Cover Image: The Last Karankawas

The Last Karankawas

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Member Reviews

3.5 stars. This is a novel about immigrants and their families in Galveston as Hurricane Ike approaches. It is almost like linked short stories and was very good. There might have been one or two too many characters to keep up with. I listened to most of this on audio and it may have been better suited to read a paper copy.

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The Last Karankawas is set in Galveston, Texas, and follows a large cast of characters leading up to Hurricane Ike in 2008. It is difficult to describe this book because it is more of a series of interconnected short stories than a novel. However, it does have several themes woven throughout, namely, faith and religion and the meaning of home and community.

The author does a great job of describing the region, both in terms of the natural world and the cultures of the Mexican and Filipino residents. Additionally, she explores other important themes, such as immigration, veterans, elder care, and abuse. The descriptions of Hurricane Ike were very vividly depicted.

This book reminded me a little of The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor and
There There by Tommy Orange in that it is multiple characters that are loosely related through a geographical location. The Last Karankawas is very much character driven as opposed to plot driven. The ending seemed slightly abrupt, as there were so many characters that needed conclusions.

Overall, it is a strong debut, and I am interested to see what Garza writes in the future. Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt for providing the ARC.

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I got to review this book for the NYT. It was a pure delight... happy it exists in the world. Here's just one of my many underlinings from the text:

I don’t fear strong emotions. Haven’t I always taught you to permit their passage, allow them to course through controlled that this strength is what makes us warriors? Haven’t I taught you that much?

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I really dug this! It uses the texture of Galveston/Houston to great effect as it creates a collage of intersecting lives grappling with what it means to love each other, to find dignity and purpose, and to keep going through the damage. Yeah, I cried a little, so what?

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This book was an interesting slice of life following a family in Galveston. The thing with this book is that there are so many povs it was hard to keep everyone straight. Once I looked at some reviews I read it’s better to treat this one as a short story collection and I couldn’t agree more. I really enjoyed this by looking at each chapter as it’s own story. I will also say not sure I am the target audience for this story as well. I feel like people from Texas especially Galveston will enjoy this a lot more this has a lot to do with the heritage and history of this region. I still enjoyed this book and feel like this book definitely has an audience just personally wasn’t a favorite. I would like to thank net galley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

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A wonderful story about a subsect of the country that we know very little about. This novel lets you into a seemingly underdiscovered world. What a great introduction into a new group of people right in our own backyard.

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Thank you for this arc copy of the Last Karankawas. It wasn't; my type of book but others may like it. I did enjoy the cover picture though.

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This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

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In The Last Karankawas, author Kimberly Garza spans decades as she explores the complex and deeply-rooted culture of the Mexican and Filipino American community of South Texas. This is a fascinating and untold story told in a fresh and creative style with a cast of twelve authentic characters. The glossary at the end is wonderful.

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'The Last Karankawas,' by Kimberly Garza, is one I have been anticipating. Being from Texas, home of the Karankawas, I was intrigued at how an author would put a modern spin and be able to pull them in. Overall, the work is a literary delight. The structure is non-traditional but not off putting - more akin to a collection of short stories than a novel. The writing is lovely and strong.

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The Last Karankawas is centered around Filipino Americans and Mexican Americans in the Galveston, TX area. Rather than being a straightforward plot, the characters' stories are told through a series of interconnected short stories while Hurrican Ike gathers offshore. I enjoyed this book and stayed up way past my bedtime to find out what happened to these characters. I connected to Carly, Jess, Mercedes, and the rest of the Fish Village community. Also, Kimberly Garza knows her way around a beautiful sentence.

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

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Thank you netgalley for the eARC.

This book has a mixed review from me. It started out really strong, and the writing was beautiful all the way through. The part that was harder for me was that it's billed as a novel - it says "a novel" on the cover - but it is actually short stories with some characters that are connected. That in itself is not a bad thing; but I guess I was waiting for them to be more connected and they never were. If I'd gone into it as a short story collection it would have been easier to read. I really liked the perspective of all the characters and the descriptions of the communities they lived in, and their connections with the land and places they grew up.

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I'll be honest, I wanted to love this one much more than I did. I think there are books that I like that introduce so many different characters, but others (like this one) made the characters less likable. I've seen that some people read it as a collection of short stories as opposed to one whole story about interconnecting characters, so maybe this is a story to revisit at another time.

I will say that I enjoyed the writing and the description of setting. There's this hurricane building in the background of everything happening, and it highlights some of the other cracks and issues in the community of Galveston, Texas. There are questions about crisis care and how it relates to immigrants, elders, and other overlooked groups that have complex relationships with the state, much less how the state prioritizes different people in the midst of crisis.

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Not the book for me but the writing was okay. The characters were not fully developed or very likeable. It was hard for me to get into this book.

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Excellent debut from Kimberly Garza! I really enjoyed this book. It is an atmospheric and character-driven novel about a community in Galveston, Texas as they prepare for Hurricane Ike. There are a lot of characters so it really presents like a collection of short stories but the are woven together nicely. I've heard it said that "places have a way of claiming people" and I believe that is exemplified in this book. Garza's writing style is beautiful, almost poetic. I will definitely read another by this author!

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The Last Karankawas is collection of short stories. Every story is told by a different narrator.
Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the arc in exchange of honest review.

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The Last Karankawas is a collection of short stories centered on Mexican and Filipino American families in the Galveston, TX area, each culminating in or surrounding 2008's Hurricane Ike. I am not from Texas, and maybe visited Galveston once as a child, so this was really a brand new setting for me, and I did feel invested and involved as I made my way through the stories. That said, each chapter is at best loosely connected to previous ones, and trying to keep all of the characters and their relationships to each other requires a sprawling map that I was struggling to hold. Ultimately it doesn't really matter because each chapter functions as a standalone little story rather than one part of an overarching plot, but it still made me feel lost from time to time. The writing itself is beautiful though, with lyrical prose and descriptors so strong I can almost smell the sea salt and the fish on the island.

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This one took me by surprise. It was just moseying along as a 3, when about halfway through...suddenly I was invested. A slice-of-life portrait of Galveston, Texas, at first it was a little tough to get used to the format - essentially a collectionThis one took me by surprise. It was just moseying along as a 3, when about halfway through...suddenly I was invested. A slice-of-life portrait of Galveston, Texas, at first it was a little tough to get used to the format - essentially a collection of short stories that were interconnected and loosely arranged around Hurricane Ike, which hit in 2008. For me, it didn't work until it did, if that makes sense. Also makes me want to visit Galveston, for sure.

3.5 rounded up because this novel took me to a place I haven't been before. of short stories that were interconnected and loosely arranged around Hurricane Ike, which hit in 2008. For me, it didn't work until it did, if that makes sense. Also makes me want to visit Galveston, for sure.

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A stunning debut set in a place the writer knows well. Every word drips with poetic precision. I love the revolving characters and watching them interact over time. Their interactions with the setting around them was a highlight for me. Though I personally do not know this area, I felt completely immersed in it. I could feel the hurricane warnings in the sky.

I was crushed by the sections set in Uvalde, though no fault of the author. I have a lot of empathy for Garza having to go through the process of publishing a book partially set in Uvalde amidst what took place this year. I cannot imagine.

This book is the kind of book I hope to read every time I open a new novel. It is perfection.

My only issue, though most likely entirely my own, was that I had a hard time pin pointing which character was who in each section. A possible sooner character identifier would have helped. I figured it out, eventually.

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"Populated by indelible characters, this graceful, deeply compassionate work is a moving study of memory, the permeable boundaries it shares with myth, how it roils and folds and persists into the present, and how we are often forced to choose between learning to live inside it and trying to outrun it."

From my Library Journal review.

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