I was drawn to this book because, like me, the author was born and raised
in Hawaii. I’m not a big reader of short story collections, but this one pulled
me in from story one.
The book contains some of the most finely crafted lines
I’ve read in years. For example: “Sadie watches the spring of muscles flex and yield under her
step-uncles’ undershirts as they plunge their shovels into dirt. She watches
the burial of the carcass, then, eight hours later, its resurrection.”
After reading this line early in the first story, I started taking notes,
which I rarely do. I wasn’t disappointed. The collection is filled with gems
like these. This is Kakimoto’s first book. It’s the start of what might become
a brilliant literary career.
A HAUNTING COLLECTION OF STORIES THAT WEAVES HAWAIIAN MYTHOLOGY WITH A RICH SENSE OF PLACE
This wrenching and sensational debut story collection follows a cast of mixed native Hawaiian and Japanese women through a contemporary landscape thick with inherited wisdom and the ghosts of colonisation. This is a Hawai'i where unruly sexuality and generational memory overflow the postcard image of paradise and the boundaries of the real, where the superstitions born of the islands take on the weight of truth.
A childhood encounter with a wild pua'a (pig) on the haunted Pali highway portends one young woman's fraught relationship with…
Chain Gang All Stars is the kind of book you read and you wish you
wrote.
From its concept (a dystopian future in which corporate prisons coerce
inmates to fight to the death in front of both live and televised audiences) to
its larger-than-life characters (the indomitable Loretta Thurwar and the
lightning-quick Hurricane Staxxx), the novel is all at once horrifying, darkly
comic, and heartbreaking.
It’s one of those books with everything. Biting
social commentary? Check. A complicated love story? Check. Longlisted for a
National Book Award, I’d put my money on this novel to win.
Enter a world where, watched by millions, prisoners fight like gladiators for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
'You cannot applaud [this] novel without getting blood on your hands...' NEW YORK TIMES
'A dystopian vision so...illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of doing' WASHINGTON POST
'Electrifying' GEORGE SAUNDERS
Welcome to Chain-Gang All-Stars, the popular and highly controversial programme inside America's private prison system. In packed arenas, live-streamed by millions, prisoners compete as gladiators for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
The Red Rising series is one of my all-time favorites.
I can’t think of
another set that packs as much high-octane action.
The latest installment, Light
Bringer (book six), does not disappoint. Not only was I once again riveted
by the action and the characters that I’ve grown so familiar with over the
years, but I kept asking myself how it’s possible Pierce Brown sustains this level
of high-quality drama and invention across six books. It’s a herculean
accomplishment. Reading these books makes me feel like a kid again.
Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age.
The Reaper is a legend, more myth than man: the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains.
But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of Mars: a husband, a father, a friend.
Marooned far from home after a devastating defeat on the battlefields of Mercury, Darrow longs to return to his wife and sovereign, Virginia, to defend Mars from its bloodthirsty would-be conqueror Lysander.
The year is 2142, and Earth is forty years past a near-collision with the asteroid Sessho-seki. Akira Kimura, the scientist responsible for eliminating the threat, has reached the heights of celebrity approaching deification.
But now, Akira feels her safety is under threat, so after years without contact, she reaches out to her former head of security, who has since become a police detective.
When he arrives at her deep-sea home and finds Akira methodically dismembered, this detective will risk everything—his career, his family, even his own life—and delve back into his shared past with Akira to find her killer.
