Kaua'i Storm

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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What’s Kaua’i Storm About?

Makalani Pahukula, who has been serving Crater Lake in Oregon as a Park Ranger for years, comes home to Kaua‘i for the first time in even longer for the celebration of her grandmother’s eightieth birthday—which is going to be a family reunion/community gathering on a pretty grand scale.

When Makalani touches down, it’s not quite the joyous occasion she’d anticipated. Yes, her parents and grandmother are delighted to see her—as is an old friend (I’m going to forget to mention this later, but we needed more of her). But two of Makalani’s cousins are missing—one is in high school and the other is a former college football star.

Their disappearances are being written off as some foolish lark—although it gets the family squabbling—each set of parents blaming the other and lashing out. Makalani doesn’t think either explanation fits the cousins she remembers (while making allowances for people changing) and she wonders why the police haven’t been involved.* After a dead body is found in the nearby forest, Makalani starts to meddle and takes it upon herself to find her cousins—over the objections of just about everyone.

* And once the police eventually do get involved, you start to understand the families’ decision not to involve them, and they certainly make things worse.

A Question of Genre

First—I’m not sure that’s the best heading for this section, but it’s close enough. Secondly—I really don’t care about this when it comes to what I think about the book, but this kept running through the back of my mind.

This is billed as a mystery, and it kind of is one—I think more of a thriller than a mystery, but we’re getting into the weeds there. And Eldridge has a reputation as a thriller writer (thrillers that I greatly appreciate, I should add).

But her thrillers also involve a good layer of something else—descriptions of a minority culture (in the U.S.), trauma, business/family culture (in other nations), and so on. She pulls that off here, too. In more than one way.

We also get a fair amount of multi-generational family drama, a little social commentary, some local history, and more.

So much so that the thriller/mystery aspect of the book takes a back-seat to everything else for significant lengths of time. It doesn’t hurt the novel as a whole—in fact, it makes it richer. There are family members and friends that I can hand this to that I can’t hand a lot of the mysteries/thrillers that I read (and I wonder if a couple of the thriller-junkies in my life would put up with this).

Culture and Language

Speaking of that kind of thing…

I am as haole as you can get—so much so that I can’t pronounce it correctly or even consistently, despite having heard it in various formats for years. So, a lot of this book took work for me to understand—work I enjoyed and was glad to do, mind you. But there was effort.

Eldridge littered this book with ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i words and phrases and Pidgin English like crazy. All—or close enough to round up—can be understood in context with a little effort. But for those who want to be sure of their understanding, there’s a great glossary in the back—including words and phrases—both Pidgin English and ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i—as well as phrases, geographical references, historical and mythological figures. I didn’t consult it (foolishly?) until I was done—that’s just how I roll. It confirmed a lot for me and fleshed some things out, too. I do recommend consulting it in the moment.

I knew about, and chose to ignore, the Glossary. Until I finished, I didn’t realize Eldridge also gave us a handy dramatis personae, which would’ve been a great aid in keeping track of the relationships between this large cast. Do you need to read/consult it? No. But I certainly wouldn’t discourage it.

But even beyond the supplemental material, this book is about as close as you can get to a documentary on contemporary Kaua‘i as you can get while keeping this a work of fiction. There’s a lot about homesteading—and the ethnic makeups required for it (past and present), those who live off the grid in public lands, and…I’m not going to be able to provide an exhaustive list, so I’m going to just stop.

I’ll summarize by saying that this is a rich and informative look at the non-touristy part of Hawai‘i (or at least one island’s version of it). Added to the tiered cake of characters and missing-person plot, this icing is just great.

So, what did I think about Kaua’i Storm?

This is going up late—I realize that, and apologize to Eldridge and Thomas & Mercer for that—but I had a hard time resisting talking about all that this novel attempts (mostly successfully) to accomplish.

It’s a very crowded book, I have to say, Eldridge puts a lot into these 445 pages. There’s a storyline involving an overly-zealous student of culture that generally felt out of place, and maybe was. It couldn’t be told at another time, as much as I wondered if it could’ve been used in a sequel instead of this book, because it seemed of tertiary importance and interest compared to everything else going on. It was also entertaining and satisfying—so I’m glad she included it.

Still, it reads like a thriller of 250-300 pages, which is a neat trick.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as a Lily Wong book (it shouldn’t feel like one, and doesn’t), and I enjoyed it in different ways than her previous work (as I should’ve). Having established this world and the characters—it’d be very easy for Eldridge to lighten up on the background material in the future, and keep the focus on the plot and characters while exploring the world (and keeping up the commentary)—making it a leaner and more focused thriller/mystery. I hope that’s where Eldridge takes it—but I won’t complain too much if she doesn’t.

How did I make it this far without talking about Makalani? This is her book more than anything. We’ve all read/watched versions of her story—the kid who couldn’t wait to leave home who comes back discovering how much she missed it, how much she’s changed—and how everyone she left behind remembers her. This version of this template is very successful. She reconnects with her past, her heritage, her family—and she sees how who she is today comes from all of that. Plus, she’s a pretty kick-ass ranger. It’s going to be fun to watch her at work. She’s tough, resourceful, and determined—but not in your typical action-hero way, more like the kind of person you could meet in real life. Likely in the line of duty as a ranger. Her connection with the land—in Hawai‘i or Oregon—and sense of duty is going to get a lot of readers to respond positively to her.

This is a solid thriller, but it’s so much more. And it’ll definitely leave you hungry for a sequel. I strongly recommend it.