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Book Reviewed by:In this fast-paced survival story set in Hawaii, electronics fail worldwide, the islands become completely isolated, and a strange starscape fills the sky. Leilani and her father embark on a nightmare odyssey from Oahu to their home on the Big Island. Leilani's epilepsy holds a clue to the disaster, if only they can survive as the islands revert to earlier ways.
A powerful story enriched by fascinating elements of Hawaiian ecology, culture, and warfare, this captivating and dramatic debut from Austin Aslan is the first of two novels. The author has a master's degree in tropical conservation biology from the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
16 year–old Leilani, an epileptic, and her father are visiting Oahu, Hawaii, when global disaster strikes due to a cosmic event. Technology and power fail, and Hawaii is cut off from the world. Paradise disappears as the islands revert to traditional ways of survival. Chapter 10 opens as Waikiki disintegrates into chaos and Lei and Dad escape from their hotel.
CHAPTER 10
A piercing buzz rockets through my ears. White, flashing lights batter my eyelids. Oh, no, again? Already?
"Leilani, wake up! Come on." I can barely hear words over the buzz.
I'm being gently shaken. Dad is standing over me. It's still dark, but white lights
flicker on and off at regular intervals. The lanai door is wide open, and a gentle breeze soothes my sweaty face. I hear nothing but the ungodly alarm. A fire alarm?
"Time to go," he says. "Now!"
I sit up, scrambling up the muddy walls of the dark, murky pit where my mind has crouched. "What time is it? What day?"
"Nearly five o'...
Aslan writes with a great sense of suspense. Narrow escapes, chases and action-packed confrontations flow across the pages of the novel. But there is more here, too, than just adventure. Aslan creates a real bond between Leilani and her father, and a great respect grows between them as they trek through the islands to try to get home. "We're doing this together, okay?" Dad says. "We're right here with each other all the way through." So you root for them, not just because they are the good guys (which they are), but also because they are a symbol of the way love can expand and deepen, even under harsh circumstances...continued
Full Review
(720 words)
(Reviewed by Tamara Ellis Smith).
In The Islands at the End of the World, Leilani's grandfather tells her, "Pele's your guardian spirit, yeah? Goddess of lightning." Leilani, who suffers from epilepsy, replies, "Yeah. Goddess of the lightning in my head."
Pele (pronounced "pell-ay") is the fire goddess of Hawaii, and is powerful and even destructive. According to legend, she resides in a crater in the volcano of Kilauea on Hawaii's Big Island. The story goes that she was one of six daughters and seven sons. She came from Tahiti, but the reasons for her travel from there to Hawaii vary from legend to legend. One says that she was restless and needed to move. Another says that she left Tahiti to flee from her sister, an ocean goddess, whose husband she had stolen. And ...
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