Ms. Hen reviews A Great Storm Rising

 

A Great Storm Rising

Marty Kingsbury

Archway Publishing 

2022

Ms. Hen decided to read this young adult novel, because she met the author at a gathering, and thought it sounded like a fascinating book. Ms. Hen likes to read some young adult books for light reading once in a while. This novel is based on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST.

A GREAT STORM RISING is about Teddy, and the situation with her father, who has a mental illness, and her brother, Adrian, who disappears with his father. Adrian is blind, and Teddy thinks her father kidnapped him. She and her mother call the police, but Teddy and her girlfriend Evvy want to take matters into their own hands.

In school Teddy's English teacher wants her to audition for the play he is directing, THE TEMPEST. He tells her he would like her to audition for the part of Ariel. Teddy is excited, even though her brother is missing. She borrows her mother's car, without permission, and picks up Evvy. They find her father and Adrian in a hunting lodge in a remote part of the woods, and a brouhaha erupts. A tree crashed behind the car so Teddy and Evvy can't leave. The next morning, Teddy's uncle Tony shows up. Teddy's father is unstable.

This novel is a mystery, a fantasy, and love story all at the same time, similar to THE TEMPEST. It's also about a family, and the difficulties they have communicating and surviving in the world. Teddy's family has moved around a lot, and her father has scared away most of her friends. Living with a mental illness is difficult and painful, and Ms. Hen imagines that if a parent has a mental illness, it can be humiliating and shameful, and dangerous for a child. In a perfect world, a parent is supposed to be a steady support, but if they're unstable, the child might believe an uneven ground is normal. But what is truly normal?

Ms. Hen likes that this novel took place in a rural area, in Western Massachusetts, and some chickens appear. Teddy dreams of a comfortable family life, "Then we would turn around and find our way back, and we'd be home in time for cocoa, and Mom would have a chicken roasting in the oven, and we'd walk in, and the whole house would smell of family and joy - until the bell rings, and it's time to go to science." She equates chicken roasting in the oven with love and joy, which Ms. Hen can understand. She loves chicken, too.

Ms. Hen knows that not everyone wants to read a young adult novel, but she thinks they're refreshing - the perspective of a young person's problems helps Ms. Hen appreciate that she's not young anymore! "O brave new world that has such people in it!" If you're youthful, but mature, the world can still be brave and new. She recommends this book.