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jamiejanae_6's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Body horror, Death, Deportation, Violence, Grief, Gore, and Racism
Moderate: Sexual content and Stalking
_bxllxe_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Confinement, Sexual content, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
lilifane's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The story is set on the fictional island of San Piedro in Puget Sound and centers around a murder trial. The Japanese fisher Kabuo Miyamoto is accused of first degree murder of Carl Heine, a fellow gill fisher, who has been found dead in his fishing nets on an early September morning in 1954. During the trial which takes place in December, we get to know details of the night in question as well as several characters connected to the tragedy, their past and relationships to each other.
What starts (and ends) as a courtroom drama, offers a lot of insight into the characters' past experiences, thoughts and feelings, so you really get to know them intimately and understand their actions throughout the book, even though they not always make the best decisions.
It is a sad and heartbreaking story with important themes like fairness, equality, justice and racism. It also portrays the treatment of Japanese American citizens in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. There are scenes in Japanese internal camps and during WWII battles that are actually hard to read. Especially since David Guterson's writes in a very detailed and sober way.
I really loved this book, it made me feel all kinds of emotions. I was angry, I was sad and frustrated, I cried several times. I also think the plotting was done really well, I did not know how it would end until the very last pages. Really enjoyed the trial and investigation parts and the way details were revealed piece by piece with some unexpected twists and turns. The majority of the book were the characters' flashbacks, though, and they dragged a little in the middle of the book when I wanted to know how the trial was proceeding. It was worth it in the end, though.
The atmosphere was amazing. The setting and the weather really added to the story for me. And I liked the writing style for the most part. There were just some weird choices the author made several times throughout the book. I was very confused by how often characters thought about sex, penises and breasts in very inappropriate moments. And again, these were describes in a very sober way, it was weird and actually unnecessary most of the time.
Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, War, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Medical content, and Stalking
iridium's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Racism, Death, War, Violence, Medical content, Xenophobia, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
haileybones's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
David Guterson captures the setting and the people of San Piedro (a fictional island) in a romantic way that enveloped me in nostalgia because I spent a lot of time in Island County growing up. Those memories lent suspense to my experience of the earliest chapters, which I enjoyed. But even I became bored of the long, frequent descriptions of setting. This tendency to over-explain extended to the characters as well. I was walked through their lives in painstaking detail: family history, appearance, childhood, romance, combat experiences, and, unnecessarily in most cases, their sexual histories and preferences.
The issue of racism bears the marks of incomplete understanding. There are "good" moments, resonant characterizations of individual hate and prejudice manifesting into systemic injustices, but the Japanese and Japanese-American characters do not always feel as fully realized as their white counterparts. At times, they fall into into stoic, wooden stereotypes that feel emotionally dissonant to their personality. Some white characters are condemned by the text for their racism while others are allowed to justify their selfish, duplicitous hate without much consequence. In the end, I felt
Graphic: Medical trauma, Racism, Sexual content, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Hate crime, Murder, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Blood
Minor: Stalking and Infertility