A Great Storm Rising

Teddy Carson and her kid brother, Adrian, grew up in the shadow of their dad’s mental illness. Doctors labeled him schizophrenic. Or narcissistic. Or maybe bipolar. Their dad denies all of it, claiming the doctors know nothing and that he has superpowers that can guide the winds and the rains.

Lately, their dad has been doing better: staying on his meds, getting up with the sun. So when Teddy wakes up to an empty house and a note—“Took Adrian to school. Love, Dad.”—she revels in her freedom. She can walk her dog in peace and make her own lunch for school. And when her English teacher rails against Prospero’s mighty storm in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, she laughs. It’s just a play, after all.

When Adrian and their dad don’t show up that day or the next, she is at a loss. She recruits her new love, Evvy Martinez, to help her find them both. But Prospero’s magic is on every page she turns, and this isn’t a play. In Crystal Falls, Massachusetts, almost anything is possible.