Helicity was named after a natural phenomenon when the air swirls into a funnel, like when there is a tornado. Helicity is fascinated by weather, so when she rides away from a party one day on her horse, she is fixated by a quickly developing storm cloud on the horizon. Instead of hurrying back home, she photographs and records the event until her phone battery runs down. Too late she realizes that the storm has turned into a tornado, and by the time she returns home, there is no home to return to. Her family is alive, but not unscathed, and the event has lasting consequences, both for her and for those she loves.This book got a lot of good reviews when it came out last year. It is written by a meteorologist, and the accounts of the tornado and its aftermath are really authentic. Helicity is a sympathetic character, and her brother's growing dependence on pain meds is realistic. What the book lacks is resolution. The author doesn't resolve the question about how Helicity's love of extreme weather and her friend's reckless behavior keeps endangering those around her. She doesn't resolve the brother's addiction either. She just ends the story without really resolving anything. Still this is a good book for giving the reader a realistic look at what a victim of a tornado might experience. (204p. 2018)
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