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A review by sam8834
Hurricane Girl by Marcy Dermansky
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Is Dark RomCom a thing? Because Hurricane Girl is funny in a horrifying way?! I enjoyed this, as a novel that entertains and is sharp, but doesn't take itself too seriously. I appreciate that the protagonist, Allison, is more in love with swimming pools than with men and is willing to shape her whole life around the prospect of having access to a pool everyday. She experiences life-upending tragedies back-to-back and the story revolves around her resilience in the face of that, and it's interesting to see her retain these small comforts, like being able to swim everyday.
I will say that the whole book hinges on an attack very early on that I kind of had to suspend disbelief for. It is plenty scary and horrific, but given the realistic stats and what we know about male violence, Allison likely wouldn't have gotten through the incident without the occurrence of even further trauma. A sobering truth that I suspect was left out of the book for the purpose of keeping its lighter, darkly comic edge, which is understandable and makes for a quick, funny read.
I will say that the whole book hinges on an attack very early on that I kind of had to suspend disbelief for. It is plenty scary and horrific, but given the realistic stats and what we know about male violence, Allison likely wouldn't have gotten through the incident without the occurrence of even further trauma. A sobering truth that I suspect was left out of the book for the purpose of keeping its lighter, darkly comic edge, which is understandable and makes for a quick, funny read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail