Review – Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Magical Realism
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: MCD
Release Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-0374272081
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars
“In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.
Nainoa’s family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods―a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family’s legacy.
When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawai’i―with tragic consequences―they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I borrowed from the library.
Story (3/5): Nainoa falls overboard during a glass bottom boat tour and is miraculously saved by the very sharks that people thought were going to kill him. His family (who is struggling to make ends meet) takes full advantage of his fame. Then Nainoa starts exhibiting strange healing abilities that come and go, which his parents also try to capitalize on. Fast forward many years as Nainoa is working as a paramedic and his family is still coping the events that drove most of their childhood.
The story starts out pretty good but quickly loses focus. We hear from Nainoa, his mother, his brother, and his sister and very occasionally his father. The story very quickly goes from an intriguing tale of magical realism and the abilities Nainoa has gained along with the expectations of how he should use his power, to glimpses on how the focus on Nainoa damaged his siblings. The vast majority of the story is just kind of rambling through Nainoa’s siblings’ lives as they try to recover their purpose in life and self-confidence. I was surprised at what happened to Nainoa (but not in a good way) and thought the story pretty much just crashed and burned at that point.
Characters (3/5): I never really engaged with any of these characters much, there’s just too much bouncing around. Nainoa is really kept at a distance from the reader and even the few parts we read from his POV feel very distanced. A lot of the characters in here make a lot of bad decisions over and over. Nainoa’s siblings are wild and his parents are always scraping by. While they come across as very human because of their situations and questionable choices, I didn’t really enjoy reading about any of them. I also don’t really know anyone who lives the way they do and the way this was written made it hard to understand and engage with this lifestyle.
Setting (4/5): I enjoyed the setting of Hawaii’s Big Island, I recently (well a couple years ago) spent a few weeks on the big island and it was definitely a different culture and lifestyle from the rest of the US. This book does a good job capturing that. The author represents the love/hate relationship of the natives/tourists well and captures struggles and cost of living somewhere so remote well too.
Writing Style (3/5): I didn’t love all the bouncing around between different characters that is done here; it felt like it should be three or four separate stories and didn’t flow well. You feel very distanced from everything the whole time. There’s nothing technically wrong with the writing, it’s easy enough to understand and read…the story just doesn’t have much point to it. I also felt like there was some bait and switch here; I expected to read a cool story about magical realism, special powers, and destiny…what I got was “a day in the life of” type of story about a family’s day to day life struggles.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but I found it fairly disappointing. This was not the story I was hoping for or expecting. It starts out really interesting but then completely loses focus and purpose. There are some highlights here; I enjoyed the big island setting and seeing the ramifications of Nainoa’s power and fame. However, there was a lot in here that just served to lengthen the story and push the reader away from the characters. I don’t plan on checking out future books by this author.
