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Overall Rating: 2 out of 5
Genre: Fiction, Diverse
People who should read this: If you like family dynamics stories with a touch of Hawaiian folklore and a literary fiction writing style.
What did I just read… send help please.
I always feel bad reading a book that’s slated to be diverse and then giving it a bad rating. It’s not one star at least. But what if someone from that background, life experiences, etc. relates to the story? Finds meaning in the words? What if I’m just dumb and can’t see the forest for the trees? Here I am destroying a book for no reason. I do tend to beat myself up about these books. To the point that I almost don’t review them.
One thing about Sharks in the Time of Saviors though… it’s most definitely not my writing style. Enjoyment has to count for a part of the rating right?
Let’s start out with something easy… Sharks in the Time of Saviors is simply not the book for me. Sadly, I was the one to recommend it to my book club though, which is the only reason that I finished it. I would have happily let it slide over to the DNF shelf which would have prevented the stress of leaving a bad review (we won’t mention how DNF a book is essentially a rating itself). The book is literary fiction in all the ways that I hate the genre. People try so hard to push the boundaries with their writing when all I want is a straight forward story. There’s no need for a complicated, overly lyrical and convoluted approach to pushing someone out of a car. They get pushed out of a car and find themselves on the ground. There. Done.
The issue with that writing style is that it’s also very distant. I could tell that Washburn wanted to create these lush Hawaiian scenes, but there was already so much distance between me and the story that I couldn’t get into it. Somehow, genre writers have nailed immersion. In my eyes, it makes them better writers…. I’m sorry… I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings. This is all about personal opinion. You have ever right to disagree with my thoughts and to click angrily away from this review, never to return again. If you’re still here friend, hello.
Not all literary fiction writers suck either. Delia Owens with Where the Crawdads Sing wove magic into her story. Those scenes were very immersive.
Now onto the actual story. I think I can note a lot of things without touching on the experiences of this diverse group. I would like to stay away from that since my knowledge of Hawaii is very slim. First off, the summary for the book does not set a clear picture for the actual story you're going to read. Am I becoming a broken record with this? Is the new trend not to be clear? Let’s just make readers think the story is one thing so that by the time they realize it’s not, they’re too far in to quit. Where is the savior child? Where’s the sugar cane industry? Where are the gods? That essence I felt in the synopsis was missing for me, which was the main reason I even picked up the book. The religion aspect was a weird side character that wraps up a little in the last few paragraphs - the only poignant moment in the whole book. I get the end. We didn’t need a massive book to get to that point.
I also wasn’t prepared for how depressing the story was either. I wanted a little bit more hope, especially with the current climate. Instead, it was a dysfunctional mess where the main conflict came through phone calls. Let’s not even touch on the stupid decisions the characters made. Was Sharks in the Time of Saviors trying for a Hawaiian Shameless? Moving a plot forward based solely on a character’s bad decisions is a huge pet peeve of mine, and another reason that I very much didn’t like this book. It never works. It never lets the story feel authentic.
Add all of these things together with the writing and my interest in the book dropped fast. I really tried. Every time I came back to the book, I made an attempt to focus. What I ended up doing was speed reading through it so I could be done. I know that caused me to miss some stuff.
Sharks in the Time of Savior’s last crime came with the overall ending. The main point was lost halfway through - I can’t say more for fear of giving the story away. I’ll just say that I kept waiting for the issue to be fixed. It never was. Another example of how the synopsis duped me. From that key point on, the story turned into a complete waste of time. If there was something profound in it all, I missed it. All I got was a very depressing view on life.
Happy Reading
Love Kait
Reading Challenge: 159/175