Article contributed by Noura Khalid
Akemi Dawn Bowman wrote the most beautiful and heart-wrenching book I think I have ever read. Upon reading the synopsis, I immediately requested the book even though I hardly ever read contemporary books, but something drew me to this one.
While reading the most amazing story ever written, I felt so many emotions. There was sadness, anger, pain, and love and the book managed to bring all these emotions through the pages. I loved the writing style as it felt so light, but also lyrical. There were pauses in between the story so we could visit memories from the past. The story also features two sisters, and they were contrasted throughout, but the author really makes you feel as though you’re involved in their lives. Learning even the simple things about their personalities.
Readers will find themselves feeling many of Rumi’s emotions. She was often conflicted and often expressed how she felt through her anger. Her emotions were all over the place, but I felt the need to understand them. Her development throughout the book was definitely a favourite and she came to realise so many things, including those that helped her to manage her feelings, understand them, and shape her understanding of herself.
Music was such a huge part of who she was. I often felt the struggle when she couldn’t get herself to play an instrument or listen to the music and it was especially enjoyable the way she managed to take herself back to it, even if it took her a long while to figure out how to do that.
I adored all the characters in this book. Kai was such a joy to read about and he made everything so laid back. He also helped Rumi come to terms with many things, including her identity and he was always there to support and help her. I loved all the other side characters as well with Mr. Watanabe adding so much to the book and he had his own losses and I felt like him and Rumi got along in their own way. I kept looking forward to the chapters that he was in! Her aunt was also so extremely patient with Rumi and she never left her side even with things got harsh.
This story was just the most wonderful thing ever and I loved how complex everything felt, which constantly drew me further into the story. It made me cry by the end of it and they were heavy tears might I add. I’m officially on the lookout for any book by Akemi Dawn Bowman. Would recommend this book with all my heart!
Summer Bird Blue is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Rumi Seto spends a lot of time worrying she doesn’t have the answers to everything. What to eat, where to go, whom to love. But there is one thing she is absolutely sure of—she wants to spend the rest of her life writing music with her younger sister, Lea.
Then Lea dies in a car accident, and her mother sends her away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while she deals with her own grief. Now thousands of miles from home, Rumi struggles to navigate the loss of her sister, being abandoned by her mother, and the absence of music in her life. With the help of the “boys next door”—a teenage surfer named Kai, who smiles too much and doesn’t take anything seriously, and an eighty-year-old named George Watanabe, who succumbed to his own grief years ago—Rumi attempts to find her way back to her music, to write the song she and Lea never had the chance to finish.
