Not what I expected, but quite good nonetheless. A fantastic flashback to all the angst of high school with the added bonus of a bit of end of the world fear. ( )

Young Adult transitioning to adulthood. Seemed a bit overdone at the beginning with over emphases on aloneness and isolationism of a boy. Finding the deeper connections that can be found with family when in time of danger and stress. ( )

This was a really enjoyable read. I suggest reading it during a summer thunderstorm, or maybe while power is out during/after a hurricane.

I read Howey’s Wool series, along with just about everything else he has written. He’s a solid writer, and excels at capturing the emotion of people trapped in dire situations. The plots are often vastly different, but that really doesn’t matter when the writer is focused on the human condition. Teenage coming-of-age stories are not my forte; in fact, I usually avoid them. I’m glad I read/listened to this one, and found a story that is exceptionally easy to connect to.

The story is relatively simple: day-to-day living is completely knocked on its head and the main character and his friends and family are put into a situation that forces them to see things from a different perspective, which, in turn, forges new relationships and adjusts their social paradigms. I also liked because I was just like Daniel during high school: an outcast. Granted, we didn’t have cellphones, texting, Facebook, or any of the other “modern” technology, but that didn’t make it any less painful. Mr. Howey captures this pain in great detail, and even better, how Daniel grew through it, and ending up closer to adulthood at the end of the story.

The only real issue I had with the book was the choice of the narrator. The story was set in Beaufort, SC, and the dialogue was spoken with the proper southern drawl. The narrative, though, like the descriptions of the destruction from the hurricane was spoken with a British accent, which was quite confusing and annoying. I’m curious why the narrator chose to speak in what I’m assuming is his normal voice when the rest of the book was “southern”. Pretty odd, if you ask me. ( )

This was a sweet coming-of-age tale. It's billed as a romance, but I wouldn't call it that. It's more like the male version of chick lit. Boy is a loser in high school, boy has a dysfunctional family, boy envies his best friend. Then a hurricane wrecks the town and everything changes for him. It's a sweet tale. There's no science fiction or supernatural elements. But Howey is a more-than-competent writer, and the narrative pulled me along. ( )

Unlike the other books I have read (and loved) by Hugh Howey, this one is a “regular” book (not scifi, post-apocalyptic, or dystopian) for young adults about a hurricane that devastates the town of Beaufort, North Carolina.

Daniel Stillman, 17, feels like an outcast in high school. He doesn’t fit in with any of the “cliques": the jocks, the preps, the hipsters, the gamers…. He thinks he must be just too dull - he dresses in normal clothes, he lacks confidence with girls, and doesn’t even have a smartphone like everyone else. The other kids scorn him as a “rando, a creeper, a sketch.”

Then Hurricane Anna hits, with the eye right over Beaufort. Daniel and his family (mom, stepdad Carlton, and younger sister Zola) take refuge in the bathroom in the center of the house. Trees come down everywhere, and they end up with a big hole in their house. Daniel’s estranged dad shows up with a chainsaw, and they and the other neighbors set about the business of cleaning up and rebuilding.

With the power out for a week, suddenly people are forced to interact with one another rather than with their digital devices, and Daniel’s family gets to know each other and their neighbors really for the first time. Daniel meets a nice, smart girl only four houses away, ironically named Anna, who has been home-schooled, precisely to avoid the kind of social pressures that have tormented Daniel.

Evaluation: This is a very sweet and quiet story, with a sort of delayed impact, much as one might experience from being in the eye of a storm. Daniel has an appealing, self-deprecating sense of humor. Howey is adept at conveying the different fears and insecurities members of his family feel both before and during the storm. The family dynamics are well done, and Howey never sugarcoats the family’s relationship with either the Stepdad or the Dad.

I thought the blurbs about the plot misrepresented it. I found it to be a good coming of age story, not really a parable about digital overload. ( )