Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Start discussion here for Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn.

I thought this was pretty good. Interesting how the Hawaiian islanders see "the mainland" almost as a foreign country. Many of then work in tourism/service jobs and hope to send their kids to the mainland for a "better life."

I'm currently on chapter 12. I wasn't sure if I liked it at the start but it's starting to grow on me. I'm very interested to know what's going to happen since the story of Nainoa's abilities could go in many directions. I'm not that fond of most of the characters, both siblings seem a little petty and proud, but at least Nainoa is cool. Maybe they'll grow on me too.

I finished it! I really wanted to like this book, it has been on my TBR for quite a while so I was looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I don't think it lived up to my expectations.

Both siblings didn't really improve and it culminated in multiple bad decisions. I don't mind if a book focuses on immature characters, there are many fantastic books that do so; the problem in this case was that there was a very strong potential to focus on Nainoa's gifts and storyline but by focusing too much on the siblings, and giving fewer chapters to the most interesting character, nothing was really done with that and the magical realism was left half-baked. On the other hand, the book could've done the opposite and focused a lot more on what it's like to be the sibling of "the chosen one", cut out the mother and Nainoa's chapters altogether, that could've been a unique take on the trope. But by trying to include both perspectives I found that both sides were half-developed, a lot of what could've been was lost, and I was left a little underwhelmed.

I did enjoy the ending, I was expecting something like that to happen and the prose made it come alive better than I could've hoped for, yet I just don't think it was enough to make up for the rest of the book.

Overall it was well-written and had a lot of potential so I'll give any future book by this author another chance, but it was still kind of disappointing.