That Which Feeds Us

by Keala Kendall

A native Hawaiian teen travels to a luxury island resort in search of her missing twin and uncovers the dark side of paradise, in this YA supernatural thriller that's Mexican Gothic meets She is a Haunting.

For the world’s wealthiest, Kōpaʻa Island Resort is more than a destination. It’s the ultimate escape. With no cell service or Wi-Fi, the Hawaiian island is a coveted wellness retreat renowned for its persimmon orchard and promises of rejuvenation.

But their dream vacation is Lehua’s nightmare. When her twin sister, Ohia, goes missing, Lehua follows her trail to Kōpaʻa to find her. Instead, Lehua is cut off from civilization—and help—after the island’s boat leaves without her, stranding her with the resort’s lavish guests and enigmatic staff.

As Lehua investigates Ohia’s disappearance, she discovers her missing sister isn’t the island’s only mystery. Kōpaʻa’s rich exterior and sweet persimmons hide its dark plantation past. And Lehua can’t ignore the dreams haunting her each night—nor the warning telling her to leave the island at once. To uncover what happened to Ohia, Lehua will have to unearth the island’s bloody history and face the horrors that lurk within its sugarcane fields—or risk being consumed by them.

Sharply observed and gorgeously written, That Which Feeds Us explores the true cost of paradise as Lehua must fight to reclaim the land, the stories, and the very souls of her people.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Gothic, LGBT, Thriller, Queer, Fiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2026

About the author

Keala Kendall (pronounced: kay-ah-luh) is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of How Far I’ll Go and Nobody Gets Left Behind in Disney's A Twisted Tales series, and That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian Gothic. Hapa Native Hawaiian, she is a cofounder of Pacific Islanders in Publishing and a past organizer of the Books for Maui charity auction.

Born in Honolulu, raised on Molokaʻi, she now lives as part of the Native Hawaiian diaspora in Los Angeles. To learn more about Keala, visit her at kealakendall.com or @kealakendall on Instagram and TikTok.

Reviews

[Liana Gold · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️ 3.5 ⭐️ 'Āina is a Hawaiian way of saying land which feeds us. In their culture, land is a place of physical, spiritual and emotional sustenance and its viewed as a living relative that needs to be cared for. Hawaiians have deep love for their land because land for them is scared. In this novel, the role is reversed-where people treat their homeland as something they can own, sell and consume.

This is a great, creepy yet interesting upper YA supernatural gothic horror that is set in Hawai'i. We have a haunted island, a 19 year old Lehua who works in mortuary, Ohia a missing twin and loads of horror imagery, commentary on colonialism/isolation and hidden history. My oldest and I did a buddy read (I had the ARC and I got him the physical copy!) and we had a lot to talk about. I'd say this is more for 15+ and he's just a little bellow that, so there were times when he said the book was a bit scary, but overall I'm impressed with how well he handled his first horror novel.

In That Which Feeds Us, Lehua Sayers travels to Kōpa'a Island Resort to search for her missing twin sister. Lehua has dropped out of college while her sister, Onia, is a smart, successful student/athlete. They are not in the very best relations due to their shared history: they don't see eye to eye, have hurt each other and interpret and internalize their shared history differently yet they still have a lot of love for each other. When Lehua begins her search, she discovers that there is something wrong with the island. Kōpa'a Island seems like paradise from the outside--all green, rich and well secluded, like a real tropical paradise. But the resort was built on plantation with a history that the resort wants to keep buried. Lehua immediately feels that something is wrong. As she searched for Onia, the resorts beauty begins to deteriorate, plantations history emerges and Lehua starts experiencing the islands supernatural phenomena-disturbing dreams, different/strange smells, vivid warnings. The search is no longer a search but turns into a historical memory where it seems that the island is consuming everything. Meanwhile, a storm is approaching and Lehua begins to feel the creeping dread and isolation as the islands colonial history and supernatural threat becomes inseparable.

I love when books can educate our children because as soon as my son was finished, he started asking me about colonialism. I think history overall is full of horror and I appreciated that this story taught him a thing or two about the horrors of plantations, plantation workers, violence and parts of history that is most always buried. We ended up googling some things afterwards and watched a cool documentary on Hawaiian indigenous culture and folklore.

I personally enjoyed reading about the sisters' relationship. It was well fractured in the story and worked well to outline the novels larger conflict. Born in Hawai'i but raised by their grandparents in Arizona, the girls grew up knowing Hawai'i only through storytelling and memories. Lehua believes that she never measured up to Onia, who she believes is better than her in all the ways. Where Onia seems to appear like a high-achiever, more driven and outgoing, Lehua is more withdrawn, introverted and works in mortuary surrounded by death. That alone plays adjacent to the supernatural aspects of the story and adds on another layer to the Hawaiian historical horror. Their relationship was equivalent to the larger themes of connection.

We loved the mystery surround the island and the relationship between the people and the 'āina. I've personally never been to Hawai'i but it's a place that is high on my travel list.



Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Children’s Books and the author, Keala Kendall for the early eARC!

Publication date: May 26, 2026

[Nenia Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

THAT WHICH FEEDS US is a gothic horror novel set in Hawaii that reads like a cross between Mexican Gothic and White Lotus. It's also an older YA that sits in that niche between high school and college, which is a seriously underserved age demographic and is so awesome to see!

Lehua is a mortuary assistant, and the serious, grounded twin. Her sister, Ohia, is the flighty, sensitive one, who has just run off to work at a hotel for rich people in Hawaii. When she goes missing, Lehua takes off from work to track her down, and immediately, the vibe is off. She's told that technology isn't allowed on Kopa'a, that ti leaves mark off which paths are "safe." Guests aren't allowed to intermingle with staff and nobody is supposed to go outside after dark. For their own safety, of course.

This book is drenched in Native Hawaiian folklore and blends ghosts and chilling scares with anti-colonialist rhetoric and Hawaiian history. Like a lot of gothics, THAT WHICH FEEDS US is slow-burn, which is a feature of the genre and not a flaw in the story-telling (a note for people who are new for the genre and might just assume gothic is synonymous with horror). Lehua is also bisexual and talks about her attraction to multiple genders on page, including her attraction to one of the staff, another Native girl named Melia.

Once this story got rolling into scary territory, I couldn't put it down. The ending was bittersweet and a little sad, but ultimately satisfactory. Native/Indigenous horror is seriously having a moment right now and I'm so glad, because the books are amazing and they provide such an addictive and entertaining outlet that also educates on some darker moments of imperialist history. Definitely add this to your list.

4 stars

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title/Author: That Which Feeds Us Keala Kendall

Format Read: eBook/Audio/Physical

Pub date: May 5th, 2026

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Page Count: 341 pages

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/979821711...

Recommended for readers who enjoy:

-Haunted house/creepy resort

-Pacific Islander Indigenous stories/folklore, cultural identities,

-Missing Women/Twin sisters/Searching for a sibling

-Colonialism, Psychic trauma

-Rich people/Classism

-Wellness retreats

__

Minor complaints:

-The story does creepy along slowly and meanders in some languishing sapphic desire/yearning and relational drama

-I don't feel like anything new was brought to the table, Kendall played with some very familiar Gothic/Thriller-Mystery tropes but she did do it will. I enjoyed the prose and storytelling style

Final recommendation: If you are a horror reader looking to fill your dance card with horror stories from all over the word, you will be excited to learn this book is about, "A native Hawaiian teen travels to a luxury island resort in search of her missing twin and uncovers the dark side of paradise, in this YA supernatural thriller."

Much like, House of Margins, Bad Cree, and She is a Haunting-Kendall exposes systemic racism, classism, and the horrors of colonialism through the lens of a supernatural thriller dealing with the traumatic loss of the loss of a sibling. Psychic Trauma generally fuels the more "horror" elements in the story, with vivid nightmares and haunting visions while the thriller aspects keep the pages turning--the reader always wondering if the next chapter will bring us closer to the answers.

Sometimes YA books let the pace get bogged down with too much set up and relational drama (and this book is no exception) but I do feel like Kendall has solid writing chops and managed to make those scenes progress the story with a little more intimacy (Like Honeysuckle and Bone!) This was a success for me but I would caution that if YA horror vibes generally rubs you the wrong way, this one does follow the basic formulas.




Comps: House of Margins by Tlotlo Tsamaase, Honeysuckle and Bone by Trish Tobias, She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran, Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

[megs_bookrack · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

That Which Feeds US is a Gothic Hawaiian YA Horror story that follows a young woman, Lehua, searching for her missing twin sister, Ohia.

Lehua and Ohia, like many other native Hawaiians, are part of the Hawaiian diaspora, meaning they no longer live in their ancestral homelands. Lehua and Ohia were moved to Arizona by their Mom, and spent a good part of their childhoods living there with their grandparents.

Meanwhile, back in Hawaii, the home of generations of their family, luxury resort locations abound, providing dream vacations for the world's wealthiest citizens.



Kōpaʻa Island Resort is just one of those exclusive destinations, and Lehua discovers it's also Ohia's last known location. She ends up following her sister's trail there. The luxury wellness retreat is known for its persimmon orchard and promises of rejuvenation.

There's no wifi, and no cell service. Visitors are completely cut off from the rest of civilization. While the rich and famous may find this refreshing, Lehua finds it unsettling and stifling. Nevertheless, she has to see it out. She needs to find Ohia and this could be her only chance.



As Lehua investigates, she learns more than she ever expected about the former plantation's dark past, as well as the history of the people that lived there. Through haunting visions and mysterious warnings, Lehua fights to find the one she loves, but will she be successful, or end up swallowed up like so many others before her?

This is an important story, and it's equally a very good story. This is representation that we don't see a lot of, or at least I haven't come across a lot of it, particularly in the YA Horror, or Thriller/Dark Fiction space.

I feel like I first heard the term, 'priced out of paradise', when Iam Tongi, a Hawaiian singer, who was a contestant on American Idol, mentioned it when explaining to the judges why he and his family no longer lived in his native state. This novel does an amazing job of exploring that very real life concern of many native Hawaiians.



I love Iam Tongi, and I'm so grateful that he won. I hope he's been able to fulfill his dream of moving his family back to Hawaii, but not a lot of people are going to blessed enough to come into the kind of success he has in order to move back with costs the way they are currently.

In this story, Lehua and Ohia are orphaned by the time they're teens. They come up in a system that has no connection to their cultural heritage. Ohia, in an effort to reconnect with their past, finds a spot working in this resort that's essentially exploiting the lands of her ancestors. That was her only choice, she felt.

I liked how Kendall framed this story as Lehua's hunt for Ohia. I think that set up really well a situation where Lehua could travel to this place and really dig into all aspects of it in order to find clues of Ohia's fate. With this, it was an easy jump for Kendall to incorporate the real life horrors of the colonial past of the island, and the true ramifications it had on generations to come.



For me, that was the aspect I most appreciated about this novel. The exploration of those topics and the way that Lehua was able to come face to face with those realities via her investigation.

The weaker points for me were the pacing and the descriptions of the horror bits. I found the plot to be a bit meandering and I would have liked Kendall to lean even more into the botanical side of the horror elements, or as an alternative, more into a sense of place for the resort.

The horror at the resort, or the unsettling aspects of the resort, seemed to be the people. It wasn't as much for me the atmosphere that was making it disturbing. I would have liked even more exploration of things that Lehua was feeling, smelling, sensing just around the place in general.



However, this has excellent bones and I think for Young Readers, the audience for which it is intended, this could be an incredible introduction to Supernatural Thrillers.

I also think there should be a copy of this in every high school library in the country for teens to have access to this type of critical representation.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Random House Books for Young Readers, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm definitely planning to read more from Keala Kendall and I hope she keeps on this same track. I'm sure we're going to have a long and beautiful relationship.

[C Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had my stomach turning sideways, right side up, and inside out from how good it was

[HorsesDogsAndBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, this isn’t YA. The characters are in college, and one has a career in a mortuary. Just because it’s not extreme horror doesn’t make it YA. This mis categorization confused me for the duration of the book.

Now. I loved the themes in this book, and I really enjoyed the cloying claustrophobia the author created. The Hawaiian lore was fascinating. But something was majorly missing for me. The tone was so distant and detached, which didn’t feel right for such an emotional character and warred with the closeness of the island. I wanted intimacy with the character and it didn’t deliver.

The Big Reveal was great in theory, again I LOVED the author’s idea, but it was done with the same detached voice and that made it feel lacklustre and disappointing. I never got the actual feel of dread or fear—just the words saying the character was horrified.

There was a TON of repetition. This book needed another major copy edit pass. Eg the character told us (interiority) her grandfather always knew which direction Hawaii was in. Then she had the same conversation she’d had with us as the reader with her friend via dialogue. Then she quoted the dialogue, and remembered the interiority and the dialogue several other times. It made me feel like the author thinks I’m dumb. Often there would be callback quotes in italics on things from only a page prior.

The rot was a theme, I get that, but it was also repeated ad nauseum. We get it, the island smells like rot. We get it, Ira smells like rot. We get it, the room smells like rot. Oi vey. The editor should have done a search on the word “rot” and then deleted the 900 instances of her describing every room and character as smelling of rot every time she enters it.

Also, the ending confused me. Not literally, I just thought it was absolutely ridiculous to think the twins could suddenly be responsible for the island. If it’s privately owned, and by the filthy rich nonetheless, there are gonna be questions. Money owed. People coming to find out more about the resort. And your ghost protection is gone now ladies. Like, once the funerals are over you run. One of the dead people is world famous, you don’t think there will be questions?

A few other minor things weren’t tied up very well (why was the door to the printing press shack nailed shut? Made a big deal about it and then never followed up. And why was Willa’s hand in a jar?) but they were minor enough to be forgivable.

Overall, the concept was fire but the delivery was not. It needed some work tonally to bring home the creeping dread of isolation, and it needed a MAJOR copy edit. That probably would have shaved 60-70 pages and made this a more enjoyable pace.

Might try this author again but honestly probably not. Trad books don’t seem to support authors much re: editing these days, and unfortunately I don’t think the self-editing quality is good enough for me to read another unless it is shorter.

[✨Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the best I’ve read in a while!!! Cannot wait to get my hardcover and re read when it comes back. Thank you to netgalley and Keala Kendall for letting me have this early ebook. I need to read more Hawaiian gothic tales. The story rocks

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’re in for a serious treat with this book (and you will never look at persimmons the same way again).

This is a horror debut that deftly balances colonial atrocities with their lingering specter in modern day—the exploitation of Hawai’i and its people, the mistreatment of the land, and the people who rewrite history for their own benefit. It’s like White Lotus meets Mexican Gothic, with forays into real and terrifying histories. It’s elegantly written, haunting, and will keep you awake at night long after you’ve finished it.

But in some ways, it’s also fun. From Lehua’s descent into the dark underbelly of an idyllic resort and the ugly secrets its guests conceal, to unsettling encounters with what might be supernatural, it’s a book that hit the perfect amount of creepy for me.

Put everything Keala writes on your TBR forever. I’m early awaiting her next Hawaiian haunting!

[Steph (starrysteph) · Rating 4 out of 5]

That Which Feeds Us is a darkly mesmerizing story of sisterhood, Hawaiian culture, the costs of violence towards the land, and insidious never-ending ripples of colonization. I was drawn into this mysterious isolated island and the dark energy of its wealthy wellness resort - and ready to fight alongside our narrator to save her sister and reclaim a bit of the traditions that were ripped from her.

Lehua has always felt like her twin sister’s shadow, but she’s finally starting to find her own footing after she left college and began working in a mortuary. Except after Ohia goes radio silent after their latest fight, she knows something’s deeply wrong.

She follows Ohia’s last footsteps back to Hawaii, a homeland she’s never actually seen. Lehua discovers that Ohia took a gig at Kōpaʻa Island Resort, a wellness location for the elite situated on a former plantation island completely cut off from the rest of the world.

As Lehua investigates, she finds more and more darkness underneath Kōpaʻa’s glamorous treatment. Alongside her new friend (and maybe more?) Melia, she has to unpack the island’s sinister past, the visions of workers warning her away, and her constant nightmares.

Lehua is a very easy main character to root for - and as tough as her journey becomes, she never considers giving up on her sister. She’s also dealing with a lot of insecurity and shame around not knowing much about her culture. Her grandparents told them stories as kids, but after they died and the twins were put in the foster system, they became much more disconnected. Lehua feels that displacement and that grief for her grandparents and her home, and we also see how colonization impacts generation after generation. She has to learn how to ground herself and understand her past in order to figure out what she wants for her life as an adult.

The supporting characters did fall a little more flat for me, and I would have loved some more answers about everyone else’s history by the end. But I was very grounded with Lehua’s perspective, and that carried me through.

There’s so many different types of horror at play here: the tourism industry and the displacement it involves (plus the glittery facade of “paradise” over the horrors and exploitation of native people, land, and culture), the arrogance of the white and wealthy that only they know what is best for the land and people, and greed overall, shown through always-consuming rich people that will never be satisfied and will never let nature be.

The atmosphere and sensorial terror were SO good, too. The way the rotten persimmons were described was so evocative that I could feel the putrid fumes choking my own throat. I was ready for some ti leaf protection of my own against the forlorn spirits, hauntingly deserted houses, and razed land. I was fully immersed whenever we got a new eerie description.

There was some clumsiness around the exposition and parts felt a little repetitive - I think this was intentional for emotional impact at certain moments, but it got to be a bit much and dragged down the pacing when we needed to be ramping up. I would have preferred an edit that took out some of the stories we hear several times over and expanded on the supporting character development, the moments of terror, and some more resolution/answers unveiled by the end, but that’s a small critique.

If you like unsettling stories that rip apart the bloody trails of colonization, threads of mythology, and characters who never give up on family, definitely pick this one up.

CW: murder, death, body horror, gore, colonization, racism, classism, violence, genocide, grief, sexual harassment, fire, cultural appropriation, religious bigotry, hate crime, cannibalism, gun violence, drugging, animal death, vomit

Follow me on social media for book recommendations!

(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

[Zana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Very Mexican Gothic meets Get Out. The Gothic vibes were definitely vibing.

Pretty slow at times and I almost zoned out before the climax. But the ending was very moving and made it worth reading.

For YA readers, this would be a great intro to horror with racism and colonialism/imperialism/neocolonialism as major themes.

[mads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super solid YA horror.

This was grotesque and poignant, atmospheric and haunting. It's predictable, but since the horror elements are more allegorical and poetic in nature, that never takes away from the reading experience. The best way I would describe it is the sinking feeling before you see something. Even if you know what you're about to see, that doesn't stop the discomfort.

If you're looking for a book that's creepy and trippy and also really important, then please pick this up. That Which Feeds Us delivers.

[Mylynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

before I get into my review, I just want to say that I when I got this book in the mail I was a little emotional to hold an arc of a book from an islander. it’s so rare to see islander stories traditionally published and it just feels so special to have a copy. (a note: i’m not Native Hawaiian, but I am CHamoru and while these islands are not close to eachother and the culture is not the same, i see some of Guam in this book— in the talks of colonization and land being taken and disrespected, in the mythology, in the respect for the land).

okay a review!!

where to start??? 1) this book is CREEPY AF. and just when I thought we were at peak creepy Keala Kendall amped it up (to my dismay/horror/delight). in this story we follow Lehua, a Native Hawaiian, as she returns to her homeland to search for her missing twin sister, Ohia. oh man, i loved unraveling the mysteries of this island and also the suspense of WILL WE FIND OHIA??? and WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE??? and also: WHY ARE WHITE PEOPLE SO FUCKING WEIRD???

ALSO!! LEHUA!!! I loved following her and hearing her thoughts. she was so easy to root for and I loved how smart and determined she was. also, her feelings of disconnect from her culture felt so relatable 🥺😭.

the writing! was! so! lush! i really got a feel for the resort and the island and also it was lush in really creepy ways (like the smells?? why am i smelling rotten fruit as i read?? help!!!) (also why does it feel kinda humid and sweaty in here?? just me?) but it all added to the unsettling ambiance that immersed me in this book.

something that really stood out to me was the way that some guests of the island look at islanders and don’t see them as equals. instead of viewing them as the rightful custodians of the land, they see them as workers, savages, and/or an experienced to be had. it’s so gross, but also felt so real.

tl;dr— such a fun (???), beautifully written, unsettling read that i thoroughly enjoyed and highly rec!!

thank you to Get Underlined for the ARC!

[Azanta (azantareads) · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

4.25 // horrifying, sinister, and so so eye-opening

[brewdy_reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you @prhaudio for the free audiobook ♡

🍅 I may never look at persimmons the same way. The rot and stench coming off this “wellness resort” is still with me. 

A very unsettling vibe. This island is both alive and haunted.

19-year-old Lehua is a mortician and college dropout. When her twin sister goes missing on an island near Maui, Lehua has a gut instinct that something is very wrong in paradise.

And that is where the everything goes south. Arriving to the island, Lehua is met with creepy personas, supernatural phenomena, and sugarcane plantation nightmares.

All the characters were giving major ick factor, but no one will admit to knowing anything about Ohia’s disappearance. I truly thought some of these people might be vampires. 

The most compelling part of this book was a bitingly sharp commentary on the exploitation and profiting off blood, sweat, labor, and pillaging and systemic erasure of indigenous cultures, languages, people.

I was influenced to read this by @literallymoody when I was craving YA gothic horror. Thank you friend! 🫶🏽

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||။‌‌‌‌‌|• 🎧 Although I primarily read this on my e-reader, I previewed the audiobook for help with pronunciation of the native Hawaiian names, places, and phrases 🌺

[Temi (temisreads) 🧸 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this so much more than I did, but it needed a lot more editing.

I get where it was going and what it was trying to say and I LOVED the idea, but it really needed some serious pruning.

[Caitlin · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

It’s a 4.5!!! I was really excited for this to come out and I read the whole thing in one evening.

I loved the Hawaiian folklore, it’s something I’ve had hardly any awareness of. I was also horrified but not shocked to learn just a snippet of the terrible post colonisation history of the country and the current gentrification to the extent that natives are increasingly forced to leave Hawai`i. It’s definitely given me a new perspective and the inspiration and awareness to go and learn more.

I loved the unfolding of the story, it’s not that it was completely unpredictable because it followed classic gothic horror tropes but that didn’t make me enjoy it any less.

It’s yet another book that followed twin sisters but this time it felt like an accurate unique dynamic for twins, with the insecurity that comes from direct comparison with a sibling doing life at exactly the same time as you and the pressure to stay together vs be independent. As a twin the storyline immediately resonated with me but for other readers it felt like the story could have done more to illustrate the depth of relationship between the sisters before their rift at the beginning of the book idk!!!

Shall never look at persimmons the same way ever again. Highly recommend!! Easy to read, conjoured up such beautiful gothic horror imagery with a pacific twist and again I feel inspired to draw what I have seen in my head x

[CJ · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Finalist for the 2026 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

A well-paced gothic horror thriller that gives us a look at the underrepresented perspective of Native Hawaiians/Hawaiian diaspora and offers the reader a haunting, memorable examination of the impact of colonialism. More suspenseful horror than scary, with decent queer rep on the side. While on the older end of the YA genre, if this can be considered YA at all, I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

[Michaela McNairy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The overall concept is really clever but the execution is lacking. The setup of the sisters' relationship and the inciting incident is super rushed but then the rest of the novel is extremely drawn out without as much depth or suspense as is needed. There's a lot of exposition plopped in as a way to give the reader background information on the colonial history (and present) of Hawaii. The characters in general felt flat. Really, I ended up thinking that it would make a pretty decent movie but the writing itself was mediocre.

[ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

i need to gather my thoughts.. 🤯 rtc?

seriously such vivid prose i was fully immersed.

[KMart Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moody, slow, and deeply unsettling in exactly the way good gothic horror should be. A native Hawaiian teen stranded on a luxury wellness resort island searching for her missing twin sister, slowly uncovering the dark history buried beneath all that carefully cultivated paradise. This one has a lot to say and says it beautifully with horror.

Hawaii exists in so many people's imaginations as beaches and sunshine and escape. This book takes that image apart piece by piece and replaces it with something far more painful, complicated, and REAL. The exploitation of Hawaii and its people, the displacement of those who lived there long before it became someone else's paradise, the way history gets quietly rewritten to serve those with money... It's all here, woven through the horror in a way that feels deeply personal and hopefully eye-opening. I am aware of the dark side of tourism, but hearing it this way, through this story, still landed hard.

The horror itself is genuinely creepy and the atmosphere is claustrophobic and suffocating as gothic stories tend to be. The resort's glossy surface, the uncanny and unsettling elements that make the hairs on the back of your neck rise as warnings start going off, and the ugly rot underneath it make for such an effective setting.

The audiobook narrator is excellent and builds the horror elements perfectly.

TW: MAJOR SPOILER sapphic romance ends in the death of one of them, which may bother some readers very much. but I do not think it's cliched and I thought it was very well done and bittersweet by the end.

[Amanda Hazlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Viktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

That Which Feeds Us is a masterclass in survival, colonial, and eco horror that follows a teen twin, Lehua, as she searches for her sister Ohia after disappearing from a job she took in their native Hawaiian homeland. The resort Lehua investigates is populated by rich White people who find new and increasingly disturbing ways to feed off the land and people they’re occupying… to the detriment of everyone. This text is heavy on indigenous people and stories, and is an incredibly rich story because of it. The loss, justice, and sense of "home' are all key aspects that are explored and I thought this book did a phenomenal job tackling all those items in a way that can resonate with ALL readers. I stayed up late to finish this in one sitting - the horrors and character complexities rival most adult horror I read, so I think fans of Andrew Joseph White and Ryan LaSala would enjoy this work by Keala Kendall.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is gothic horror and is about "A native Hawaiian teen that travels to a luxury island resort in search of her missing twin and uncovers the dark side of paradise. This is a YA supernatural thriller so just go in knowing that and you'll be okay. This book is saturated in Native Hawaiian folklore and blends ghosts and chilling scares with anti-colonialist rhetoric and Hawaiian history. Like a lot of gothics, Kendall exposes systemic racism, classism, and the horrors of colonialism through the lens of a supernatural thriller dealing with the traumatic loss of the loss of a sibling. Psychic trauma fuels the overall "horror" elements in the story, with vivid nightmares and haunting visions while the thriller aspects keep the pages turning--the reader always wondering if the next chapter will bring us closer to the answers. I feel as though Kendall could have spent more time on the scary horror aspect but overall enjoyed the book and its dive into native/indigenous horror. The book is amazing and love that this book is for many readers who are LGBTQ or indigenous.

[Trianna/Treereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The audiobook narrator was excellent!! The narrator did a great job building the tension and the stakes thoughout the book.

This book made me realize that I am perhaps a bit more okay with horror elements than I thought because while it is definately horror I wasn't scared which was a win. It did help that it was YA, but I still thought I wouldn't be able to get into the story, but I enjoyed my time listening.

*thanks to PRH Audio for the gifted copy; all thoughts are my own*

[Jason O'Hagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this so much more than I did, the ending saved it from two stars. I was really bored reading most of it because the mystery was so vague and it didn’t feel like anything started happening until right at the end. (I also am realizing gothic horror is not my thing most of the time)

[samantha ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this SO much. Keala Kendall wove Hawaiian folktales and Indigenous mythology together really into this really beautiful Gothic horror that highlights the history and impacts of colonialism.


I'd also like to say, I've never had a persimmon and now I don't think I'll ever be able to 😂💖

[Margeaux (meg_booklover7) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 ⭐ ️ Dark and atmospheric, That Which Feeds Us by Keala Kendall puts you in a state of constant dread as you enter the island of Kōpa’a, an island where the ‘e‘epa pervades. The novel follows Lehua, a young Hawaiian woman, who searches for her missing twin, Ohia, whose last known location is the ultra exclusive Kōpa’a island. Expecting a buzzing resort full of suntanning tourists, Lehua arrives instead on a deserted island with very minimal presence with only the “planters” and the “workers” are found. Welcomed as a guest by resort management and given a room on the same floor as the resort owner, Lehua soon realizes that not is all what it seems and Kōpa’a might be more sinister than expected. Determined to find her twin, Lehua sets out to uncover the island’s secrets in hopes that it will lead to her sister. But what Lehua discovers is a grotesque secret and history that puts her and her sister at risk.

Thoughtfully crafted, this novel plays around with the uncanny and the abject expertly, building an ominous atmosphere where skepticism and superstition collide. As Lehua searches for her missing twin, she too embarks onto a search for the self as her skepticism is tested by the spirituality of the island and the Hawaiian culture. Full of postcolonial critique, part of the horror in That Which Feeds Us is born out of Hawaii’s traumatic history and current reality. If you love a thought-provoking but ominous, lush but macabre read that will immerse you in Hawaiian history and ghost stories, then you will absolutely love That Which Feed Us, A Hawaiian Gothic.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[mouwwie · Rating 4 out of 5]

real rating 4.25

so so good and i loved the writing style but motherfucker this book is more depressing than i thought it would be. also a lot of infodumping but it's justified so i don't mind