pick up this book.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, War
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
dark
tense
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Cursing, Genocide, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War
Minor: Alcohol