Hurricane Girl – Marcy Dermansky

Told from the perspective of Allison Brody, who loses everything she owns a week and a half after buying and moving into her new house on the beach in North Carolina, Hurricane Girl is compelling and weird. Allison left her abusive producer boyfriend in California to strike out on her own. She loves water. She knows she’ll miss her boyfriend’s pool and that she wants to get far away from him and live by the ocean. But a hurricane hits and her house is not equal to it. A news team films her in front of the wreckage and then, Allison experiences a head injury, yet still drives home to New Jersey. The whole novel turns surreal from the point of her injury, with Allison’s treatment being delayed, her doctor apparently a person she casually dated for awhile, her relationship with her mother and brother and even her best friend not quite going right. It’s hard to describe this novel which seems to do an amazing job portraying the inner thoughts of someone’s scrambled brain, her needs, her obsessions, her relational problems. While the story ends abruptly, there is a reason and, in fact, we are done with Allison. It’s fine. This is a short read, intense at times, laugh out loud funny at times and… brilliant. I’m not sure who the right audience is for it, but I’m in that audience, for what it’s worth. Highly recommend to those who are intrigued.