Hurricane Girl
A novel
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3.5 • 22 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A propulsive and daring new novel by the author of Very Nice about a woman on the run from catastrophe, searching for love, home, a swimming pool, and for someone who can perhaps stop the bleeding from her head.
“The novel surprises us by blending visceral horror with laugh-out-loud humor.... A wickedly entertaining read from first to last.” —New York Times Book Review
"A strange and hypnotic journey in the aftermath of a natural disaster, Dermansky nails the sensation of being alive, of navigating a world so strange that it’s almost a dream." —Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
Allison Brody is thirty-two and newly arrived on the East Coast after just managing to flee her movie producer boyfriend. She has some money, saved up from years of writing and waitressing, and so she spends it, buying a small house on the beach. But then a Category 3 hurricane makes landfall and scatters her home up and down the shore, leaving Allison adrift.
Should she go home from the bar with the strange cameraman and stay in his guest room? Is that a glass vase he smashed on her skull? Can she wipe the blood from her eyes, get in her car, and drive to her mother’s? Does she really love the brain surgeon who saved her, or is she just using him for his swimming pool? And is it possible to ever truly heal without seeking some measure of revenge?
A gripping, provocative novel that walks a knife’s edge between comedy and horror, Hurricane Girl is the work of a singular talent, a novelist unafraid to explore the intersection of love, sex, violence, and freedom—while celebrating the true joy that can be found in a great swim and a good turkey sandwich.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Dermansky's lackluster latest (after Very Nice), a young woman contends with a certain well-worn millennial malaise. Allison Brody, 32 and "sick of everybody and everything," leaves Los Angeles and her abusive movie-producer boyfriend, Keith, and buys a beach house in North Carolina. The house is destroyed in a hurricane soon after Allison moves in, and she holes up with another Keith, who shatters a vase over her head after she rejects his advances. Bleeding from an open head wound, Allison drives eight hours to New Jersey to be with her mother. There, after being treated at a hospital, she wakes to find her brain surgeon is Danny Yang, an old college fling. In what might be a dream state, Allison processes her father's death, which took place a year earlier, as well as her recent trauma. She begins to develop new romantic feelings for Danny, while coming up with a plan for a fresh start. There's some deliciously dry humor ("Allison was doing a horrible job at saving her life. Shameful, in fact"), but the surreal aura doesn't really develop into anything substantial or comprehensible. Readers are left with a Moshfegh-like vibe, but without a strong character or story. This one is safe to skip.
