I really liked this book. I liked the way it was written and I loved the story even though it was really sort of sad when you think about it. The story revolves around Wanda who was named after the hurricane. Her mother and brother both died on the day she was born and she lived with her father Kirby. They live in Florida where climate change is affecting the state and the people who live there. With all the hurricanes it is starting to disappear. Phyllis is a woman who lives alone and is a survivalist. She lives close to Wanda and Kirby and she watches Wanda after school while Kirby is working. She teaches her how to grow food and basically how to survive if a huge catastrophe hits. That catastrophe does hit and the story gets even more interesting. This book is beautifully written and touches on the changes that are happening and what the future could look like. It focuses on Wanda and how a young girl could survive such heat break but still have the strength to move on. This story will stay with me for a long time. It is just that type of novel. I would highly recommend.
Thanks to #netgalley, #Grandcentralpublishing and @lilybrooksdalton for an ARC of this amazing read.

3.5. The story starts out very strong with the coming of a big hurricane to hit a small town in Florida. Kirby, the father and husband gets the house ready before he heads out to work on downed power poles. Upon his return home devastation hits and with it a whole new life is formed for one small family. I was absolutely captivated by the first 30% of this book!

The book then turns into climate fiction that almost felt like the old movie Waterworld. Wanda is our protagonist that we follow as she ebbs and flows with the changing of the landscape. I found by the end of the book, I really wasn't all that connected to her-and I felt a lack there.

The writing was beautiful, the ideas interesting and creative. The almost magical element seemed almost out of place and was never quite strong enough to make its place in the story. Ultimately, I didn't feel connected to the characters or the relationships they had with one another.

It is also tragically sad! Just so sad! I can handle sad and hard topics, but this was a total downer book, but also beautiful in its way. So, should you pick it up, be prepared to be sad!

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advance e-copy of this book.

I've never had to prepare for or weather through a hurricane but reading The Light Pirate gave me a better idea of what it can be like for those who live in places like Florida. The gravity and danger that comes with hurricanes is terrifying, and The Light Pirate didn't shy away from showing that.

The Light Pirate is the story of a family trying to survive hurricane season year after year - it's the story of Frida and her family, and then of Wanda as she grows up in a world that continues to be swallowed by rising tides. Told in four parts, the book goes through phases of Wanda's life - before she was born, when she was growing up, and when she's older.

It's hard to fully describe how I feel about this book. Parts of it were sad, others frustrating, and then there were parts that left me melancholic. The dystopian aspect of the story hits close to home because it can easily be our future in a matter of years. While that thought can be depressing, Lily Brooks-Dalton also does a great job of showing how people can come together in the face of hardship. There are sad moments yes, but also moments of hope and wonder, and a future that looks different but one where we can adapt while nature runs its course. I think ultimately this book made me feel like no matter how the earth changes, life will go on and it CAN go on, some way, somehow.

I've never read a survivalist book like this, where there's a sense of quiet loneliness as you feel the characters' isolation. Lily Brooks-Dalton creates a world so vivid it feels real, and you're left both humbled and in awe of nature and the wilderness.

Wow. A literal punch in the heart. A future that hasn’t been hinted at by others but is very much believable and forthcoming. An eye opener and a heartbreaker that leaves the reader speechless. In short, I absolutely loved this book.
Wanda is another hurricane bearing down on the Florida coast where electrical lineman Kirby lives with his very pregnant wife Frida. Being the dedicated employee that he is, he chooses to leave Frida with his two sons from a previous marriage so that he can repair downed power lines. This decision will haunt him for the rest of his days.
Meet another Wanda, a bright, precocious little tough girl who is left alone for long stretches of time as her father, Kirby, continues to put his job ahead of his family. Out of desperation, Kirby asks his off-the-grid loner neighbor, Phyllis to keep an eye on Wanda. Phyllis immediately knows that Wanda has strengths unlike most little girls, but nothing prepares her for the truth.
As the weather gets worse, the sea table rises and the entire state of Florida, along with numerous coastal areas worldwide, begins undergoing an unstoppable change. The general struggles of food, power, and infrastructure, along with personal efforts of health, safety, and home rise along with the sea level, until nothing resembles what used to be taken for granted.
Brooks-Dalton’s writing style is captivating. Her words flow, make sense, shock you and enlighten you. This book is about a tragedy but is a sweet and sad pleasure to read. She’s also the author of “Good Morning, Midnight”, which has inspired a Netflix movie. Be kind to yourself; read her books.
Sincere thanks to Grand Central Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is January 3, 2023.

Climate change has wreaked havoc on the world as we know it. With each impending hurricane season, Florida is slipping away; its land surrendering to the rising tides, and its dwindling people migrating elsewhere while there’s still time.

“The Light Pirate” opens with Kirby and his pregnant wife, Frida, preparing for an incoming hurricane. In the wake of the devastating storm, Kirby, his young sons Flip and Lucas, and Frida find their lives changed in an instant—merciless to the changing world and worsening elements around them. But out of the storm comes a child of the same name: Wanda.

From here, this story unfolds gorgeously and tenderly over the span of decades as Wanda grows up against the backdrop of a decimated Florida. Brooks-Dalton’s writing is compelling, affecting, & perhaps most of all, a powerful commentary on change & the temporality of life’s seasons.

I was utterly bewitched by “The Light Pirate” & wanted more time with these characters; this story (for loves of “Where the Crawdads Sing” who can handle the dystopian spin of climate change commentary) is one I’ll hold in my bones forever. Sure to be a Top 10 book of the year.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Literary Fiction

The Light Pirate is advertised as a story for readers who enjoyed Station Eleven and Where the Crawdads Sing. While I still have not read Station Eleven, I absolutely loved Where the Crawdads Sing, and I understand the similarities between the two tales. The story has a dystopian setting in which devastating changes in the climate affect life in a big way. There is this family that resides in Florida and is being evacuated due to a catastrophic hurricane. The wife is pregnant, and her two boys go missing. This incident sets the tone of the story and what happens to this family. The mother gives birth prematurely to a little girl (Wanda). Wanda is the protagonist of the story, and she faces lots of challenges as she grows up in a place that was abandoned by its people.

This was a pleasant story. I loved how the author treated nature like a character in her book. The descriptive paragraphs of the place, the storm, and the entire setting were amazing. The first part was very strong, and I felt this could become a favorite book. Unfortunately, the second part was slow, and it affected my enjoyment. Although the bond between Wanda and Phyllis was interesting, I don’t think Wanda was a strong character. She was the protagonist of the story, yet I couldn’t relate to her or care much about her. Engaging with the main character is very important to being immersed in the story. I believe the author's beautiful writing saved the book for me and compensated for the main character's shortcomings.

Many thanks to the publisher, Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book.

We saw what happened after Hurricane Ian and Nicole destroyed homes in parts of Florida just recently. What’s next? This book sends an urgent message that we have to do more for climate change.

The story begins with a powerful storm that is brewing out of the west side of Africa. It’s the third hurricane of the season on the eastern side of Florida. Kirby thinks there’s no need to panic…yet. Those of us that live on the southern coast know that the wind can change its strength and course at any time. Kirby told his pregnant wife, Frida, to trust him. He said they didn’t need to evacuate even though almost all the neighbors were gone.

The next part makes me read quickly even though it’s predictable. The storm is massive and hits hard. But right before the rain started, Frida was resting and the young kids were bored. When Kirby returned from his job as a lineman, the kids were gone. He panicked and had to find them in the middle of the storm. When he returned, he saw his wife on the floor with their newborn. She called her Wanda, the name of the hurricane. The baby survived. She didn’t.

There are four parts of the story: power, water, light and time. We get to know a handful of characters who are desperately trying to survive. It follows Wanda’s life with a challenging path. When she inquired why her mother named her after a destructive hurricane, her brother, Lucas, said, “She knew right away that you were a powerful girl and she wanted you to have a powerful name.”

The first part follows the incredible strength of the water that takes over Florida. While reading, I thought about our house next to the coastal marsh. This story is a reminder of our worst fear which we keep ignoring. The second part was about surviving the elements. This is when the knowledge of gardening, fishing and defending oneself is key. I would have liked to know more about Wanda’s light. Even though it’s fiction, the words are clear: we need to pay attention now to the scientist. But will we?

My thanks to Lily Brooks-Dalton, Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with the expected release date of December 6, 2022.

I wanted to love this book. The premise of the book was interesting and unique. The beginning of the book I was drawn in. However, shortly thereafter I easily lost interest.
There was a lot of description of things that I felt did not add value to the story.
The name, The Light Pirate grabbed my attention, and I would have loved to see the author focus on developing what that actually was.

As a Florida native, I knew I had to read THE LIGHT PIRATE, set in climate change-ravaged FL. And of course I had to pair it with a photo from the last time we visited my parents - you may think FL is all palm trees, but there's plenty of wild landscape. Thank you @grandcentralpub for my e-ARC and @librofm @hachette audio for my ALC!

Pub date: 12/5/22
Genre: climate fiction, literary fiction
One sentence summary: Hurricane Wanda brings devastation and birth to Kirby's family - this is the story of their fight for survival long after the storm passes.

THE LIGHT PIRATE succeeds in blending plot and character study, bringing the best of both together. I felt so attached to Kirby and his children, especially Wanda, and their struggle to survive paired with the increasing devastation of their home. The landscape is another character in the story, and you can feel how it changes as the sea level rises, the ocean warms, and the residents begin to disappear. There are a few OMG moments in the text that I had to message my booksta friends about (don't worry, they had already read the book).

This book gets five stars from me because it sucked me in from the first page, and the combination of text and audio was perfect. The writing is beautifully lyrical and translates well to both text and audio - but I had to switch to text for the last third because I needed to know how the story would end!

If you enjoyed THE DISPLACEMENTS or GREENWOOD, check this one out!I It's another excellent addition to the climate fiction genre. I originally worried it would feel preachy, but it instead felt very grounded in the humanity of Kirby, Wanda, and their found family.

⚡️I’m admitting this up front. When I heard this was “climate fiction,” I rolled my eyes and passed thinking I was going to be hit over the head with a POV. I only picked it up because FOMO (thanks ladies of Read Spin Repeat Book Club.). I’m so thankful that I did because I absolutely loved this book.

⛈The premise: Kirby and Fiona live in storm-ravaged Rudder, Florida. They recently met and have a baby on the way. Fiona left her graduate program in architecture behind to be with Kirby and she is starting to have doubts. Kirby has two little boys from his first marriage who are starving for his attention.

⛈The book follows the family as the weather system pummels and changes the world as we know it. Is this speculative fiction? I don’t know, but I loved how Brooks-Dalton created this world. I was sucked in.

⚡️My thoughts: I didn’t read the publisher’s synopsis of the book before I dove in. I just read it and I would avoid it if I were you. It gives too much away, IMO.
These are characters that immediately felt like family. This is quite a journey and I fell into Brooks-Dalton’s world because her writing is beautiful and compelling. I’ll be thinking about this one for quite some time. Also, I’m freaked out — it’s currently 68 degrees in the NE on November 11.

I usually skip coming of age novels, I prefer a little more action in the books I read and I have found coming of age lacking in this area. I still try to evaluate each book individually, but this is just something I have noticed about myself.

Florida is disappearing. With each storm, and there’s so many now, a little piece is taken. The weather patterns have shifted, and Florida can’t catch a break. Kirby is an electrical lineman in a small town on the southeastern coast of Florida. His wife is pregnant during a devastating storm and goes into labor, she delivers the powerful child, Wanda, but is lost herself during the birth. Wanda has entered the world with force, and she’s a force that can’t be contained. Growing up, more of Florida is disappearing. Soon Miami is gone, and all signs point to their small town shutting down. Wanda, now alone in the world lives with a close neighbor and they forge an unbreakable bond. Wanda continues to preserve despite the conditions and miraculously finds herself, community, and love along the way.

I would say you would love this book if you loved Where the Crawdads Sing. While that book wasn’t for me, this book had much better pacing that kept me engaged. I really enjoyed following Wanda’s life and learning about the world that could be due to climate change. This was enjoyable and still made me wonder about how close we are to the fictional world portrayed.

Special thanks to @netgalley and the publisher Grand Central Publishing, for gifting me this advanced e-arc in exchange for this honest review. Check this one out on December 6th!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this, as I have never read this author before and the cover and description seemed ok but not super compelling. So I "made" myself get started . . . and quickly found myself completely immersed in this clifi story. I was sooo into the first part, about Wanda's mom and family, and then quickly got very attached to Wanda too, and loved her story of survival and transcendence. I found the story of the rapid dissolution of society following the near constant hurricanes and flooding to be very realistic-feeling, like this could be our world in a very short time, and I also liked the speculative element. This was just so well done and very difficult to put down. I recommend this absorbing tale for anyone who likes climate fiction or family drama or survival stories.

Take the brave but lonely heroine from WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING and put her in the dystopian world beginning again in STATION ELEVEN and you have a bit of an idea of the wonder of THE LIGHT PIRATE. A bad hurricane is coming and with it ushers in a new landscape and level of uncertainty. Lives are lost, a baby will be born and one family will never recover. Fast forward and that same baby named for the hurricane is growing up with only an older woman as company in a very hostile Florida whose climate and decay is becoming more dangerous every day.
This elegantly written story is one of loneliness, trust and family where you find it as much as it is the dichotomy of beauty and incredible violence of nature. Dystopic with a touch of magical realism but also full of human strength and frailty. The audio version is just as magical and I would listen to this on a road trip to Florida. My thanks to the publisher and Libro.fm for the advance copy.

This is an amazing and unique novel. I got so very caught up in Wanda and her name, in the journeys other characters went on (her brother!), and in the very setting and the water and lushness of the surroundings that Wanda explored. There is an amazing magic in this book, lyrical writing, attention to climate issues and the impact of storms on lives and identity, of the idea of home as identity, the very idea of what a name can mean and convey.
I am so appreciative of the chance to read this book, I can't wait to share it with friends in book club. This is a really amazing book.

What an extraordinary novel! I loved Good Morning, Midnight . . . and I loved this even more (even though most anything apocalyptic/futuristic is not really my thing)! The writing is exquisite, the characters — especially Wanda — are extremely complex with great emotional depth, and the storyline is more than intriguing with its unsettling realism in light of the climate change that is going on in the world. This is truly a remarkable work of literature. It should leave a mark on any reader because it is an incredible read.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Set in the near future, this is another take of an apocalyptic possibility.

3.25☆

Beautiful, beautiful. THE LIGHT PIRATE gives us a wondrous human protagonist in Wanda, whose strange powers and odd birth mark her as different and therefore a target of cruelty. But Brooks-Dalton gives us another, nonhuman, protagonist in her sympathetic and moving portrayal of the elemental force of nature. She decenters the human and allows nature to have a perspective, a will, and a voice, casting into doubt our own constructed narratives about human progress and achievement. At once a cautionary tale and a convincing argument for climate hope rather than climate despair.

This book follows the life of one girl and her family during her lifetime in the present and near future. She is the product of a hurricane in Florida, and throughout her life, the hurricanes become stronger, and their effects more and more pronounced. Florida is underwater and there are fewer and fewer people living there as the effects of climate change keep mounting.

This book is both beautiful and devastating, and I ached for Wanda throughout. On another note, it was eery to read it right after a devastating hurricane in Florida, and one of its main points was certainly driven home.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's edition. This was a very, very good book and I'd highly recommend it.

Born during a hurricane that took her mother and step brother and named for it, Wanda, over her lifetime, is witness to the climatic obliteration of the state of Florida, while step brother Lucas sees the destruction on the west and east coast of the United States. Told in four parts, harnessing the elements of power, water, light, and time, the loss of the world as we know it is chronicled in Wanda’s story.

I typically do not choose futuristic dystopian novels. This one, however, intrigued me. I live on an island in south Florida. I have seen what was once a popular beach filled with lounge chairs and cabanas become a sodden mud hole, flooded during high tides. And, we are still reeling down here from the massive destruction of hurricane Ian.

Beautifully written and exquisitely detailed, Brooks-Dalton presents a futuristic horror that is all too real. The beauty and the violence that is both Florida and nature is a repeated theme. Feel the intolerable heat; experience the ever present and rising water. As the novel focused on the survival of those few who chose to stay, it slowed a bit, but was still a fascinating read. This is a book that will stay with you for a long time.

Thanks to #netgalley and #grandcentralpublishing for the ARC.

⭐️: 5/5

In the midst of a hurricane in the process of causing major destruction to Florida, Wanda is born. As she grows up, society starts slipping farther and farther into decline due to the deteriorating landscape caused by climate change. During the course of Wanda’s extraordinary life, she experiences loss, uncertainty, and brutality, but also seeks adventure, love, and purpose.

This book describes itself as recommended for those who enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing and Station Eleven, and honestly, that just didn’t make sense to me before reading, because on the surface, those seem like vastly different books, thematically speaking. After reading it though, the comparison makes so much sense. The Light Pirate is simultaneously a coming of age story for a young girl, caught in the midst of a changing society, and a cautionary tale of what it might look like if the world continues ignoring environmental concerns the way that it has been. Wanda was truly an extraordinary character, and I found myself paralyzed with worry at points for her. Books like this really amp up my anxiety about not just the world’s impending demise, but the more selfish thought of what my life would be like should society begin to collapse, because I’m 100% not cut out for Wanda’s life because I possess like 0% of her ingenuity, resilience, and courage. I found this book to be truly an immersive and expansive reading experience, and I especially loved the switching of POVs between chapters, which really felt like it added a lot more context and heart than if we saw everything via Wanda’s perspective.