It seems there’s at least one book that squeaks on to my yearly favorites in December! (Hence why I make my list in January😁) The Light Pirate was so incredibly absorbing and moving, I just loved it so much.
I don’t reach for much cli-fi, as it seems so eminent and scary. The irony that I am sitting in a city crippled by yet another snow event, where they used to be rare, is not lost on me.
The story begins in an ominous and action packed way, as the climate crisis really kicks off and the main character is born in the waters of hurricane Wanda, which becomes her namesake. And, of course, there is so much heartache that befalls her as the world rapidly shifts. It is absolutely intense and visceral, but not in a bleak Cormac McCarthy ‘The Road’ kind of way.
I love an element of magical realism - as the book posits, what is magic but science that has not been explained yet? It serves the plot well, is clearly not thrown in as a gimmick. And the relationships she forges (with her brother in childhood, the survivalist spinster as she comes of age, and an unexpected friend in the end) are so warmly depicted.
Brooks-Dalton weaves a tale of such hopefulness and beauty out of darkness. In my review for her first novel, Good Morning Midnight, I wrote that it was ‘gripping and poetic.’ That definitely holds true, and perhaps surpasses the bar in The Light Pirate.
“Hadn’t humans lived this way for thousands of years? They must learn to live this way once more - she was certain of it. The structures they built would bend and break, and they would make new ones. They’ll be nothing so precious that they couldn’t begin again. And again.”