Hurricane Child // Kacen Callender

So, I picked up this book while browsing at the library, started reading the first chapter, and sank into a chair before I could even reach checkout. My full bag of other books slid off my arm, and about an hour later I looked up in that way when you're uncertain where you are because a book has so deeply sucked you in. I finished the book before I left the library that day; that's how good it was. 

It was beautiful, harsh, lyrical, full of snark and soul. Here's the gist: Set on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Caroline is 12. Her mother left her. She has trouble in school, with her father, and just in life generally. She blames it on being born during a hurricane, which is bad luck, but when a strange spirit starts following her around, she thinks perhaps it's something more. Making an unexpected new friend sets her on a path to find her mother, and of course everything must unravel before we can hope for something beautiful to be made from the knotted mess. 

Read it for the harsh yet lush island environment, read it for the painful parts of life that we struggle to find beauty in, read it for the one person who shouldn't have cheered you on so hard but they did it anyway. Read it for how complicated love is, read it for how you felt lost in the world at twelve, read it for how anger can cover up the important parts of ourselves we are too fearful to examine too closely.