The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger

If you look closely you can make out the aqua pool on the cover of this new novel. You can also see the threatening dark sky in the background. But for the life of you I would bet you could not imagine how unsettling this new thriller is. I read Ron Charles’s review of THE DISPLACEMENTS in the Washington Post. I immediately went online to the local library and put it on hold. I just finished it yesterday. What a wild ride!

This is not a dystopian novel. But it is set in the very near future. It’s actually pretty disturbing to think how close it could be. Florida is in the news. Not in a good way. You see, the first Cat 6 hurricane has been twirling around in the Atlantic and now has stopped and decided to focus on Miami and barrel forth, straight ahead. What to do if this is your home?

Daphne and Brantley seem to have it all: the Miami mansion, he’s a prominent surgeon, smart kids. They’ve just moved to the Sunshine State and are still settling in. Now along comes Luna and blows it all away.

Here we are smack- dab in the middle of the hurricane season, just going into the two months when we know storms are most likely to plow across the Atlantic and ram into the state of Florida. And what am I reading? A wild and crazy novel about the worst storm in the history of storms. Oh boy.

I know some of you will look away. Just can’t imagine reading this book especially right now. I get it. But it was like driving by a wreck and not being able to take my eyes off it. All the things that went wrong as this family evacuated their home. I kept wondering how they could survive. It’s definitely a story of survival. And the very frightening part is how very close to something like this our world actually is.

We meet a woman who works with FEMA and is in control of running a tent city with ten thousand evacuees. A mammoth job. We also meet an insurance man. We learn about how this type of disaster is going to affect the insurance industry. And the drug scene. Ugh. Many states are involved in the fallout of this super storm.

Immigration issues are dealt with. Grief and racism. Holsinger tackles many moral and social dilemmas. I was held captive for more than half of this novel. The writing is super. The characters are deep. But I have to give it four stars out of five because I got bogged down at the refugee camp. The end was a surprise. A good twist.

We have had a quiet storm season so far. But we are beginning to see action brewing in the Caribbean and swirling off the coast of Africa. Hurricanes don’t follow the same patterns they did in years past. But since we live in a vulnerable area very near the coast in SW Florida, we watch the weather very closely. From now through mid November we will be all ears and eyes on the tropics. We pray we are spared. We stock up on good books to read and bottled water. and wine. We check the generator to make sure she is ready to go if needed. And prayers are said each and every day and night.

I borrowed my copy of THE DISPLACEMENTS from our local library. So what did I really think of this book? I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.