The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton was hands down one of the best books I've read in awhile.
Lily has written a raw and wrenching novel.
Utterly brilliant, gorgeously written and extremely hard to put away.
I knew from the beginning I was going to like her writing style and the tone of the book came through instantly.
I really, really enjoyed this book! It was captivating and it hooked me from the very first chapter!

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Grand Central Publishing,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

thank you netgalley for this!!
i went into this completely blind, and it did not disappoint.
Wanda is such a fierce force of nature, it was an honor watching the story unfold from her perspective. So many emotions. would recommend.

Thank you to Lily Brooks-Dalton, Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book is not a genre I normally read but I loved it. Lily Brooks-Dalton has a way with words that brings the page alive. Reading about the storms and then the water and land taking back what is theirs came to life for me. This book is about the birth and life of Wanda, who was born during hurricane Wanda. You will hate all the characters, then come to love most of them.

I will be suggesting this books to others for sure.

Thanks to Lily Brooks-Dalton, Grand Central Publishing, and Net Galley for providing me with a digital ARC of this novel.

This book is simply extraordinary. The lyrical writing, the inexorable dread of the dystopian setting, the emotional depth of the characters — I could go on and on but bottom line: exceptional and not to be missed. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to read an advance copy! Highly recommend.

'The Light Pirate' was my 43rd book of the year and was by far one of my favorites.

Wanda is a special girl born in the middle of the hurricane in which she's named after, and her path is never an easy one.

There is no specific year given in this story, but it takes place in a future Florida that is slowly (then not-so-slowly) returning to the flooded swampland it once was. Hurricane seasons last longer with each passing year, and temperatures are soaring. While the state is ultimately evacuated and abandoned, Wanda and her family choose to stay in the only home they know and try their best to adapt.

The writing here is beautiful. It's not overdone, yet you don't feel like you're missing anything, either. It's hard to explain, but I really enjoyed how this story was told.

Even though this is a somber tale about a girl who faces so much loss in her life, it's also one of hope and perseverance. I'm so glad I stumbled on this book and gave it a chance. It's definitely going to be one of my top reads for the year. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC. I truly loved this book.

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton is about a family living in Florida. They are all introduced to us before a Hurricane hits and things change real fast.
The author describes high winds and rising water and intense destruction of so much in the path of the hurricane.

A baby is born during this fierce hurricane for which she is named, Wanda. She grows up in a near-future changing Florida. Her father works as linemen, trying to keep the electricity on as climate change brings longer and more intense storms, rising water levels, and the collapse of infrastructure and eventually of society.

I liked the story but lost interest towards the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published December 6, 2022.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story of a woman who grew up on the coast of Florida who suffered immeasurable loss yet still finds beauty and peace in her life.

For those who enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing, The Light Pirate is your next 5 star book. The author’s beautiful, purposeful use of words to describe the inhabitable Florida setting she’s created had me hooked from the first page. I felt like I went on this journey with her, physically and emotionally.

Wanda was born during a hurricane that devastates the Florida town of Rudder. As time goes on, people leave Rudder and eventually, so do all municipalities, taking those left behind completely off the grid. A remarkable story about survival and adaptability, Wanda thrives among nature in a way we couldn’t imagine.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received a free e-arc through Netgalley.
I hated all of the characters at the beginning of the book, but pretty soon, it opened up into a whole new world and it was hard for me to put down. A call to warning about global warming that will affect the entire world.

Interesting end-of-the-world premise, but I didn't understand the supernatural element when she touched water. Vague and unexplained.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I love the idea and premise of this book, and thinking through climate change in this way had me interested from the start. The execution was lacking, however, and the characters weren’t developed to a point where I felt a strong connection. The magical element was also unexplained for the most part and detracted from the book through its tentative inclusion. An short and fairly easy read, but not an all time favorite.

A lyrically written story about a coming of age force of nature. Born in and named after a hurricane, Wanda navigates loss, tragedy, and survival. A glimpse into where climate change might take us if we keep leeching from the Earth. With a little bit of magic? science not yet discovered or explained? This story brings together what is left after the storm and how after such heartbreak, there is still hope.

I liked this so much more than I expected! Great character development and interesting twist of events! I’m always on the lookout for a good post-apocalyptic book and this fit right in!

This story is a delightfully full view of a young woman growing up in a rapidly changing environment and finding ways to cope and survive. I couldn't stop reading...straight through to the end. Each reference to static thinking gave a picture of the future. For example, Wanda was born during a hurricane in Flordia near Miami. Her mother died immediately after Wanda was born--no one to help stop the bleeding, no hospitals, no 911 to call for help, and no doctors close enough who couldn't have come anyway due to high water and no roads.
That all sounds very grim but Wanda's ability to survive is riveting. Hopeful is a word I would use to describe her life and perspective.
I highly recommend this book to all young people, it speaks with a positive but real view of the future.

Florida starts being consumed by water so people evacuate. Phyllis is older woman who has prepared for lifestyle changes and takes in young girl Wanda. As years pass, other areas of country are destroyed so there is no longer power, water, communication etc. Survivors live in swamp. Wanda has an aura light within her which makes her unusual. People and nature have to coexist. Good sci-fi read.

Beautifully written and so emotional! This is a story of devastating loss, strength and hope. I could not put this down! If you are a fan of Where The Crawdads Sing, then definitely read this. Thank you for my copy Netgalley!

“Florida returning to herself. Swamps that had been dredged and drained and developed reappeared, bubbling back up to the surface in parking lots and on highways and in gated neighborhoods. Sinkholes opened up and swallowed entire blocks whole. Houses and roads and crops disappeared into the edges of the ever-encroaching wild.” Nature is reclaiming what is hers, driven by forces fueled by climate change and the hubris of humans.The Light Pirate, by Lily Brooks-Dalton paints an unsettling apocalyptic picture brushed with the strokes of magical realism that serves as both a cautionary tale and a deep dive into the power and majesty of this place we call home.

Told in four parts–Power, Water, Light and Time–in rotating points of view, this story winds it’s way through the lifetime of Wanda, the main character named after the devastating hurricane that marked her arrival. In Power, we anticipate the arrival of this Category 4 storm, witness her windy wrath, and are left on the ground in her wake. In Water, we see Wanda as a child who is different and watch her try to grapple with her otherness and navigate a world that is increasingly hostile to humans.

In Light, Wanda is a now a woman living with her older neighbor Phyllis, a biology professor and survivalist who has also chosen to stay. Canoes and rafts are the practical methods of transportation. The work of survival must be done at night as days are spent sheltering from the deathly heat. In the span of a life, we see a world transform, and while this seems extreme, it invites us to think about possibility. We see the overwhelming thoughts that accompany a life turned completely unfamiliar, where day is night, friends are foes and expectations of living a “normal” life are a distant memory. Brooks-Dalton conveys this beautifully, as Wanda thinks back to her childhood, “Thinking back that far requires her to exhume an entire life in which she had a brother and a father, a friend and a pet, a bicycle with a basket, an abundance of solid ground to walk on, and a verdant, sunlit wilderness to explore and enjoy. The old conviction that these things she had would go on being hers, that she might grow up to accumulate even more–the ordinary pillars of lives children were so carelessly promised back then: jobs, houses, loves, families.”

And in Time, Wanda’s will to stay an isolated and independent survivalist finally breaks as she accepts and embraces the presence of Bird Dog, an unexpected presence from her past.

Brooks-Dalton is an obviously gifted writer. She calls a world into being, one which we dread the possibility of, and invites is to look into its brutal, untamed, and at times achingly beautiful reality. My only critique is that I felt there were a few loose ends, but I can also see how this choice complements the winds that blow through the story. I recommend this novel to anyone who is brave enough to peek into what our future may hold. You won’t be able to look away.

Publishing date for The Light Pirate is December 6, 2022. Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for a DRC in exchange for my honest review.

An emotional and powerful story of a girl born in a hurricane named Wanda. Wanda lives in Florida, which is being taken over by the sea and the swamps. Weather patterns have changed and the hurricane season is now almost constant. Rising sea levels have taken back Miami and most of the state.

Kirby is a lineman, which is job security in the storm magnet that is Florida. Leaving his pregnant wife at home during Hurricane Wanda, Frida goes into labor and delivers this fierce girl herself. But now Kirby must raise her alone.

And when the storms take him, Wanda stays put with her neighbor. She grows and learns valuable life lessons about the world around her and how to survive in a place everyone else has abandoned.

This is a very real possibility and that made it a much more powerful story. The guts and determination of Wanda to survive after she has lost everything speak to the human spirit. A warning to all of us of what happens when we keep putting off change. Nature doesn’t wait.

Beautiful book!

NetGalley/ December 6th, 2022 by Grand Central Publishing

ARC from NetGalley. Described as "for fans of Station Eleven and Where the Crawdads Sing" I jumped at the opportunity to read The Light Pirate, as I loved both of those books.

Born during a fierce hurricane for which she is named, Wanda Lowe grows up in a near-future changing Florida. Her father and brother work as linemen, trying to keep the electricity on as climate change brings longer and more intense storms, rising water levels, and the collapse of infrastructure and eventually of society. Young Wanda spends her time with their neighbor Phyllis, a retired biology teacher and "prepper" who saw the signs and has been preparing for the environmental changes. She taps into Wanda's natural curiousity about nature and teaches her the survival skills that will serve and save her as she loses loved ones and adapts to the new environment and the fragments of humanity which remain.

My few complaints are these:
I felt the ending was really rushed.
There was an element of magic to the book which I didn't feel was necessary to the story.
And the title doesn't really feel right. Pirates steal and hurt/kill people. That wasn't Wanda. And her connection with the "lights" was not contentious or harmful.

This was an interesting premise, told with intelligence and care. The author drew me in, kept me invested, and eventually made me care what happened to Wanda, our protagonist. This was no small feat :)

I recommend Lily Brooks-Dalton's The Light Pirate. A tale of environmental disaster mixed with the hope of humanity.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.