A review by orionoconnell
Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman
4.0
Firstly, I'm not crying, you're crying.
This book is not for the faint of heart. Anyone who's ever experienced grief is going to find this both healing and incredibly relatable, and thereby painful- I know I did.
I felt that the author's words resonated with grief so utterly that she must also have experienced loss in order to write like this.
I'm a huge fan of Akemi Dawn Bowman's poetic writing style. It strikes a chord in me, and it makes me relate, it makes me feel.
At it's worst, this book was a three, but throughout, definitely a 4-star read for me. Why not five like 'Starfish'? I didn't enjoy the setting as much, though it was beautifully written and made sense. I struggled that the writer wrote words as they were spoken, which made reading the Hawaiian difficult at times. Some of the worse aspects of the main character (spoilers: she wasn't perfect) reminded me of myself, and that's a hard pill to swallow too.
One of the things I loved most about this book was the focus on friendship and healing and grief. I love that ace/aro was explored, it's a bold way to go with a book, and after the setup, I would have been disappointed if it had gone any other way.
Bowman writes these beautiful characters, surrounded by pain but that are whole, and it's just wholesome and healthy beautiful writing that HEALS.
Definitely worth a read. This author is easily becoming a favorite for me.
This book is not for the faint of heart. Anyone who's ever experienced grief is going to find this both healing and incredibly relatable, and thereby painful- I know I did.
I felt that the author's words resonated with grief so utterly that she must also have experienced loss in order to write like this.
I'm a huge fan of Akemi Dawn Bowman's poetic writing style. It strikes a chord in me, and it makes me relate, it makes me feel.
At it's worst, this book was a three, but throughout, definitely a 4-star read for me. Why not five like 'Starfish'? I didn't enjoy the setting as much, though it was beautifully written and made sense. I struggled that the writer wrote words as they were spoken, which made reading the Hawaiian difficult at times. Some of the worse aspects of the main character (spoilers: she wasn't perfect) reminded me of myself, and that's a hard pill to swallow too.
One of the things I loved most about this book was the focus on friendship and healing and grief. I love that ace/aro was explored, it's a bold way to go with a book, and after the setup, I would have been disappointed if it had gone any other way.
Bowman writes these beautiful characters, surrounded by pain but that are whole, and it's just wholesome and healthy beautiful writing that HEALS.
Definitely worth a read. This author is easily becoming a favorite for me.