WOAH. this was completely and consistently visceral in the storytelling and the descriptions- much of the magic/supernatural events if you can call itWOAH. this was completely and consistently visceral in the storytelling and the descriptions- much of the magic/supernatural events if you can call it that in this book relies on the character's spiritual connection to their people's history and the land/life, and Washburn's style gets you feeling what they feel. There's this complete overwhelming awe in the on-and-on sentences describing all at once the ocean and the earth and the generations of history and the grief and the pain. A review on the back of my copy accurately states that grief and love go hand in hand in this book. There is no room for bladeless comfort in the familial relations; this so completely and wonderfully taps into that inherent tragedy of being a daughter and being a mother. Of course the same goes for Dean and Noa and Augie with fathers and sons but I focused most on Kaui and Malia, and you can't blame me. I love how much space and time this novel spans too, with the broken yet intersecting narratives. I love how the mainland and the islands are connected and the perspective each of the characters has on both of them evolve as they grow. I love how the characters of mother and father are allowed to grow and change as well. The multiple points of view really sell you on each aspect of their joint stories. Basically, if you want stories about the tragedy of The Family, mother and daughter strife, the wreck of American sadness, and the monstrousness carnality of colonialism all woven together by magical realism (??), you gotta read this. Or you could just trust me even if that didn't sound like your jam and read it anyway cause this was some of the best contemporary fiction I've ever read and it blows my mind that THIS IS A DEBUT NOVEL!!!!...more
Crushed my heart and has great, amazing, fantastic themes of family and love and care through the eyes of kids forced to grow up too fast that makes iCrushed my heart and has great, amazing, fantastic themes of family and love and care through the eyes of kids forced to grow up too fast that makes it all the more heartbreaking ...more
wow mister tolkien you've gone it again !!! I feel like this book is so much more in-depth than fellowship in that all the characters are now giving uwow mister tolkien you've gone it again !!! I feel like this book is so much more in-depth than fellowship in that all the characters are now giving us glimpses into the different ways this great evil is affecting the entire world. I was going to say that in retrospect fellowship feels like a long exposition but that may be because this one had so much more happening in comparison, and as I read it I thought fellowship had more than enough happenings. That's all just to say you can tell the story really picks up. The company is split, great distances are traveled, and everyone is feeling the weight of their situations. This book is decisively darker and the descriptive writing gets,,,, dare i say better? yes, i dare. I finished this faster than fellowship and I found myself really really excited and moving fast through Merry and Pippin and then Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gimli, etc parts. But speed isn't everything in this book, for the reader or the character. Once again to me there are no unnecessary bits! I loved the pages about Ents, and the chapters w/ Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli just running through Rohirrim countryside! Sure you could have just summed up their journey in a few words, but the detailed journey is character unto itself. I think it's important and fun that we have insight to the less "picture worthy" scenes of this book as well as the great moments and speeches. I'm completely in love with this setting and this world, and I actually wished I saw more about the Ents. I think they are a great manifestation of the physical effects of evil on a worldly scale, like they are literally tree-people.
This book is also (not to compare always to fellowship) so much darker in material. There is talk of despair, there are actual pitfalls, death is now real and the consequences of the fellowship's actions are no longer confined to a secret errand but expanded to the outcome of middle earth. I adored the bits where Frodo and Sam spoke about the nature of their quest to one another, you get a sense of push and pull between them about their feelings and you see how necessary they are to each other. Once again human acts of friendship, love, protection, and care are the driving force behind the quest. It's the lack of these elements that foster the great evils. Kinship and kindness have saved the whole company many times over, with Faramir or Eomer or The Ents, over and over you can see it truly is the ordinary acts of extraordinary people that move the world. Frodo and Gollum and Sam are also so interesting, because Gollum is literally a living warning for what the Ring can do.
I also love how able the characters are to have depth and be emotional. They care for each other openly and deeply, they admit their vulnerabilities, and they are deeply and immutably effected by the events of this journey. Frodo bears a great psychological burden and there is no shying away in describing the great effects of that. Neither him or Sam, Merry, or Pippin have a fated say in this journey, but for one reason or another bound by fealty and loyalty to each other and their home, they are key players. The themes of war, pain, evil, and humanity are multiplied in this book along with the writing and description being perhaps even more entrancing. I can't wait to finish the third one! ...more
This book is really unknown for some reason and weird and I do disagree with the complete and often trite black-mirror-esque message of technology beiThis book is really unknown for some reason and weird and I do disagree with the complete and often trite black-mirror-esque message of technology being bad and the progression of technology being a slippery slope into a complete loss of humanity, however, the centering of a teenage girl as the 'savior' not by some fantasy element but of her own volition is really really interesting. The art is also beautiful, I don't know enough about art to give it the specific compliments it deserves but the colors are perfect and as they change in the end it brings new life to the story. I love me a good graphic novel. ...more
There's nothing to say about this that hasn't been said so I'll just echo everyone else and say this is a great and emotional book with wonderful writThere's nothing to say about this that hasn't been said so I'll just echo everyone else and say this is a great and emotional book with wonderful writing and is a truly a heartbreaking retelling. ...more
A complete experience, a roller coaster, this book is unbelievably heartbreaking for entirely meta reasons since the book is sad but has a happy endinA complete experience, a roller coaster, this book is unbelievably heartbreaking for entirely meta reasons since the book is sad but has a happy ending. The dedication and terminal note break my heart and I will never be the same after this 3 ...more
WHAT CAN I SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK. It made me feel every emotion known to man with a style of prose that spotlights Vuong's proficiency in poetry. Every WHAT CAN I SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK. It made me feel every emotion known to man with a style of prose that spotlights Vuong's proficiency in poetry. Every other line had me writing in the book's margins and I read this while I was in a tough spot so it hit all the harder. There's almost nothing I can say that would do this book justice, it's truly got the most beautiful writing I have ever read and it's my personal holotype for what a reading experience should be, this should be on the top of everyone's TBR list. I'd give anything to read this for the first time again. ...more
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