The Hurricane

Hurricane is about a boy growing up and experiencing adolescence, that most ungainly of stages, during a time where everything is digitally connected, displayed and disseminated by your peers (and seemingly the world) online.The beginning of Hurricane was uncomfortable for me to read. It had me thinking back to my teenaged years and those crazy, awkward feelings that come with trying to figure out who you are and where you fit into the world around you.In some ways, it's easier if you just subscribe to whatever genre or clique you want to hang out with. However, if none of those quite fit (as was the case for me) then you find yourself sort of wandering between groups and feeling on the outside of all of them. If you're lucky, you'll have at least one or two friends to help you navigate the dangerous channels. However, it's a tenuous and precarious situation with plenty of hidden rocks lying beneath the surface. There are more than enough moments that can leave you feeling lost and alone.As someone who is a bit older, I went through this period of my life with nothing more instant than a disposable camera to mark my passing. We didn't have cell phones with cameras that could automatically upload to Facebook. We didn't have webcams and texting or sites like Chatroulette. I graduated in 1995. We were just starting to understand what a website was and all that the internet could do. (<--Seriously, check out this link. It's pretty amazing how accurate their predictions are!)So, imagine what it is like for kids these days where their most awkward and embarrassing moments can be captured and displayed in an instant, and live on forever in perpetuity. That's one challenge I absolutely do not envy this generation. The problem is compounded by the fact that a lot of kids are still developing their moral compass and sense of empathy. It's all too easy to put a kid who doesn't quite fit in down in front of everybody else. Poor Daniel is just such a kid and there is one scene in particular towards the beginning of the book that I cringe just thinking about.As if life wasn't being difficult enough for Daniel, he finds he's living right in the path of the next big hurricane. All of a sudden, the nature around him starts to reflect his inner struggles and turmoil. It's a funny thing about Mother Nature. She's so mighty that you can't help but be in awe of her. She has a way of making your everyday problems feel small and insignificant. She demands perspective, and sometimes a fresh start; which happens to be exactly what Daniel needs.Daniel and his family are cut off from the outside world in the aftermath of the hurricane. As they emerge from their bathroom, they discover a place that has been leveled. There's no power, the roof on their house has been damaged and the neighborhood looks like a bomb went off.In the following days, Daniel helps to right the destruction around him. He meets his neighbors, helps fix the house, and works to heal wounded family relations. He begins to see that his contributions have value. That he has family that loves him and there is a place where he belongs.This is a coming of age book about a boy struggling to figure out where he fits in and define his own purpose. He learns that he can make a difference and be empowered to contribute to his family and society. Not the amorphous society of the internet, but the real and tangible community around him.This is also a book about how all the technology in the world can't connect us if we don't have our own sense of humanity. How many friends you have on Facebook, how many followers you have on your blog, what your Klout score is...it all doesn't matter if you can't see what's important right in front of you.Hugh Howey does a remarkable job creating a metaphor between technology, the feeling of being connected without ever knowing our neighbor, a teenager's stormy coming of age and the actual nature and aftermath of a hurricane.His prose and quality of writing is, as always, a beautiful illustration of how lovely our language can be. Just to give you an example, one phrase in particular stood out to me. When describing Daniel's sister texting at the breakfast table, he wrote, "Her thumbs were like feet on a duck, paddling madly while the rest of her hovered serenely above."This isn't a book you read for it's action and adventure. In fact, the pace is rather sedate and calm, which may be surprising given the book's title. This book unfurls like the first green shoot rising up from the ashes of a destructive fire. It is the hope and growth that slowly comes to replace the ravages of a storm. It is the way a boy finds his center and sense of purpose and, in doing so, takes his first steps into the role of becoming a man.

I am an enormous fan of Hugh Howey's work and while this book wasn't anything like the Wool Omnibus (will there ever be?) it was an inside look at the mind of a high school "outcast" amidst multiple storms of various incarnations. The characters were likable and well-rounded, lacking nothing, no ends were left loose. My brain appreciated that even though the book provoked thought past the storm(s) and what a careless reader could misinterpret as superficial feelings of the characters, it was also a much easier read than his previous novels and I was able to read it with less gray-matter-grinding attention. I would NOT put it in "beach book" category though. That's just blasphemy. It was an excellent book but I couldn't give it the total 5 stars because that's "Wool" territory.I suspect from Howey's references to "being in Charlotte during Hugo" several times throughout the book indicates he was experiencing roughly the same thing I was during that storm, having (according to wiki and various sources) grown up just down the road from me. He brought back vivid images, smells, sounds and emotions I haven't felt since that night in 8th grade, the night Hugo blew through Charlotte, leveling trees and tearing up everything in it's path, leaving us without power for over a week. No one thought such a thing was possible. He helped me relive a very interesting and poignant week of my childhood, and for that I'm grateful, sitting in my air conditioning, to be sure. In the future, when I am trying to explain this experience to my kids and they give me the blank face, I'll just hand them the kindle and say "Hey!! The guy that wrote "Wool" and "Sand," wrote about a hurricane similar to Hugo, and talks about living in Charlotte when Hugo came through. Read this!" My 7-year-old already wants to read both "Wool" and "Sand," so I'm sure he'd gobble it up. I think "Sand," would have to be a read-aloud though, so I could filter out the "bad words," HA! Can't remember "Wool" being too objectionable for the younger crowd and I plan to use it in our homeschool reading plan in a few years.The shout-out to the homeschooling community via Anna's character was an unexpected and delightful touch! I've never come across "our kind" depicted in a positive light in a book by a notable, non-homeschooling author. My oldest is very much like Anna the innovator and tinkerer, and my husband is the quintessential Edward. It was a bit like reading about our family. I loved that aspect, and I'll definitely share this book with my other homeschooling friends who loved "Wool," (which would be all of them).Overall, I thought it was a great story that accurately portrays how a community comes together during a time of crisis, complete with strange bedfellows and Howey's choice and portrayal of said crisis - the aftermath of a hurricane - was completely accurate, as I have lived it personally and know first hand this is how it comes together. Mix that with a tender dose of teenage love and you've got the perfect read. Another Howey triumph.Hugh, were you as excited as I was just to see Barbara McKay come back on TV after a week of silence? Never thought I'd see the day I looked forward to some mid-day cooking lessons! :)

Disappointing- nothing like his other books. Very descriptive & with a cute story but I flicked through a lot as nothing exciting happened after the storm.

I love HH and have devoured every book he’s written. Very disappointed with this one. Stand alone it’s a good short story but nothing compared to his other books.

Loved this book Hugh Howie does not fail to deliver, very different to his other books but I would re ommend this. ♡♥♡

Not one of his best books bit thought provoking about what is important to us light reading for holidays

Great