Belated Book Review: Searching for Redemption

Title: Searching for Redemption

Authors: Misty Zaugg, Stephanie Mylchreest, Mike Kraus

Date: 2021

Publisher: Muonic

Quote: "Alpha was the storm's name."

It's climate fiction: If "global warming" really did generate deadlier storms, buckle down for a pair that make Katrina and Rita look tame. In this hypothetical storm season, the human names for the year have been used up, the Weather Service have reverted to calling hurricanes by letters in the Greek alphabet, and Alpha and Beta are bearing down on a set of people who have different attitudes toward hurricanes.

It's vividly written. After a sunny day, under a clear sky, waiting for the moon to rise, after reading this novella I'm braced for the next flash of lightning, asking myself why I'm out here with the laptop . Well, this is Virginia. Killer storms ravage Florida and Mississippi every year; we get rain. But the details of the fictional hurricane almost make me forget that tonight, for once, we're not getting even rain. This story--the novella opens a series--is not for anyone prone to hypertension.

Its intended audience is probably preppers...the sensible kind, like the family in the book, who are preparing to survive the kind of crisis situations they've survived before, like storms and power outages. In the story we watch Alpha and Beta smash into the weak points of each human's storm preparation plan. 

Dave, Brittany, and Lilly are storm chasers, the girls delightedly tagging along with their serious scientist father and enjoying their mother's worries. 

Rayleigh and Avril are homeless drug addicts. Rayleigh's too rebellious and Avril's too scared to leave a private women's shelter for a bigger public shelter in another town. They find a smashed-up liquor store, get some expensive liquor, and start drinking, but those storms just won't let them pass out in peace. The phrase "searching for redemption" is part of Rayleigh's thought processes.

Michael and Danielle are preppers with a beautifully planned and stocked storm shelter under their house...until their house falls in on top of it. 

This story will go on, though lots of sympathetic characters will die. 

If you can stand a "thriller" that reminds you of weak points to shore up in your storm preparation plan,..and of the possibility that, if "Category 6" hurricanes with winds over 200 miles an hour came to exist, something would break down anyway...then this is the series for you.

Top Ten Things Book Reviewers Do on Stormy Days

This week's Long & Short Reviews question asked what book reviewers do on stormy days. Here are a few of our favorite things:

1. Read

Duh! If there's any light in the house, it's probably shining on some sort of page. As I get back to work I've been applying myself to Booktober Blitz books: two chapters, two web pages or one offline task, all day. I'm still behind where I wanted to be, but no worries, writers, your books WILL be reviewed. Though I've lost track of any ideal review dates.

2. Cook

If only a pot of tea, a solid majority of respondents said they like to prepare something hot to eat or drink during s storm. (I'm in the minority here. Where I live, you don't want to be using electricity during a storm, and the weather's probably not ideal for lighting a fire even in a wood stove, either.)

3. Go Out In It

This depends on where people are and what kind of storms they get. The standard snowstorms along the Atlantic coast are fun  The air's not all THAT cold, so you just put on some of that heavy knitwear your Auntie Pris so enjoys knitting, to ensure that the snow forms a layer of insulation on your head and shoulders instead of melting down your neck, and you actually find yourself coming in because you feel too warm out in the snow, admiring the snowscapes and catching snowflakes on your tongue. (Our snowflakes are sour and bitter, and sting a bit, for the first six hours or so due to air pollution. They gradually become less nasty if snow keeps falling. "Snow ice cream" has a distinct flavor some companies have tried to copy...the taste of environmental degradation.) 

Being out in a real blizzard, or an electrical storm, is much more dangerous and is not recommended by this web site. 

4. Watch It Happen

Well, why not--especially if the electricity goes out and there's nothing else to do while the storm rages.

5. Do Our Crafts

Knitting, sewing, crocheting, whatever...it's cozy during a storm, and always there to fall back on when light may be poor and computers can't be plugged in.

6. Rest, Snuggle Up, Go to Bed

For people who don't otherwise take naps during the day, a storm can be a wonderful excuse to spend time snugglng up...with a book, or the kids, or the animals, or whatever other configuration may come to mind. 

7. Watch Movies

Two respondents apparently have reliable enough electricity, or durable enough batteries, to mention watching movies as a favorite thing to do during storms. I can't even imagine.

8. Exercise Indoors

Storms can feel energizing. If they're not the kind we enjoy being out in, they might inspire us to work out or dance around the house.

9. Play Games

Board games, card games, and puzzle games were specifically mentioned. Great during a power outage.

10. Write

Slackers that we are...or maybe it's just that we tend to write online these days...only one respondent mentioned writing as a favorite thing to do during a storm. That wasn't my answer, either.

And nobody (but me) mentioned clean-up, probably because that starts after the storm stops. However, repairing the damage the storm did is the responsible adult excuse for being Out In It ("it" especially meaning the fresh clean snow). And roaring around on a snowmobile, if you own or can borrow one. And rolling snowballs--huge ones, if enough snow fell. 

It's not exactly a favorite thing to do, but something I often do, during a storm, is sit around gloomily adding up the minimal cost of repairing the damage the storm's done. Anticipating the clean-up is the part of that that is fun.

It is a lot more fun to be a child, during a storm, than it is to be the grown-up. Between ages 17 and 30 I enjoyed preparing to be the grown-up. Between 30 and 45 I at least had people to share the burden of being the grown-up, so it wasn't too bad. Then I reached the unenviable position of the only grown-up and have been unable to get out of it since. It is hard for the only grown-up in the house to enjoy storms as much as they deserve to be enjoyed.