Skull Water

by Heniz Insu Fenkl

Set in South Korea in the 1950s and 1970s, a haunting inter-generational coming-of-age novel about identity and displacement. Skull Water is a coming-of-age story set in South Korea about Insu, the son of a Korean mother and a GI father in the U.S. Army, and the intertwined tale of his Korean Big Uncle, who has been exiled to a mountain cave near the family village to die from a gangrenous foot. Growing up near the army base in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Insu and his two best friends, also “half and halfs,” spend their days skipping school, selling scavenged Western goods on the black market, and testing the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. When Insu hears an old legend that water collected from a dead person’s skull will cure any sickness, he vows to collect some in order to heal Big Uncle’s mysterious injury—a quest that takes him and his friends on a sprawling journey into some of South Korea’s darkest corners. Meanwhile, Big Uncle, a geomancer who was uprooted by the Korean War, has embraced his solitude and fate and attempts to teach his nephew that life is not limited to what we can see or what we think we know. As Insu becomes increasingly drawn to his family lore, Korean folktales, and Buddhist spiritual teachings, South Korea itself is changing—rapidly transforming into a more modern Western country. In this sweeping tale of displacement and identity, Skull Water explores questions surrounding family, loyalty, and history, and the ways in which our past continues to haunt our present.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Asia, Coming Of Age, Historical, Adult, Asian Literature

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2023

About the author

Born in South Korea to a German father and a Korean mother, HEINZ INSU FENKL grew up in Korea until he was twelve and then in Germany and the United States. A professor of English at The State University of New York, New Paltz, he is known internationally for his collection of Korean folktales and translations of contemporary Korean fiction and classical Buddhist texts. He is also the author of the novel Memories of My Ghost Brother, a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist and a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection. An excerpt from Skull Water, “Five Arrows,” was first published in the New Yorker. Fenkl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saudade, or the nostalgic longing for something that doesn't exist. It's like a Korean Stand By Me - evoking something at once familiar and resonant but wholly different than my own experience. As a second generation Korean-Canadian am I just tokenizing my own culture? Maybe it's just my version of the Western Cowboy mythos that instead tugs at some idealized Korean sentiment.

How do I explain? Insu is a biracial Korean/German coming of age in a Korean army base during the early 1970's. He's an amalgam of three generations of my family from my folks growing up on the peninsula beneath the shadow of the Korean War, my free-wheeling youth in an age before cell phones and social media, and my own biracial Korean/Dutch-German daughter. It evokes so many of the small towns I visited on my repeated trips to Korea, the funeral mounds in the hills we'd tend to for Chuseok, the lingering presence of the American military, and the barter and grift culture that still pervades. It's a story that tugs at something foreign yet strangely familiar.

Insu is returning to Korea after some time away in the United States which provides a familiar lens from which to view his days spent with his friends around the military base. But in this Korea the black market hustle and hidden club houses comes up against Taoist alchemy, geomancy and transexual shamans. It gets at the unique tensions between the old and new, East and West, Korean Han and American optimism.

Insu is generally large-hearted and sincere, able to navigate the world with adolescent brio. The women here have a different experience and the routes they take through the world carry echos of the Japanese occupation and the continued American presence. Hella Han.

I'm grateful to Spiegel & Grau for reaching out with an advance copy, and so totally nailing what is obviously the white hot centre of my reading wheelhouse.

[Sarah-Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review will be brief. This was a truly interesting read, capturing two points in Korean history that I was aware of, but knew little about. Unfortunately, the occasional passages depicting violence toward animals (not in any specifically Korean context) made it a no-go for me.

[Ben Dutton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intergenerational saga set in South Korea, this novel by Heinz Insu Fenkl has a lot to offer the reader. South Korea I know mostly through its recent cinema, so read something set in that countries past was informative and revealing. It was like stepping into a past that I in-part recognised and in-part was entirely alien to me. This is the power of great literature, to let you live other lives for a few hours. Great stuff.

[Jonathan Hawpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark yet beauty-filled tale combining the brutality of the 1950s Korean civil war with an almost otherworldly 1970s coming-of-age story touched by mystery, nature, folklore, and mixed race heritage. Elegant, complex, strange, and full of deep humanity.

[Dima · Rating 2 out of 5]

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an opportunity to read this book ahead of its publication, in return for an honest review.

I regret to say I had to stop reading after about 20%. I just couldn't go on with it. I realise that for some readers this might make my review seem irrelevant, but I would still like to share my observations and the reasons for stopping.

The book tells the story of a South Korean teenager in the 70s, feeling lost and disconnected from his nation, history, and family, partly due to being born to a Korean mother and a foreign GI, and partly due to the changes occurring in SK at the time. The story takes a turn when the protagonist meets his uncle, who is steeped in traditional folklore.

While I understand and recognise the ambition in this book and what it was trying to achieve, I found the storytelling very problematic, on multiple dimensions. First, the book plunges the reader into the story with no preamble, introduction, or context. I found myself scratching my head at the various characters that appear without introduction, the decisions the boy makes with no rationale, and the relationships that are devoid of a baseline. Second, the form of the novel is more like a series of short stories with weak connecting fragments. It makes the meta narrative, at least for me, super tough to understand. Third, the weaving of folklore into the story is unclear, especially as I don't have any context into South Korean legends and myths. While this might work for someone who knows it, it failed to reel me in. Finally, even after reading quite a bit, I still struggled to understand what the story was about, what the point of me reading it was, and why I should persevere.

So, maybe folks who have context and intuitive understanding might like it. Those like me are likely to prefer Pachinko, The Picture Bride, etc.

[Joy R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is novel is one to savor as the reader Is woven into a tapestry of Korean myth and traditions. Following the journey of Insu, a young Korean born of a US military father and Korean mother in the 1950s, we are drawn into a story that picks up threads of lives that intersect with Insu and his family. For much of the tale, Insu is seeking to help his Big Uncle who suffers from a foot ailment and has been banished to a mountain cave by family members; nevertheless, the telling is much more than simply this, as Fenkl blends reality and dreams, truth and interpretation into an engrossing experience that resolves itself with aplomb. Worth the read.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn’t wait for this book to be done. It was almost a DNF several times but each time I considered it, something mildly compelling happened so I gave it another chance, and then another, and another. But overall, I felt all of the compelling moments rarely had depth or payoffs and the majority of this book read like a dull history book. Many of the central characters had no heart, despite people continually telling the protagonist that he did, and the most interesting characters were few and far between.

[Jonathan Hawpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10 A dark yet beauty-filled tale combining the brutality of the 1950s Korean civil war with an almost otherworldly 1970s coming-of-age story touched by mystery, nature, folklore, and mixed race heritage. Elegant, complex, strange, and full of deep humanity.

[Robert Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll be blunt, a lot of this book bored me to tears. It could have been a fun snapshot into post-war Korea, but the story was so incomprehensible that it felt like a collection of short stories all melded together. The main characters all felt like exactly the same person, and I could barely keep track of them.

That being said, there were a few moments that were very gripping, and I can't say fault the writing itself. I can imagine some people absolutely loving this book, but it just wasn't for me

[Jane Ciabattari]

Skull Water is gritty, mysterious, at times comic, a coming-of-age novel the unveils hidden stories from a time in Korean history that most readers know, if at all, from a narrow perspective. My conversation with author Heinz Insu Fenkl was enlightening. And based on his childhood; he was born in South Korea to a Korean mother and a German father who was a GI in the U.S. Army. He grew up in Korea until age twelve, then in Germany and the U.S.It's an intergenerational book, filled with insights.

[atlas morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

holy shit. that was insane and not what i expected but perfect in its own way. the bittersweetness of the entire thing wrapped in culture and emotion was so beautiful loc and i am so glad i listened to the audiobook to help with pronunciation

[Stephanie (aka WW) · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.75 stars) I wish I had had a little background in Korean spirituality before reading this book. I was a bit lost at times, especially at the beginning and end of the novel. In between these times, though, this was an interesting and beautifully written account of one man’s experiences at the beginning of the Korean War and that of he and his family twenty-five years later. There were sections of beautiful imagery that made the book come alive for me and that I’ll not soon forget. A good chunk of this imagery was related to animal cruelty, however, so I should give a trigger warning. It will not be for all.

The title “skull water” refers to legend that says that water from a dead person’s skull can cure any illness. A Korean teen, Insu, tries to get such skull water to cure his uncle’s gangrenous foot. This uncle has been banished to a mountain cave on an island to die of the disease. He attempts to teach Insu the family lore and Buddhist teachings before he leaves the earth. Overall, I’d probably not recommend this for the casual reader, but anyone interested in Korean myths and traditions will get a lot out of it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Villa Park Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insu is growing up in an ever-changing world, his father an American soldier and his mother a Korean woman, move back to a post-Vietnam era South Korea. This semi-autobiographical coming of age novel, grapples with connections with family, chosen and biological, deals with the dark realities of life, sickness, death, and violence. As Insu enlists his friends on his journey to obtain Skull Water for its healing properties, his connection to his sick Big Uncle is shown through flashbacks to the latter’s Korean War experience.

Check this book out at the Villa Park Public Library!

[Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. It started off slow and I didn't love the ending, but the middle was good.

Trigger warnings for dog fighting and animal abuse.

[DaniPhantom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful coming-of-age story

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heard the author interviewed on NPR and immediately bought the book. I had a tough time staying connected to it.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very close to a 5

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Copy provided by publisher]

(Please be advised that there is a large amount of graphic and unsettling animal cruelty in this book.)

READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Ancestral spiritualism vs. Western beliefs
• Immersive historical fiction
• Childhood bonds

I THOUGHT IT WAS...
A gritty, vivid glimpse into life in South Korea in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Insu and his mother have returned to South Korea due to his U.S. GI father's stationing. Insu's childhood is mostly spent doing whatever him and his buddies find entertaining, enfolded among the community that largely serves military personnel. Over time, Insu realizes that his reality is a lot more complicated than it seemed when he was younger.

This book is hard to summarize because it's not just about one thing, which I believe reflects the autobiographical nature of some of the events in this novel. Many vignettes feel untethered to the larger story, but provide a fascinating look into what childhood looks like in a place intimately tied to the U.S. military. It's clear that Insu's childhood lacks the softness and innocence we normally associate with that period of life. Even the quest he and his friends embark on -- obtaining water from a skull because it's rumored to have curative powers -- feels more dark than heroic.

It's not until later in the book that we encounter a main conflict, one that also ties together the Korean War flashbacks we've gotten from Insu's Big Uncle. Overall, I felt the powerful themes contained in this book were messily tied together. I also felt the animal cruelty presented in the "Dog Market" chapter unnecessarily long and detailed. While the chapter marks a pivotal moment, much of the second half of the chapter can fortunately be skipped and readers will still get the book's full story.

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Had no expectations for or knowledge of this book/author when I started it, and I was so happy to have read it, for many reasons. It is a fascinating coming-of-age story, set in Korea, mostly in the mid-70s. Insu is a “half-and-half,” born of a Korean mother and a German/American GI father. His closest friends, Paulie and Miklos, are of mixed heritage as well. They are coming of age at a time when South Korea is also experiencing similar coming-of-age growth pains.

I can’t begin to summarize the plot, but at its center, Insu is mourning the impending loss of his Big Uncle, who has gone up to a cave on a mountain near his home to live out his remaining days. He is also beginning to understand that his father may be dying as well.

Many sub-plots and stories radiate out from these central plot points, in which we meet black market kingpins, dog fight managers and trainers, a Buddhist monk, several colorful American GIs, and Big Uncle’s long-lost love.

One of the over-arching themes/motifs is about intentionality, and the lack of control we have over the outcomes that our decisions and actions might ultimately cause in our lives and in the lives of others.

A really good read. I will read more by this author.

[Alana]

Thanks to Goodreads giveaway for the Kindle copy of this book.

Not for me.

I really struggled to finish this, as can be seen with how long it took me. There were so many times where I wanted to DNF it, but I plowed on.

This book was too dark and gritty for me. But not in a good way (dark and gritty can be fantastic). For me, there was just way too much detail in every single action. Every moment was hyper-detailed in a way where it felt like the author was just writing a journal for himself.

Also, I just couldn't handle that whole dog fighting scene. But that's totally on me.

Besides the negatives, it was absolutely eye-opening to learn about the American military impact on Korea and post-war impacts as well. That was probably my favorite part. I learned a lot.

[Gary Ellenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really enjoyable. Good characters and a great finale. Interesting themes and dynamic cross cutting between the Korean War and 70’s post war Korea. Drops and drabs of magical realism dress this book up with its charms and style, but the humanism and honesty in the main characters is what makes this book special.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had a fantastic sense of time and place, and a few really harrowing scenes that will stick with me (the train, the dog fight). But overall I found it disjointed and sort of meandering all over the place. The narrator seemed to drift passively from scene to scene and the scenes never really came together as a whole.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of survival in the guise of a coming-of-age novel. I was interested in the novel after reading a fascinating essay the author wrote in Lithub about how the author used the I-Ching as a writing guide. In the novel, one of the characters, called Big Uncle, makes frequent use of the divination practices of the I Ching.

In Fenkl’s novel, Big Uncle does not perform the divination with yarrow sticks to write out the hexagrams, but instead using the black and white pebbles from the game of Go. He draws them to produce the random result, which he then writes down in the ideograph traditionally used to represent the hexagram.

In his essay Lithub, he talks about using the I Ching as a Writing Guide, explaining that not only did his character Big Uncle make use of the I Ching, but the author did as well as part of his process like this:

"I tend to think of good novels not so much as texts but as places one can enter in one’s imagination, and because my Big Uncle was a geomancer, I approached my own novel as a kind of literary landscape. As I consulted the oracle, I asked for auspicious “landmarks” in the form of the pictograms, and the ones I received functioned as guideposts or, sometimes, almost like billboards. Initially, I would frame a question like “What should I write today to resolve the theme of returning in the rest of this chapter?” But as I became more familiar with the process and the results, my questions became simple requests like “Give me a pictogram for this passage."

This struck me as being similar to how Philip K. Dick created the Man in the High Castle. During the late 1950s, the I-Ching was studied and adored by artists and many writers of the time played around with it in their work. From John Cage in his music to Allen Ginsberg in his poetry, artists attempted to unlock their subconscious mind using it. In Europe, Herman Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game was modelled partly on the Chinese oracle.

Famously, Dick’s characters in the novel often make use of the I-Ching. Dick described how every time one of the characters would consult the I-Ching, he would likewise do so and that the random outcomes of this practice directed the writing of the novel, including its often-discussed ending.

And yet in later years, Dick was dismayed that the book had hijacked his mind. In 1976 he wrote this in an interview with Science Fiction Magazine:

"And then, just about the time that it’s gotten your, you know, your credulity in there—you’re willing to trust it—just about the time you’ve given it your faith and trust, it will zap you with the most malevolent, wrong information. In other words, it sets you up. It really does, it really sets you up. I regard the I Ching as a malicious spirit. As actually spirit, an animation. I think it is an evil book, and I no longer use it. And I don’t recommend that people— I certainly do not recommend that people make important decisions on the basis of it. The more important the decision, the more it tends to hand you an answer which brings tragedy into your life. And I say that as, after using it for years and using it quite extensively. It is a liar. It speaks with forked tongue."

Anyway, Fenkl is a great writer. I am not a huge fan of coming of age stories or of young teenage protagonists--and so I am sure I would have preferred this novel with an adult protagonist or maybe as a memoir, where the narrator could reflect on the teenage experiences with more nuance and wisdom. The teenage boy conversations were a bit boring--but in the couple of chapters with his uncle as the protagonist I found myself much more engaged. With the youth as protagonist so much was left without context so felt random. Also, in the plotting, threads (like his cousin that committed suicide) strangely were just dropped.

[Shey Saints · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary

Skull Water is a fusion of autobiography, coming-of-age fiction, myth, and adventure by Heinz Insu Fenkl. Set in the 1970s in South Korea, Insu is born to a Korean mother and a German father who’s a sergeant in the U.S. Army. At 14 years old, he skips school, sells scavenged Western goods on the black market, and watches Hollywood movies. Though he’s a bit of a rebellious teenager, he has close family ties and is deeply concerned about his mother’s ailing brother. When he hears a legend that water collected from a human skull will cure any sickness, he goes on a skull water quest with his friends to help his Big Uncle.

Review

All thanks to Gong Yoo of Train to Busan, the first Korean movie that I watched and became my favorite zombie movie of all time, I have been hooked on Korean movies and series ever since. I watched all of Gong Yoo’s movies and TV shows and when I’ve exhausted all of them, I watched other Korean dramas. This is how I got accustomed with the Korean culture in 2016. Then without warning, BTS stepped into my life in 2019 when I was searching for ways to die. Their music healed my broken soul, and this made me love Korean entertainment even more. Not long, I was watching more Korean dramas and listening to Korean songs more than anything else, and last year I’ve started reading English-translated Korean bestselling novels.

Then, there’s Skull Water. It’s a book that brings nostalgia to me because it’s rich in Korean culture, folklore, superstitions, and history. I was pulled into this mesmerizing fusion of different genres that is largely autobiographical, making it more interesting than it already is. I wouldn’t say this book is impeccable. I did find a couple of things I didn’t like but that didn’t impact the overall reading experience, so I’m giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. A lot of readers find flaws in books and let that influence their judgment. If a book gave me knowledge, I would give it five. If a book gave me wisdom, I would give it five. If a book evoked emotions and allowed me to escape from reality, I would definitely give it a five. This book did all these things, so I hope that more people will see the beauty in it. I recommend this book to readers who are up for a unique autobiographical novel that will feed their mind and soul.

[riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded to 3.

Skull Water is set in South Korea closely after the Vietnam War. It is split between two narratives, which coalesce and eventually dissolve into one. We follow Insu, a young boy growing up on a U.S. military base, and Big Uncle, Insu’s uncle who survived the war by escaping on his own. The story is a mixture of historical fiction, coming-of-age, and what I would personally identify as magical realism, although I suppose it could also be characterized as spiritual fiction.

I picked up this book because I was intrigued by the autobiographical elements - the author and the main character share many similarities, including their names - and the setting in South Korea.
However, I found many aspects of the books to be overly dramatized in such a way as to obscure the historical weight of the novel and the value of the characters. I felt this mostly in the portrayal of the character Patsy, the one woman who we are given real insight into (all of the other women in the story hang on the periphery of the novel, and are mostly reliant on their sons to help them with black marketeering and debt relief). Patsy is essentially a manic pixie dream girl whose obsession with "Breakfast at Tiffany's" causes her to *become* the character of Audrey Hepburn. Because she is sexually active and drinks alcohol and smokes cigarettes, she's treated like a "wild" girl.

Also, the lack of information about Insu's mother struck me as strange. For a boy who has such intense attachments to his family, it was difficult not to notice that almost zero detail was given about his mother. Rather, Insu fixates on his friend's mother, and even goes so far as to put his life in danger to pay off her debts so that she can go "find her son." It felt like the author was scared to write women and so he skipped over them - or just forgot.

Though the prose itself was highly readable, I found the story lengthy and disorganized. There were too many characters for me to form deep attachments to them, and the events of the book seemed disjointed and oddly constructed. I felt that the story lost focus about halfway through.

I think this novel would’ve performed better as a short story if it focused on the titular event of the book (the retrieving of the skull water). However, even this fell slightly flat for me.

[Diana (Reading While Mommying) Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a tough novel to review. As much as I appreciated with two "voices," Insu and Big Uncle, and their stories --filled with historical and Korean folklore information--I couldn't get past the disjointed flow of the story. A lack of a strong thread throughout (aside from the skull water search) kept this novel from being a 4/5 star read for me.

Insu (a character based on the author) is a 14-year-old, mixed-race boy. His mom is a South Korean woman and his Dad is a German soldier. It's the mid 1970s and he's back in Korea after being in Germany while his dad was stationed there. Insu spends his time getting into trouble and engaging in different activities--skipping school to hang with his friends, selling goods on the black market, visiting his Big Uncle (who's shunned to the woods due to an infected foot), and, eventually, searching for the elusive "skull" with the water that will cure his uncle's ailment. The hopping from here to there is funny and compelling, at times, but overall it just seemed disconnected to the main theme. Although maybe that IS the theme. Disconnection with the real, war-torn world. The choppy cadence of the story kept me from appreciating the narrative and Insu's growth.

I enjoyed Big Uncle's remembrances. His chapters, set in the 1950s during the Korean War, seem to have more depth and emotional resonance for me than Insu's. My favorite moment of the novel was Insu's time with Big Uncle. Although Insu seemed to grow a bit through his experiences, his overall melancholic personality didn't lend itself to the creation of a strong character.

Overall, I just couldn't stay invested in this story.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story can be described as a coming of age story of a young boy in 1970’s South Korea. The author of this book draws on his experiences growing up in Korea during this time. I will admit this book was hard for me to read as it describes many events that took place during the turbulent times in Korea. There are some chapters from the perspective of the main characters uncle who lived through the Korean War. The author does not shy away from revealing the atrocities of war. There were also some graphic depictions of animal cruelty. These subject matters made it hard for me to read the book in a short amount of time. That being said, it takes a lot for a book to impact me as emotionally as this book did. This book outlines how the families lives were impacted by the presence of war in their lifetimes. The main character wants to help his family members who are haunted by the war but he does not know how.

As someone who grew up with grandparents who experienced the horrors World War Two in the Netherlands, I believe that generational trauma is a real thing. By including multiple generations in this book, the reader was able to see how each person was impacted by the war. I really appreciated the author creating a story from his life experiences and bringing awareness to the events that happened during the Korean War as well.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reading copy.

[Bridget Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m attempting to read a book from each content this month. Translated works ideal, but not necessary. As long as the author and the story are from the continent, it counts. Next month I’ll do a little more research on the author’s background to be sure, but going with the flow for now.

My first pick from the Asian continent is Skull Water, which is a dual POV story following a group of friends growing up on an army base in South Korea and the old man they’re trying to help by exhuming a body and stealing its head for the “skull water”, which is said to have healing properties.

What I liked:
- Any book that takes people on a journey through the underground of anything (metaphorically or actually) is my catnip. This book does a good job.
- It gave me a glimpse into the lives of Korean people growing up during and after the war, and the effects of having the army base in their back yard. So I learned a lot of new things!

What I didn’t like:
- The book has a huge cast of characters which was sometimes hard to follow.
- I found myself drifting off at times so it didn’t always grab my attention.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story can be described as a coming of age story of a young boy in 1970’s South Korea. The author of this book draws on his experiences growing up in Korea during this time. I will admit this book was hard for me to read as it describes many events that took place during the turbulent times in Korea. There are some chapters from the perspective of the main characters uncle who lived through the Korean War. The author does not shy away from revealing the atrocities of war. There were also some graphic depictions of animal cruelty. These subject matters made it hard for me to read the book in a short amount of time. That being said, it takes a lot for a book to impact me as emotionally as this book did. This books outlines how the families lives were impacted by the presence of war in their lifetimes. The main character wants to help his family members who are haunted by the war but he does not know how.

As someone who grew up with grandparents who grew up in the Netherlands and who experienced the horrors of World War Two, I believe that generational trauma is a real thing. By including multiple generations in this book, the reader was able to see how each person was impacted by the war. I really appreciated the author creating a story from his life experiences and bringing awareness to the events that happened during the Korean War as well.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reading copy.

[Shana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skull Water wasn't an easy read for me. The mythical and spiritual elements confused me, and the time period and setting were deeply unfamiliar to me. That is precisely what drew me in and kept me reading. Heinz Insu Fenkl brought a time and place to life in vivid, and even grotesque, ways. He truly placed me in that setting and I assume it was the closeness to his own life experience that made it possible for him to narrate this story in such a vivid way. I far preferred this to any Holden Caulfield-esque coming of age story. Contrasted against Insu's own growth is the story of his Big Uncle who awaits death from an old injury from within an island cave. With most books, I can see the connections or understand the intentions of the author fairly early on. In this case, I was able to suspend that need to predict and appreciate how Fenkl tied together some of the loose ends.