The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

Amy  

science fiction, magical realism

A family is preparing to weather a hurricane when tragedy strikes.  After that, the survivors must face their futures along with the future of their quickly drowning home state of Florida.

Since this was for book club, I started listening to The Light Pirate without any idea what it was about. All I knew was that there wasn’t a long queue at the library and was surprised to learn that it was just published three months prior! So I wasn’t expecting to like it all that much. But it was really good!

This novel grabbed me right from the start. Lily Brooks-Dalton’s writing was extremely effective at pulling me in and holding me there.  The first 25% of the novel was especially suspenseful and un-put-downable. The characters were well-meaning but flawed. The family dynamics were compelling. And the suspense of the upcoming hurricane was intense.

The second quarter of the novel was concerned with time passing for the family members and the affect of climate change on the world--Florida specifically.  The infrastructure was crumbling, less money was flowing to repair and maintain utilities, land was disappearing, and people were moving away.

As more changes took shape, the second half of the novel involved the family’s struggle to survive in the new Florida. The climate crisis elements of the novel, while set in the future, were so believable and shocking. I was swept into Wanda’s and Phyllis’ stories.

I’m not really sure this qualifies as science fiction, maybe more like speculative science fiction with a bit of magical realism. It certainly is about climate change. But I enjoyed this story and I hope more people read it resulting in longer queues at the library! My only real complaint is that the story pacing in the last three quarters of the novel was a let-down after the first quarter’s excitement. But I feel the author effectively told the story she wanted to impart.

The audiobook narrator, Rosemary Benson, did a good job. However, I didn’t feel she was cast well for this novel since she had an older-sounding voice but the main characters were not old for most of the novel. Even though it’s not her fault, due to the fact that I kept thinking she didn’t sound right for this story, I’ll give her a B.