The story of a family trying to navigate the end stages of the climate crisis, when Florida is rapidly becoming uninhabitable in any but the narrowest sense of the word. Survivalists survive and others flee to parts of the country not yet destroyed, but which are also devolving into chaos.

Our protagonist is Wanda, a girl who becomes a woman in this disintegrating world. She loses most of those close to her in one way or another, beginning with her mother, who dies giving birth to Wanda during the storm from which her name is derived, leaving her with a lasting legacy of despair. Wanda also has a special talent which gives the book its title.

It is easy to see where Brooks-Dalton was trying to go, telling the story of a young woman coming of age in dreadful times and finding a way to go on, providing her with a touch of magic to spice up a rather grim tale. Oddly, though the book is competently written, the reader is never able to fully engage with Wanda and her cohorts; it's as if the author is holding us at arm's distance and isn't able to make Wanda a fully real character who can engage our hearts as well as our minds. It is difficult to put my finger on where exactly this disconnect lies, but it was distinct and pervasive. It's a shame, really, since she had a beautiful premise to write from. We are no doubt going to see many, many more such novels as our environmental future continues to look increasingly grim, but this novel, lovely as it is in many ways, is not destined for the top shelf on that growing list.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is the story of Wanda, a woman whose entire life is lived in a quickly dying Florida town. Temperatures and water rising has life teetering on the edge. It’s largely the story of Wanda’s life and the loss she experiences along the way. But in the midst of hurricanes and deep loss is a powerful connection to the water that surrounds her and the magical creatures that live within it.

The Light Pirate immediately gripped me from the first page. The author’s descriptive writing transported me to the middle of Florida and I felt like I was really there experiencing the wild weather with the characters. The first part of the book had me wanting more as Wanda’s story and that of the people around her were being built. As the story continues further, it slowed down and some of those questions I was eager to have answered from the beginning only grew deeper.

By the finale, I was left with the feeling that there was a central part of the story missing. We got Wanda’s backstory and we know where she ended up. However, the purpose for her struggles and the “prize” at the end was seemingly skimmed over.

I am still giving this book a solid 4 out of 5, because despite the unanswered questions and a bit of a rushed ending I loved the writing style of this author and how beautifully each scene was painted and described.

And it brings to mind some real questions about how humanity may change and evolve in the future due to climate change.

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in women’s literature and climate change. The Light Pirate comes out in December this year.

I liked the story and the writing here. It's quite good after it get going. The author has a good imagination and puts it to good use creating this tale and interesting set of characters. Good stuff.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

I’ve read many apocalyptic novels but none that present the possible coming catastrophe as well as The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. It’s portrayed in an almost stoic manner with each chapter of the protagonist’s life presented in the Kurt Vonnegut manner of “and so it goes”.

Wanda is born during a hurricane in Florida. She suffers the loss of mother and brother before she ever knew them. The effects of climate change, that had been predicted and ignored since the 1970’s, come to fruition during her lifetime. Her life is marked by loss, both by death and by migration. Friends, family, society as a whole change. Wanda stays in Florida with a survivalist woman who teaches her to live off the grid. When the infrastructure of Miami-Dade collapses, the government pulls the plug on them, most of the population heads north - with and without relocation packages. The ruins where the rich people once lived go from beachfront to waterfront in the waves.

The world is on a downward swing. Climbing temperatures, vengeful wildfires, rising tides. Wanda’s world is beyond being saved. As a young girl Wanda learns survivalism – a term she doesn’t even know yet but it comes naturally to her. The realism penned by the author opens the reader’s eyes to how this scenario will play out. You live the life of Wanda from cradle to grave. Plus, you’ll find things that are new and evolving in her world. Some of it, though never explained, possibly caused by her. This is a fascinating book that gives a realistic look into a possible future for us all.

I’ve read many apocalyptic novels but none that present the possible coming catastrophe as well as The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. It’s portrayed in an almost stoic manner with each chapter of the protagonist’s life presented in the Kurt Vonnegut manner of “and so it goes”.

Wanda is born during a hurricane in Florida. She suffers the loss of mother and brother before she ever knew them. The effects of climate change, that had been predicted and ignored since the 1970’s, come to fruition during her lifetime. Her life is marked by loss, both by death and by migration. Friends, family, society as a whole change. Wanda stays in Florida with a survivalist woman who teaches her to live off the grid. When the infrastructure of Miami-Dade collapses, the government pulls the plug on them, most of the population heads north - with and without relocation packages. The ruins where the rich people once lived go from beachfront to waterfront in the waves.

The world is on a downward swing. Climbing temperatures, vengeful wildfires, rising tides. Wanda’s world is beyond being saved. As a young girl Wanda learns survivalism – a term she doesn’t even know yet but it comes naturally to her. The realism penned by the author opens the reader’s eyes to how this scenario will play out. You live the life of Wanda from cradle to grave. Plus, you’ll find things that are new and evolving in her world. Some of it, though never explained, possibly caused by her. This is a fascinating book that gives a realistic look into a possible future for us all.

#TheLightPirate #NetGalley #Apocalyptic

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton.

If you loved Where the Crawdads Sing, here you go, quit asking questions. What a sweet book!

In a world where Florida is quickly disappearing due to drastic weather changes, Kirby and his newly pregnant wife Frida are anticipating the upcoming storm. Her name is Wanda and she's supposed to be a doozy. But despite Frida's pleas, Kirby is not willing to leave the state, and so they all hunker down and prepare for the worst, pushing Frida into early labor. The child, duly named after the storm, is Wanda.

With every year, the weather and state continue to worsen. But Wanda continues to grow and adapt to the changes and collapse around her. It doesn't take long into her young life to discover that she holds a very interesting power with the water. But it's a power that could easily get her in trouble in this climate dystopic society where everyone is out for themself.

My heart did one of those big squeezes when I finished this book. It's wracked with all the things. Grief, loss, lessons, love, and just a touch of magic. I loved the warning that the author very quietly slipped in there. The characters were very well fleshed out, and sometimes I could picture myself there. Very fulfilling read.

Wow this book was brutal but in the best way. Compelling characters and description of what's to come.

This is a really sad story about a girl named Wanda. The setting of the story is Florida after years of global warming. The land is disappearing, and life as we know it, is changed forever. Wanda learns to adapt and survive in this dystopian novel. The book reminded me a little of Water World of several years ago.

I found the first few chapters of this book to be a little repetitive and slow but it sure picked up pretty soon after. Mostly, I really enjoyed the characters and the plot. There wasn't a main character that I didn't like and the story itself kept me on my toes, I didn't know where the book would lead so it was a journey to discover on each new page.

This story is also a lesson (and a warning). You follow the characters as they navigate growing climate disasters in Florida and it shows us firsthand how our future will look if we don't change. Although a work of fiction, the author does a good job at highlighting the politics, corruption, and greed that is going into fueling climate change. I would highly recommend this book because not only is it well-written, entertaining, but it shows us what's already happening with our planet and how it's not sustainable.

I can't stop thinking about this book. It's such a beautiful, devastating, haunting, yet hopeful read that follows two generations of a family as they survive, and adapt, in a world ravaged by unchecked climate change.

This book pulled no punches, and it broke my heart multiple times. But it also managed to fill me with hope, despite the bleak reality of what we face.

The descriptions of nature in this book were just achingly beautiful, and filled me with a kind of wistfulness.

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

One of the best books I've read in a long while.

A vibrant tale of a woman who embraces change and learns the true meaning of survival. Set in the near future when climate change has rendered the coasts inhospitable, one girl seems destined to make her own way of life. Brilliant characters and a rich cautionary world, this book reminds us that we have bullied nature to our whim, and so we can’t fault it when it starts to bully us back. That if we adapt to harmony with nature, we just might survive

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the arc.

Through the lives of a girl born during a hurricane and the experiences of a father and son who work as electrical linemen, the story illustrates the future of a small town in Florida as climate change progresses. The descriptions and decline of societal infrastructure are realistic. The hurricane description in the beginning of the book had me in the thick of it (even more so than a tv weatherman fighting a gale!). This book reminds me of Into the Forest by Jean Heglund. In both novels the decline of society is piecemeal and then all of a sudden. Hope in the story comes from the characters' ability to adapt and forge new social relationships.

I enjoyed the book but I think the title is deceiving. I thought it would be fantasy. While Wanda, the girl, does have a special power, I don't think it adds anything to the story and seems a bit superfluous. At one point I was waiting for her power to become important while at the same time thinking how much it would ruin the story.
3.5 stars for these reasons.

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton tells the story of Wanda Lowe who was born during a hurricane. Florida is going underwater and Wanda ends up living with a prepper. I was caught up in the arrival of hurricane Wanda! It felt like it was real. I liked that the book was divided into 4 parts. I’m really not sure where her light abilities came from or why. I would recommend. Thanks for letting me review this book.

A mesmerizing tale of time and change as nature drives toward a dystopian world for humans.

The story follows the story of the events that surround the life of Wanda from the days leading up to her birth to the days preceding her death. I simply love stories that encompass the whole of a character's life and this story does not disappoint.

Wanda is born during a devastating hurricane that marked the beginning of her life and the end of life as the world knew it even though it was a slow and steady decline that Wanda would struggle against for the rest of her life. Told in four parts, The Light Pirate is a fast-paced story that confronts the realities and devastation of environmental change should nature turn on mankind.

Some aspects of the story seem unbelievable like Wanda's father feeling that her mother should have been healed enough from hurricane-related trauma to ride out a horrific hurricane while 9 months pregnant, especially considering that he worked extensively as a repairman due to natural disasters. The magical element was almost unnecessary; it could have been explored more deeply to make it more prominent and powerful.

It was a book I had a hard time putting down and was chilling in its tales especially when a violent storm ripped through while I was reading and felled several huge trees nearby. A story worth reading and heeding.

‘The Light Pirate’ is set in a rapidly declining state of Florida due to dramatic climate changes and the survival and existence of the characters in the book.
I very much enjoyed the push and pull of the story and the core chararacters within it. Wanda and Phyllis stole the show for me and I really liked the way they progressed and their stories developed.
This will be a book I recommend to our library patrons!

What happens when the elements take over and the world as we knew it no longer exists? This is an engaging novel about Wanda’s survival in a world that unfortunately might not be too far away.

Any time someone tries to compare a book to Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, arguably my favorite novel of all time, I'm going to be skeptical. Lucky for me (and for readers everywhere), on rare occasion my natural cynicism proves not just unwarranted but spectacularly, joyfully, scream-it-from-the-rooftops wrong. That was the case here. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton is magnificent.

Fair warning: it is also devastating, on many levels, at many moments. You get attached, and then in an instant - gone. That said, just like in Station Eleven, "post-apocalypic joy" does exist, and it's even more stunning for being heartbreakingly hard-won. (Here, though, it's after climate destruction, not a global pandemic.)

The writing is beautiful and almost painfully vivid. So many passages struck me, I wound up with pages upon pages of highlights. I won't quote anything in full yet as I know it's an uncorrected proof, but I will say that Lily Brooks-Dalton's metaphors are singularly exquisite.

Speculative fiction is one of my favorite genres. This is one of the most stunning examples of it I've read since, well, Station Eleven. It reminds me of an excerpt of a Dobyns poem I love: "This is where we are in history - to think / the table will remain full; to think the forest will / remain where we have pushed it; to think our bubble of / good fortune will save us from the night". This is one of those books that I wish everyone would read, not because it's exceptional (which it is) but because it's critical. To paraphrase Brooks-Dalton, we all know that what we're doing to our world isn't sustainable - but we've hung our hats on the question of proximity, betting that we'll squeak through a closing drawbridge, that the worst won't come until we're gone. The Light Pirate calls our bluff.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I'm so glad this book exists.

I just reviewed The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. #TheLightPirate

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

The first half of the book was gripping. We learn about a family living in Florida during a Hurricane. The descriptions of the winds and rising water levels were scary and made for a real page-turner.

The book slowed down in the second half, as Wanda (who was born during a Hurricane) is growing up. She starts living with neighbor Phyllis, who is a scientist and survivalist. These early teachings will prove invaluable for Wanda as her small town is all but demolished and everyone has evacuated. It’s a scary depiction of what life will be like after a natural disaster.

While I appreciated the themes of family and survival and climate change, it lost momentum in the second half and I never quite understood Wanda’s “magical power”.

Just finished this - wow! This is so wonderfully different than anything I have read lately. Such an incredible story of a girl growing up in a very difficult world - one that may actually happen in our lifetime. For me living in the Midwest, we encounter storms and an occasional tornado, so reading about living with the threat of hurricanes was very interesting. The relationships are lovely and heartbreaking. I love the touch of magic in the water.

What started as a story of a hurricane where one family made a series of bad decisions (it felt like a bad horror film where you yell don't do that to the characters), turned into a fabulous story about a girl born during the hurricane - Wanda. This follows Wanda's life from current day Florida to a Florida that suffers the consequences of climate change. Increased hurricane activity, rising waters, excessive heat all change the terrain of Florida and society and Wanda somehow survives. I really enjoyed this book and could almost see it as a movie or short series. It's a cautionary tale for the effects of climate change wrapped in the story of an amazing young woman.