Mahina Rises

Winner of the 2025 Nautilus Award For Small Press Fiction!

From multiple award-winning novelist, John Blossom comes this volcanic tale of hope and magical realism. Thirteen-year-old Mahina Moemoea lives on a ranch in Hawaii and wants more out of life than just feeling the earth's energy in the soil. For Tutu, her grandmother, communing with the garden is enough, but that’s because she doesn’t experience Mahina’s amazing flying dreams. When Tutu tells Mahina that the family’s special powers may have killed her mom and dad, she tries to obey Tutu's strict command to ignore them, until her mom’s spirit entices her on a perilous underground path to fulfill the family's destiny of aloha to humanity.

“To make the extraordinary ordinary, so that the ordinary has a chance to feel extraordinary again." Follow the adventures of Mahina in this magical and inspiring tale as she discovers a living cavern on her property that holds the most uplifting power yet to stop climate change.

A literary novel of generational conflict and hope and a must-read for anyone who believes that love and higher consciousness can overcome fear and greed. Sure to take its place as one of the most poignant young adult novels ever written on the subject of humanity and nature, reading Mahina Rises is like remembering the best dream you've ever had and realizing it's there for you whenever you need it.