Short story collections are always hard to judge but this was a really strong collection. I have never read anything of joint Japanese-Hawaiian origin before and this book was the perfect place to start exploring both cultures in these short stories. The writing is intense, in the best way. I also enjoyed the occasional connections between some of the stories.

This was such an interesting collection! Some really wonderful speculative elements, fantastic characters, and interesting explorations of womanhood. Definitely a book I'll continue to recommend.

This book is FULL of immersive and surprising prose. The imagery is beyond anything contemporary stories I’ve read lately and provides an incredible study on building a sense of place and cultural expectations. It’s a book I’m so excited to share with early writers.

A raw, complex collection of stories regarding the Hawaiian identity and womanhood. A nightmare lives inside this book, the nightmare of being a minority. The truth behind these fictitious stories will leave readers reflecting on the people in their lives who could relate to these stories.

I really enjoyed this beautifully written short story collection. Blurring the lines between magic and reality, I was engrossed in these visceral stories--particularly as they featured women and strong female characters.

Thank you so very much to Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, Bloomsbury publishing, and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. I am so excited I was able to get my hands on this one!

My sister-in-law was stationed in Hawaii for three years, and during that time she made a point to learn about the culture and be respectful of their spaces, their lifestyles, and their daily culture. She also ensured that she helped us understand different things - recommending blogs, books, and articles for us to learn. So when I saw this I had to jump on it!

I absolutely adored this read, from start to finish. A collection of short stories that share the experience of women's issues, Hawaiian folklore, and superstitions. The narrative voice is beautiful and easy to follow. It feels genuine and personal throughout. I love the blurred lines between the stories, the mystery and the magical. The beauty and the haunting. Such a unique read, one that I truly can say has me itching for more from this lovely author. I've already ensured a copy for my SIL for Christmas :) I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Hawaiian culture, mysticism, haunting lyric and gorgeous prose.

AHHHHH! I am so thankful to Bloomsbury Publishing, Megan Kamalei Kakimoto for sending me both a physical and digital copy of Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare before this baby hit shelves. I'm a slut for horror books and this one absolutely slayed my expectations.

✨ Review ✨ Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare: Stories by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto

This short story collection blew my mind! Infused with Hawaiian folklore, culture, and language, it was an immersive experience. Many of the stories had a bit of the macabre and grotesque swirled in to give it a feeling of the horror genre, which really drove home the traumas of colonialism and empire, motherhood, and more.

The official book blurb describes it as "Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare is both a fierce love letter to Hawaiian identity and mythology, and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory threatening to erupt with violent secrets." -- and I really love this description. The book literally felt like it came alive in my hands.

From a new widow's corpse flower coming to embody her dead wife to a world filled with Elvis impersonators to an author's manuscript vibrating to life. Young girls finding their way in the world and Hawaiian culture and coming to terms with the invasion of white tourists and expectations about their bodies and sexuality, the book is so wide-ranging in the topics it explores.

Sometimes short stories feeling jarring as you shift from one to the next, but these flowed, and I loved them so much. They were so grounded in kanaka place and experience. This is an author to watch!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: short stories
Setting: Hawaii
Pub Date: 29 Aug 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ short story collections
⭕️ Hawaii and Indigenous culture
⭕️ themes of trauma, colonialism, sexuality

Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

Every one of these lightly speculative short stories about Native Hawaiian and Japanese women in contemporary Hawaii hits the mark! Don't skip a chapter! Megan Kamalei Kakimoto digs her nails into the creepiest aspects of living in a human body, sexism, cultural appropriation, and modern life, interlaced with Hawaiian mythology and inventive fantastical elements. It's a riveting book that's still stuck in my head days after finishing it.

EVERY DROP IS A MAN’S NIGHTMARE by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto is a fierce short story collection whose characters’ emotions and quandaries burst forth from the page with fervor and unapologetic truth in all the messiness that entails. Set in Hawaii, the collection reminded me of Anthony Veasna So’s AFTERPARTIES in its boldness, its incisive depiction of a community without essentializing its members, and its keen observations of relational dynamics.

Interwoven with mythology and sensual descriptions, yet tenacious in their unflinching honesty, these stories have seared themselves into my sinews. Brilliantly scaffolded by the first story, “A Catalogue of Kānaka Superstitions,” the collection explores fragmented families, gender expectations, and the distance between our hopes and realities.

Some of my favorites include:

⋆ “Every Drop is a Man’s Nightmare” – a young girl’s encounter with a wild pig on the Pali highway disturbs her pregnancy years later

⋆ “Temporary Dwellers” – Kauai residents are displaced by U.S. military bombing drills

⋆ “Madwoman” – one of the most heart wrenching depictions of the tensions of motherhood that I’ve read

⋆ “Ms. Amelia’s Salon for Women in Charge” – a woman must decide whether to exchange a personality trait for free Brazilian waxing

⋆ “Hotel Molokai” – a girl’s coming-of-age trip to visit Kaule o Nanahoa brings her uncomfortably close to family abuse

Kakimoto writes from a female and Native Hawaiian/Japanese perspective that is sorely needed. Reading this collection in the middle of my Booker longlist marathon was such a powerful experience, as it reminded me of how exhilarating literature can be when liberated from overtold narratives. I hope to see EVERY DROP IS A MAN’S NIGHTMARE on the National Book Awards longlist coming up on 9/15!

Thank you @bloomsburybooksus for the ARC and @netgalley for the eARC.

Fantastic collection of short stories.The authors writing is so creative brings the stories the characters alive.Each story was a gem enjoyed them all. #netgalley#bloomsbury

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.

I learned a TON. Lots of Hawaiian culture and words, but even the word choice is superb.

The stories themselves honestly dragged for me. I felt excitement could be injected. Instead it was pretty dense, but some like that.

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.

DNF @16%
I couldn't get into this book. It just wasn't for me. I thought it was too unnecessarily vulgar and I didn't like the writing.

Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare was an eccentric collection of stories surrounding Native Hawaiian and Japanese women navigating their own history and colonization in a contemporary time. Some stories are fantastical, some are realist, while some are somewhere in the middle exhibiting magical realism tendencies. They all had a place in this collection, and made it an interesting read - as you weren't entirely sure where it was heading next.

This debut was provocative, unsettling, and haunting. I enjoyed reading about Hawaiian mythologies and history. It was eye-opening to read about how these women have been impacted by colonization, and it really makes you think about the culture we are losing right in our own backyards.

I enjoyed it overall, but must admit was not upset when it ended and it was time to move on to something new. I wished to see more depth and growth of the women, as I anticipated that being a major theme. And although I wouldn't consider this collection being plot-driven; I do wish there was a little more to keep the stories moving in a forward direction.

A couple of my favorite stories (in order of appearance) include Story of Men, Temporary Dwellers, and Aiko, the Writer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for providing me with an eARC!

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 was an interesting collection of short stories, some invoked feelings of horror, wistfulness, and terror. Overall, it was a cool way to learn more about Hawaiian myths and culture, but it was a story best read in bits and pieces.

There is some really beautiful, poetic writing in this collection of short stories by debut author Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, but they mostly left me feeling puzzled and maybe a little disoriented. They were a little too abstract for me, like an abstract art piece that doesn’t quite come together into any cohesive ideas or feelings. I appreciate the exploration of various facets of womanhood that these stories center on, but each of these stories left me feeling like I was missing too much context to understand its intention.

A collection of short stories with an emphasis on Hawaiian culture. I found most of the stories depressing and didn't see a connection between them. Didn't get beyond the half way point. I have read other books about Hawaii and Hawaiian culture and short story collections that I have enjoyed. Other readers gave it rave reviews. Just didn't work for me. Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book.