Just enough of a future reality …….… just enough of fantasy ……….. plenty of exploration of relationships and emotion — deftly woven into a wonderful book. Wonderfully done!

This book is the beginning of the end for Florida and possibly the rest of the world. It really touches on many aspects of world destruction that is taking place today and how we should be preparing. This progression through the years was slow at times and sped through like the speed of light at times, much like our own lives. It is certainly a book to make you think.

What a story! I'm a fan of dystopian, but having this fall of a state happen due to climate change was very interesting. As a Floridian, it was a bit stressful to read (after having back to back hurricanes this year) but I couldn't put it down. I think this would make for a very interesting movie.

I really loved this read. The characters are so interesting and the descriptions of the storms and how nature takes over the cities and the government. A great climate change story.

So I loved this book I read it 24 hours or less and couldn’t put it down. It was Amazing! My first book by this author and I can’t wait to read more!

The first half of the book was engaging and kept me on my toes. As the book went on, I felt like I was trudging through it a bit. Great story overall - may have just not been the best time for me to read it as to why I felt it was slow.

I loved Brooks-Dalton's prescient dystopian novel following Wanda's life from her birth amidst the hurricane for which she ends up named through the end of her life with her found family. When I hit the second section, Water, and realized that each section was broken down into separate elements that are impacting the story, I had to go back and read the Power section over again - what a great device this was! Brooks-Dalton does a great job at setting the atmosphere in a crumbling world and I loved watching Wanda grow with her conflicted father, Kirby, and brother, Lucas and then fully blossom with Phyllis when she becomes her family after they are gone. I have wholeheartedly recommended this book to many patrons and will continue to do so. Looking forward to more from this author, too. A big thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the early access in exchange for my honest opinion. 4.5 big stars

Not too many books on climate change can capture the reader as this one did. Well written and researched. it was a good read.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher

This story follows the Lowe family, namely one of the children, Wanda, who is born into tragedy and heartbreak. The family lives in Florida, which is slowly becoming inhabitable due to increasingly devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels. When a severe hurricane whips through and leaves a huge gaping hole in their family, it’s hard fathom how to move forward. Not to mention that everyone is moving away and each day it seems something else is lost. This is a coming of age story, where the characters learn to live, love, and lose in the big adventure of life.

I really enjoyed this book. It was broken into 4 segments; power, water, light, and time. The writing was beautiful and at times lyrical. Wanda was a likeable character and I was really able to connect and empathize with her. There was an aspect of magic realism, but that part of the story line wasn’t developed as much as I hoping for. Overall, this was a really great book and I would recommend it!

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing + NetGalley for gifting me this wonderful story.

I attempted to read this book on three separate occasions. Ultimately, I did not finish it (76%). An overwrought tale of loss and pain that loses its strength the longer it goes on. This book may be amazing for someone else, I acknowledge that, but for me it was a miss. I felt the strength of this book was in what can and potentially will happen to many coastal communities. Dead and dying towns aren't a new thing, but presenting it in such a demanding way that the reader can't look away from the effects of weather. Humans can deny climate change all they want, but this book shows that denial does nothing when the consequences of untammable forces of nature become not just an annommaly, but the normal. It also brings to the front the very important fact that infrastructure, if not strengthened or repaired, will collapse. We can't control nature. We can only prepare for it, and if we do not, nature will eventually reclaim everyone we once thought was ours.

I felt the book kept hammering home these truths, and it could've done that in 150 less pages and made an equally powerful story. But there is this added element of fantasy magic that for some reason just feels unneccary to me. Perhaps if I had finished the book the magic aspect may have become more clear and meaningful, but for the most part it just felt superfluous.

Lily Brooks-Dalton, the bestselling author of GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT, returns with THE LIGHT PIRATE, a stunning work of literary fiction that takes a harsh look at our climate crisis and asks, “What’s next?”

For years, Americans have heard the statistics and predictions about its coastlines and rising waters, with the Florida Panhandle --- both as a result of its location and the cruel jokes about its residents --- leading the rest of the country as the most likely candidate for sinking into the sea. But no one is prepared when hurricane after hurricane devastates the coast, even lifers like Kirby and his pregnant wife, Frida, both of whom have witnessed the power of these unpredictable storms firsthand.

When we meet the couple, Kirby is dutifully collecting sandbags and wooden boards to protect their home. As a lineman who brings electricity back to their small town of Rudder, he feels confident that they can wait out the storm. But Frida is not so sure. She is still reeling from the loss of her mother after a hurricane struck the coast of Puerto Rico where they were staying. Although she trusts Kirby, she has greater faith in the sheer violence of nature.

There is a crackling tension in the air, one that is mirrored by the spark of life growing inside of her; for the first time, she feels like she understands the need to evacuate. The impending storm is reflected in the couple’s quiet argument and in the careful blending of their family: stubborn Kirby and his two angry sons, Flip and Lucas, anxious Frida and her tenacious unborn daughter. When the power goes out and Kirby is called to help his community, he does not know that it is the last time he will see his family whole. But then no one can truly predict the course of a storm or its effect on the lives of the people who survive it.

By the next morning, Kirby has lost Frida and a son and gained an unusually strong daughter. His wife’s last words instructed him to name the girl Wanda after the storm that pushed her into the world. Even though he senses that this is a bad, dangerous decision, he cannot ignore her dying wish. Unfortunately for young Wanda, her name becomes a painful reminder of the most destructive storm to hit the Florida coast in recent memory. Her own arrival into her family reminds Kirby of his powerlessness and the grim realities of a country that has ignored its climate crisis for too long.

By the time Wanda is 10, Florida has changed drastically. Not only have the rich who populated its beachfront homes left, the tourists have stopped coming, and the memories of brightly colored umbrellas and reliable infrastructure are long gone. As the population shrinks, so too does the government’s interest in maintaining Rudder. Although the citizens of Miami have been offered buyouts to relocate north, no one is coming to save small towns like Rudder…or the families who have called it home for generations.

Kirby knows in theory that the careful life he has carved out for his family cannot last. But he also knows that he is not ready to leave Rudder --- and the ghosts of his loved ones --- behind. And when it comes to Wanda, the daughter he left motherless when he put too much confidence in himself and not in nature, he knows that there is something special --- something truly, purely Floridian --- about her, and he is not sure that she could survive or thrive anywhere else.

When yet another tragedy takes hold of the family, Wanda meets Phyllis, a survivalist whose once kooky preparations have now become common sense. For the first time, she starts to flourish as she learns the ins, outs and secrets of the Florida Panhandle --- from the smells of its ozone to the startling lights that appear when she enters its waters and the whispers that accompany them. There is something wild and magical about Wanda. Even though it does not fit into the realms of science or the supernatural, she knows that to understand her gift, she must stay in Florida even as it collapses around her, bearing witness to the foolishness of man and government and the beautiful violence of nature.

Both an urgent reminder of the various crises that our planet faces and a tender meditation on change and adaptability, THE LIGHT PIRATE is one of the best, most sobering and downright gorgeous novels I have read in quite some time. Right from the start, Brooks-Dalton immerses readers in the tension and immediacy of an approaching storm, employing the crackling energy not just in the atmosphere but also in her characters’ inner lives. The metaphor may seem overly simple or cliched, but it's only the foundation for this emotionally poignant look into their motivations, fears and dreams. The characters, most notably Kirby, are self-aware but not unrealistically so. They are flawed but move in such fluid, natural ways that it seems impossible that they were created out of thin air.

And of course, there’s Wanda. For each of her characters, Brooks-Dalton chooses every single word, characteristic and plot point carefully. But when it comes to Wanda, she writes with one of the most memorable, driven voices I have ever read, combining it with the magic of youth, awe and a touch of magical realism. The result is a startling gut-punch of a character as unforgettable as WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING’s Kya or even TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD’s Scout.

The climate crisis that Brooks-Dalton explores in a near-future Florida is sobering and full of a heightened awareness. However, what makes it so impactful is that it is not startlingly futuristic or even apocalyptic, but rather a vivid representation of what we already know is inevitable but choose to ignore. The combination of a real-life natural disaster and the tragic, human disasters that upend Kirby’s family is painful to read. But Brooks-Dalton is able to cast sweeping, grandiose themes like climate and grief into such simple, easily digestible passages that to lift your head and still see a flawed world around you seems like an unimaginable shock.

I highlighted passages furiously as I read, and every time I paused to think, I was forced to wonder: How, when authors like Lily Brooks-Dalton are able to distill such crucial themes into such beautiful passages, are we still ignoring the realities around us? There is a point in the novel when Kirby realizes that the end of society as he knows it is inevitable, and he thinks, “They had all hung their hats on the question of proximity. Yes, it will be bad, they’d said to one another, but we have years. We have time. Somehow we’ll solve this along the way.” I can think of no better way to summarize how this book will invigorate and inspire readers to take note of the changes happening around them.

A searing call to action that is as daring as it is luminous and moving, THE LIGHT PIRATE is an instant classic and a damning portrait of our time.

Cool that this was the GMA pick. Originally turned off, just by the length, especially the audio length. But don't judge a book by that, because this story is written so well and with so much heart. Love the story, it is so meaningful.

Unfortunately I did not finish this book. While I saw so many rave reviews it was just not the book for me. I found the story rather boring and despite getting almost half way through I was never looking forward to opening it. The story did not seem to flow for me and it didn't feel like it had a cohesive plan on what the book should be.

The Light Pirate, written by Lily Brooks-Dalton, was one of my favorite reads of 2023. I’m drawn to these apocalyptic stories now categorized as “climate fiction.” They should terrify me, but I find myself fascinated instead.

The Light Pirate is a beautifully written story about Wanda, named for the hurricane she was born into. Wanda grows up in a deteriorating world. It’s all she knows. The hurricanes form more often and are increasingly severe. Flooding is returning Florida to swampland, and the state is abandoned by the national government as a lost cause.

Every time I see news of a hurricane or flood, I remember this book.

The societal collapse that occurs in this story feels disturbingly possible. But in the end, there is hope.

The Light Pirate is more than a bleak warning of the future. It’s a story about the human connection, learning to trust, the value of community, as well as the beauty and magic of the natural world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Like any ocean wave, this book, too, had its ups and downs. I was unsure at first, but by about page 60 or so, the hurricane sucked me in. There was so much destruction; does everyone in this book die????? The story continued on to show Wanda’s courage and resourcefulness, but the pacing was SOOOOOOO slow. 🐌 I struggled to pick it up at times, which was unfortunate because the climate crisis is real! One thing this book taught me: boy, am I glad I don’t live in Florida. Despite my mixed emotions overall, I’d love to see this made into a movie.

WOW was this depressing and beautiful -- such a fun combo! Read this if you loved WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING and STATION ELEVEN.

Vivid, sad and compelling climate fiction that follows one woman's journey through a post-climate crisis (underwater) Florida.

What a unique story!!! Lily Brooks-Dalton builds this beautiful but equally unsettling story around Wanda, a child borne during and named after a hurricane. Written in four distinct parts of her life and those around her, it's amazing readers find themselves walking, no running, through life with Wanda. Emotionally stirring, I just wanted to reach out and push her into the right path, that's how real she is. Easily a 5 star read that my reading circle will love, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for a copy of The Light Pirate.

I found The Light Pirate to be fascinating.
The writing led me rapidly from one event to the next, at times anticipating tragedy, and at other times fascinated by the new environment Wanda found herself living and growing in.

Lily Brooks-Dalton's storytelling was both mystical and realistic - so much more than I expected.
One of the Top 10 books I read this year - highly recommend

The summary had my attention. I was curious to where this was going to go and how it was going to handle the topic at hand. When it started, I was quickly unsure if it was for me, but I kept going in hopes of getting used to the style. Once that happened though, I was beginning to wonder how much I enjoyed the book at all.

Told in four parts, the story starts off with Frida, Kriby, Lucas and Flip. We learn about them as they are preparing for a massive storm coming in. Through their life we learn that this is Wanda’s family. Now, I was fine with this part. It wasn’t an issue and then we moved to the next part and I was no longer fine with it. There is this whole story about them and then only a few of them continue forward. It was jarring to have this whole section where you are connecting with the characters only for it to be a reason to introduce the lead character.
Once I was able to adjust to the time skip from the first section to the second, I did find myself more involved this section. It was easier to connect with the characters. Their hardships were on display and they were all trying to figure out how to move on from that while being safe in the quickly changing environment. I thought this section was the best from the whole book.

Then we move on again and I’m entirely pulled out of the story. There is a major time jump again, but this section moved in such a way that it is a little confusing and feels alienating. Wanda I thought was supposed to be the main character, but so much of this section was from Phyllis’ POV. Through her POV the reader was reliving moments we’d already seen happen, but now we were getting it from this perspective that was so far removed from anything that it was hard to be pulled into the story.

There was a rushed romance in here that helped polish off the story, but due to the rushed nature, this was another part of the story that I didn’t end up connecting with.

While the novel is called The Light Pirate, that part of the story didn’t feel utilized well. It was used here and there, but infrequently enough I often found myself forgetting it was even a thing until it was brought up much later. The whole magic of it in general is something that I didn’t manage to understand.

There were moments that I found the writing beautiful, but I also struggled with the change in POVs. For me, they were too fluid in how they moved from one person to another They blended with one another and it would take me moments before I could fully process who’s eyes I was looking through now.

While I do believe The Light Pirate has a number of important topics that it brings up, this was simply not the book for me. The POV changes and issues with pacing in the second half of the story really had me struggling. But, there are a lot of positive reviews for this story, so if it sounds interesting, give it a chance.