Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare

What a powerful debut, with what will surely be one of the best book covers of year. If you haven’t taken the time to stop and appreciate this cover, use this opportunity to do so now.

I love Kakimoto’s writing. It’s so beautiful and evocative and very smart, and so I made good use of the dictionary in my Kindle app. She has a particularly fun way of cleverly describing the mundane, which often delighted me.

The stories are haunting, sometimes literally. There’s a recurring sense of isolation and loneliness, of wanting what you shouldn’t have, set against a gorgeous landscape of myths and the things that tie you to a community. All of the stories flowed well into each other.

I’m looking forward to her upcoming novel (which has already been announced!!) and I’m really interested to see how she further develops some of the themes she explored in these stories.

Fantastic. These stories are haunting and heavy. There aren’t monsters or murderers—but the works are filled with ghosts and the grotesque. The stories get better and better as the book progresses, and I would maybe recommend reading them in order. You will like this book if you enjoyed “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed” by Mariana Enríquez, “Manmade Monsters” by Andrea L. Rogers, or “Night of the Living Rez” by Morgan Talty. I leave this work thinking a lot about the horrors and wonders of femininity and racial identity.

Thanks NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the digital ARC :)

A brilliant collection of stories. Probably my favorite short story collection this year. I read all of them and enjoyed every one. Would love to read a longer novel by this author.

From the eye-catching book cover — and a title that had me pondering - ‘what’s up?’ - to the blog-description….I knew I wanted to read these stories:
“Set in Hawaii. Debut story collection from a Japanese and Maoli (native Hawaiian) writer …… following “a cast of mixed native Hawaiian and Japanese women through a contemporary landscape thick with inherited wisdom and the ghost of colonization. This is a Hawaii where unruly sexuality and generational memory overflow the postcard image of paradise and the boundaries of the real, where the superstitions born of the islands take on the weight of truth”……
“a fierce love letter to Hawaiian identity and mythology, and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory threatening to erupt with violent secrets”.

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto doesn’t shy away from uncomfortably awkwardness—shaming—betrayal—frenzy & fury. She’s fearless! Bold! I respect her for it.
Megan’s writing is unflinching forthright. With full-on force …..her writing is immodestly confident. She writes with head-on intensity and raptness. Her stories are riveting — perceptively attuned to freedom and justice ….and her storytelling energetically — even educational-engaging.

Hawaii is my Honeymoon Home. For the past 45 years, Paul and I usually go every December.
I’m familiar with the lushness, beauty, beaches, surfing, rainforests, volcanoes, whale watching, birds, flowers, hiking, sunsets, rainbows, — and I’ve read James Michener 1400+ page historical epic novel “Hawaii”…..
but there was a type of discovery in these native stories that I had never read before……about the deep sensory ancestral experience and how it directly legend history affected women.
The Hawaiian islands are surrounded by many FASCINATING LEGEND stories ……of Gods and men, love and betrayal, goodness, and evil.
For the indigenous Hawaiian people, (scary for women), the legends are not just ‘myths’ — they are historical truths, integrated ……
I was left with a deeper understanding of safety needs for Native Hawaiian Women…..and other social issues linked with trauma of colonization.
I also came away with more awareness about superstitions and the power they can have over people and every day life.

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto gives us eleven stories. I needed to read them slowly. I never read more than two stories in one sitting.
I enjoyed savoring each one (ha- and I’ve pages of notes on each one) > memory reminders for myself -including a few new Hawaiian terms, I picked up along the way.
I visited Google (not too much, but a little), to clarity a few Hawaiian terms.
One day — I read up on ‘famous’ supernaturals — terrifying mysterious - legends - that are still told in Hawaii today.

I gave myself a little expanded ghostly-folklore legend/myths education.
I had fun learning about traditional Hawaiian mythology and religion that has had ties to the ancient Polynesian beliefs— that have been passed down through generations.

I enjoyed these stories — (Megan is incredibly gifted —filling a void in literature that we just haven’t had enough of).
I also enjoyed my extra -curricular Hawaiian/legend studies…..(which never would have happened without the inspiration of our author and her stories.

So I’ll review the first story… the title story—
(leave other chosen stories for other reviewers?/)…..
but I have notes and all the stories should anybody be interested in asking me more.

“Every Drop is A Man’s Nightmare” . . . . .
Lopaka is *Sadie’s* stepfather. Her mother is Kahea.
They are driving from Ka’a’awa to Palolo where they have a cottage. (This story belongs to Sadie).
Sadie, twelve-years-of-age…..at the start ……just got her period for the first time. There are blotches of blood soaked into the backseat. She tells her mother, who was sitting in the passenger seat that she is bleeding.
Mom says, “Oh, honey, it’s about time”.
Suddenly, their car comes to a quick screeching jolt. They just hit a pua’a (a Hawaiian name for pig).
Kahea doesn’t care about old wise, tales, and island origin stories,
but Lopaka and his family believe in ‘rotten luck’. (and the repercussions they trigger).
They believe in ‘Night Marchers’ (spirits-deadly ghosts) and Pele’s wrath, (an old Hawaiian curse about moving anything negative such as rock or sand from one island to the next), etc.
They never whistle at night, and they don’t sleep with their prostate toes pointing toward the bedroom door.

Its Lopaka’s birthday: thirty-two….. (family and friends are gathered at the cottage to celebrate)….
and of course they are celebrating with Lopaka’s favorite food: kalua pig.
Lopaka has been in Sadie’s life for a little over a year and he has taught her native legends. He has also taught her (unfortunately) fear, shame, and unworthiness.
Sadie learned a lot that night at that birthday party.
She learned that in the high days of “ali’i wahine ka wa haumia (bleeding women), were regarded a reverence, otherwise reserved for royalty.
The rest of this coming-of-age story for Sadie (college, Jason, educational & awareness awakening, marriage, etc), is marvelous…
so tender & beautiful….with a very - real - powerful message about self-love, body acceptance, respect, self-growth, healthy self- encouragement, trust, about men, (they are not all dickheads), and about love.

A few of my other favorite stories were: (with similar vital themes)
“Madwoman”
“Ms. Amelia’s Salon for Women in Charge”
“Hotel Molokai”
and
“Some Things I Know About Elvis”

Extraordinary debut…
Hair-raising - menacing - bona fide - genuine to the core - outlandishly ingenious!

5 beaming stars.

Beautiful writing and an amazing collection of stories. I enjoyed diving into Hawaiian identity and mythology and learning more about the devastating effects of colonization on Hawaii.

Provocative, unsettling, just as it is titled, these stories are not soon to leave their vivid images in your mind.

Native Hawaiian and Japanese writer Kamalei Kakimoto writes short, spiky stories that cut with a knife as they gently caress you with the ghosts of indigenous peoples are their lore of the islands. This is a writer to follow - an amazing, confident, larger than life writer who grabs humanity and thrusts it in your face. Take your time with these stories, read them one at a time. Remember this name, her words will haunt you. #EveryDropisamansnightmare #Megankamaleikakimoto
#Bloomsbury

This book is soooo good. Megan is a hugely talented writer, and this collection of stories is so strange, creepy, visceral, queer, and deeply hawaiian. I haven't read anything quite like it.

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto’s debut work, Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare, is a captivating, terrifying read that I’m thrilled I got my hands on. Featuring eleven distinct stories about Hawaiian and Japanese women, the collection is a wild dive into Hawaiian culture and mythology through the lives of modern women.

Admittedly, I did not know a lot about Hawaiian culture and mythology going into this book. The collection was unfamiliar territory to me, with a unique identity unlike anything I’ve ever encountered in fiction before. I had to research a lot of the terms and myths to gain a deeper understanding of the references being made, which made my experience as a reader all the more immersive and enriching.

It is the kind of book you want to take your time with, as each story packs a different kind of punch — punches you’ll certainly want to sit with and dwell over. Still, the collection is thematically cohesive, drawing on elements of horror and magical realism in most of the pieces. I felt seen by its unbridled narration of female desire, insanity, grief, ambition, and rage. Rarely do I witness this kind of exploration into identity, and for that this book is more than worth the read.