Bitter over Sweet

In these vivid linked vignettes, Brownlee (Hard Skin) chronicles the challenges and dreams of Native Hawaiians. In “The Black Box She’s Only Seen on TV,” a child is acutely aware of her poverty even from a young age, marking the difference between her home life and the relative affluence of her cousin. Later, in “Oceans Under Threat Like Never Before,” the girl considers how climate change will affect her family, and if they’ll be able to keep the house they built with government subsidies. Older girls, like Kim, a townie, and Jen, a university student, amuse themselves by flirting with local boys in “Another Night on da Kona Pier,” while another student, Kahea, comes home from the mainland in disgrace, “the scholarships she had worked so hard to get not enough to cover everything.” One of the more heartbreaking entries, “The Cannibalistic Sea Slug,” features an abusive mother who burns her daughter’s scalp with bleach, and intersperses the horror with scientific facts about sea slugs, who eat their own kind. Like photographs in a family album, the vignettes surface memories that are happy and painful in equal measure. This accomplished collection is worth a look. (Nov.)