audio fiction (multiple narrators, 9 hours 15 min.) - character-driven debut novel set in and near the coastal island community of Galveston, Texas (especially Fish Village) during Hurricane Ike (Sept 2008). Author is Filipinx/Mexican-American from Galveston/Uvalde area.

A series of vignettes of different characters' connected lives leading up to, during, and after the storm. There is a nurse, a baseball fan, a shrimper and the wandering Iraq veteran he takes in, a medicine woman, a grandmother, a widower... They have all come from different places, have separate dreams and challenges, but they all unite as a community when need arises (and may separate again when the storm passes).

It was easy to listen to this enjoyable full-cast audio production; I liked that I could enjoy the different narratives without worrying too much about remembering the details of any one character's lives. ( )

I received an ARC of this book from Henry Holt & Co.

I definitely had a love/hate relationship with this one. It's pretty light on the plot, with one main plot point being the buildup to Hurricane Ike, but even that was over in two chapters before moving onto a few chapters of 'clean up'. It felt like it was lacking in suspense or drama or anything interesting, focusing more on the lives of the people than the devastation of the events (for the record none of the 18 mentioned characters die. One runs away. None are displaced. None have homes destroyed beyond water-damage that's typical from flooding. And if they are displaced, it's never mentioned.)

The prose was nice. Not very flamboyant, but is rather solemn, sometimes to its own detriment. On this front though, I feel a bit robbed, honestly. It had a lot of potential to be a highly emotional read, but all emotion seemed to be removed from the story, somehow. People say they're "angry" or "scared" but you just don't feel it. Beyond that, there is a lot of Spanish and Tagalog mixed in but they're generally typical words/phrases that are either translated in the text or used in a context where you don't really NEED to know what it means because it's a filler word/phrase like 'you see?' I liked it but there were some cases when it became overbearing.

Speaking of 18 characters - I counted, but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed some - it really did become too much. I read some reviews before starting this and thought "too many characters? is that possible?" It is. There are 12 characters that have at least one chapter in their POV and 6 characters I like to call 'fringe characters' who don't have a POV but are mentioned in several other POVs. Each chapter is from a new perspective, sometimes not even along the slowly moving linear timeline but rather a recollection, that somehow will tie a character to one of the 3 main characters (Carly, Jess, the grandmother Magdalena) whether it be friendship, relatives, or the guy that had an affair with the grandmother back in the 90's. It does well to show that a community is comprised of so many little connections but with the shifting POVs and lack of plot to bring focus to events and fringe characters, it becomes muddled. I had trouble remembering who was who and had to flip back many times to find the one sentence or two when a character relation was mentioned in a different POV because the current POV made it sound like I should know who the mentioned character is.

The epilogue is written like a book's appendix. I did not enjoy that at all. In fact I almost skipped it because I didn't think it was actually part of the narrative and that it was actually an appendix/glossary. It details some of the characters' closures, but nothing unpredictable or that you couldn't have gleaned from the earlier chapters.

In all a 2.5, rounded down because the more I think about the book, the more disappointed I feel. ( )

"If I tell you we come from fighters, es verdad. Because we say it is."

I was excited to read The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza after reading that it was about Mexican and Filipino American families from Galveston. I had watched something else about the Karankawa people and wanted to know more plus multigenerational stories are my cup of tea.

This one is about a tight knit community on the Texas Coast as they prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Ike. The characters grapple with whether to stay or leave and seek shelter elsewhere until it passes. The first story starts off with Carly Castillo's Filipino side of her family and their dislike of her Mexican side and springs forward from there. The format is short stories that are supposed to interconnect but there are so many characters introduced that I spent more time trying to keep track of who was related to who and what was their current status to the town, than actually immersing myself in the story. It started out being about Carly, her grandmother and her boyfriend but the introduction of so many different people with each story, I don't feel I ever got to know or connected fully to any person mentioned. It ended up giving the novel a a disjointed feel and I couldn't quite discern the purpose of the story at all by the end.

There were some things I did appreciate and would make me give this author's book another try in the future. I loved getting to read about Galveston and the history of some of its people. I came to see why communities stayed over generations and I got a sense of what the culture is. The writing was good and Garza did a good job of exploring the ideas of inheritance and the importance of storytelling in order to maintain our connection to our family histories and lineage. It celebrates the rich history of the people of South Texas and provides a glimpse into some of the narratives that have come out of this area. It showed what bonds people. Overall, I wish there were less characters and a more focused point of view. This a debut novel and I am looking forward to see how Garza's storytelling evolves in the future. Thanks to @goodreads & @henryholtbooks for the gifted copy. ( )

I found this slow to capture my attention. The focus is on the relationship of the many characters to fishtown in Galveston and to each other. How did they come to be in Galveston or have they always been there, a true Karankawas. She brings in the returning veterans, dementia, and many family issues. ( )

Garza's debut novel illustrates the connections among the residents of one of Galveston's diverse communities. In fact, the connections of "person to person" and "person to place" carry more weight than the story arc. That's OK. The writing is so lyrical and honest that you won't miss the action of more plot-driven novels. The joy is in getting to know each of these characters and to see how they balance their dreams against competing family dynamics and harsh living conditions. I'd love for some of these characters to be continued in a sequel or companion novel! ( )