THE LIGHT PIRATE by Lily Brooks-Dalton

THE LIGHT PIRATE

Brooks-Dalton, Lily Grand Central Publishing (320 pp.) $28.00 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-5387-0827-9

Climate apocalypse is the setting for a formidable young woman’s coming-of-age. Kirby Lowe is a lineman for the utility company in the small town of Rudder in southeast Florida. With a huge hurricane heading in, he’s called to work before it arrives. He hates leaving his pregnant wife and his two young sons at home, but they’re prepared, or so they think. The first part of this novel is a harrowing description of that storm and the destruction it wreaks; the second part picks up 10 years later with Kirby and his surviving family: grown son Lucas and 10-year-old daughter Wanda, named for the hurricane during which she was born. In a convincingly portrayed near-future Florida, climate change has accelerated. The hurricanes come faster and fiercer, and the barrier island communities are already slipping under the sea. Kirby and Lucas, now also a lineman, have so much work that Wanda is often on her own, and her adventurous streak worries her father. He finds her an after-school caretaker, a retired biology professor named Phyllis, who turns out to be the perfect choice. Soon the pair are conducting field studies of the local flora and fauna, and Phyllis, who as a biologist and former park ranger has seen climate disaster coming for years, starts teaching the girl how to grow a garden, keep chickens, forage, and use other survival skills. As Wanda grows up, the waters rise higher and the summers blaze hotter, and climate refugees begin to flee the state. Before long, mostly depopulated towns shut down, then even big cities are abandoned. “Eventually,” the author writes, “the federal government announced the widespread closure of Florida as a whole, as if it were a rundown theme park with a roller coaster that was no longer safe to ride.” Those who remain—Wanda and Phyllis among them—are on their own. Brooks-Dalton creates an all-too-believable picture of nature reclaiming Florida from its human inhabitants, and her complex and engaging characters make climate disaster a vividly individual experience rather than an abstract subject of debate.

Catastrophic climate change seems all too real through the eyes of a Florida girl.

SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT

Brown, Amber & Danielle Brown Graydon House (320 pp.) $16.99 paper | Dec. 27, 2022 978-1-525-89996-6

A fashion intern overhears a shocking secret about her employer, with disastrous consequences for all. Things are looking up for Brandi Maxwell; an intern at her favorite New York City fashion company, she has a professional-athlete boyfriend, Nate, who loves her, and she lives rent-free in their nice one-bedroom apartment. It’s a far cry from growing up an orphan in foster care. Brandi is ambitious and unwavering in the pursuit of her goals, and when her internship is threatened, she gets herself invited to a charity ball at the home of her employer, Simon Van Doren, so she can pitch herself as the perfect employee to take on an important trip to Milan. Their meeting goes well, but her luck comes to a