A Half Flower by Mira Kanehl is the first in a magical realism series. Fantasy mixed with historical fiction and set in Hawaii. I found the exploits of the revolutionist French surgeon and some of the fantasy aspects disturbing. I didn't enjoy the novel and dnf.
In all fairness, I'm not the right audience for this novel.
Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to read it.

I really wanted to like this book, however, I found the plot confusing and the characters didn’t have the depth I would have liked them to have. A shame, as it showed early promise, however, this wasn’t a great read for me.

This was a rare DNF for me around 1/2 way through - simultaneously far too detailed and far too vague. The prose has far too many descriptive words in it. Rarely is there a simple sentence such as “he sat on a chair” or “he ran down the street”. Because of this, I struggled to follow what was going on.

After some opening chapters in France (could all be deleted, add nothing unless there’s a point later), we begin the story proper in Hawaii. There are lots of Hawaiian terms flying around with far too little explanation or time to digest them. I got completely lost. As part of this, there’s all the Hawaiian mythology, theology and worldview. As it’s not something I know anything about, I lost track of all the terms - is this word a goddess or a practice or a belief or a … you get the idea.

There’s clearly a story to be told with this material and our author has clearly spent a good deal of time researching it. However, we’re not there yet. I’d honestly strip this story back to very simple sentences then build the detail in from there.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Good book, be prepared to spend some time with it. All encompassing, incredible characters neatly woven with historical figures and facts of 1800's Hawaii.

4☆

This book did not engage me for some reason. I did not enjoy the writer's style., and I did not think the characters were developed as well as they could have been. Having said that, it is certainly an original book, to be sure, and that is always a plus IMO. So, not a bad book, just not my cup of tea. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

A surprising novel where i went in expecting one thing and got something else. Definitely one of those novels where you can’t really talk about it without spoiling so i will say to those who like this style of weird abstract concepts with dense prose you’ll like this a lot. it’s what i like but my tastes are not typical of others.

Even though many themes of this book were thought provoking and highly interesting (concepts of religion, society), this novel was not for me. I could not relate at all to the characters . Too many elements of fantasy surprised and disturbed me as this was not mentioned in the blurb. This is not the kind of story I enjoy. If I had known I would not have read the book. Hence a 3* review for me.
I received a digital copy of this novel from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily an honest review.

Mirà Kanehl has a great writing style, it had that concept that I was looking for in a historical fiction element perfectly. It was a strong start to the Naupaka series, and left me wanting to read more in this world. I loved the cover and thought everything worked with what I was hoping for. I loved the use of Hawai'i and thought it worked well in this time-period.