A review by tonythep
Hurricane Girl by Marcy Dermansky
4.0
It took me a little while to recognize Allison or to identify her. Eventually I identified with her, very much. There’s a horror movie trope running throughout the novel. Allison has written and sold a horror script, and she sometimes judges her actions in light of what a character in a horror movie would do or more importantly, what they shouldn’t do, in order to survive. And that seemed funny (ha ha) to satirize the bad judgment of horror movie characters that don’t survive. To compare them with the bad judgment of characters in a quirky romantic comedy. Their choices may be cringeworthy but they won’t end up dead.
But Hurricane Girl is no romantic comedy. I think it IS a horror story. I think it’s about the horror of trauma that most humans, but women particularly, experience all too often. Pain, depression, shame, numbness, disconnection. And the trauma of losing her father. Not being able to express grief. Oh, and don’t forget self-doubt. You feel so useless you might as well have been hit over the head with a heavy object. “This was not Allison’s life, was it?”
A) I’m not a woman and B) what the hell do I know? I could be totally off the mark here. But these are things that resonate with me.
I’m still trying to figure out why I had such difficulty connecting with Allison. I’m still not sure if I like her. And I don’t think that’s essential. I think she’s hard to connect with because she’s disconnected. She’s numb. And that’s even before anything threatens her house or her head. She talks so casually about leaving her movie producer boyfriend who hit her a few times. Definitely traumatized before we even meet her.
I just finished reading the book for a second time. Its fairly short. It’s a quick read. It moves along at a nice pace. I wanted to clarify some of the feelings I had the first time around. think I had some expectations based solely on the author’s last book, Very Nice. I think I wanted to be able to sit at a distance and be entertained by the characters for their bad choices. And perhaps I wanted this book to feel funnier for me. There is humor here, and I know others have found it funny. And I think this is the beauty of literature and reading that the same text can have so many different readings from reader to reader. But this feels deeper, more personal. I think this book is heartbreaking and beautiful without using some of the usual triggers that those kind of books often use. (If that makes any sense.)
I didn’t always understand Allison, but ultimately I did identify with her and I certainly rooted for her and wanted her to find her own swimming pool. Strangely (or perhaps not) the ending made me think of Ellen Ripley, the hero of the Alien movies, heading home with her orange kitty cat, wherever home may end up being.
But Hurricane Girl is no romantic comedy. I think it IS a horror story. I think it’s about the horror of trauma that most humans, but women particularly, experience all too often. Pain, depression, shame, numbness, disconnection. And the trauma of losing her father. Not being able to express grief. Oh, and don’t forget self-doubt. You feel so useless you might as well have been hit over the head with a heavy object. “This was not Allison’s life, was it?”
A) I’m not a woman and B) what the hell do I know? I could be totally off the mark here. But these are things that resonate with me.
I’m still trying to figure out why I had such difficulty connecting with Allison. I’m still not sure if I like her. And I don’t think that’s essential. I think she’s hard to connect with because she’s disconnected. She’s numb. And that’s even before anything threatens her house or her head. She talks so casually about leaving her movie producer boyfriend who hit her a few times. Definitely traumatized before we even meet her.
I just finished reading the book for a second time. Its fairly short. It’s a quick read. It moves along at a nice pace. I wanted to clarify some of the feelings I had the first time around. think I had some expectations based solely on the author’s last book, Very Nice. I think I wanted to be able to sit at a distance and be entertained by the characters for their bad choices. And perhaps I wanted this book to feel funnier for me. There is humor here, and I know others have found it funny. And I think this is the beauty of literature and reading that the same text can have so many different readings from reader to reader. But this feels deeper, more personal. I think this book is heartbreaking and beautiful without using some of the usual triggers that those kind of books often use. (If that makes any sense.)
I didn’t always understand Allison, but ultimately I did identify with her and I certainly rooted for her and wanted her to find her own swimming pool. Strangely (or perhaps not) the ending made me think of Ellen Ripley, the hero of the Alien movies, heading home with her orange kitty cat, wherever home may end up being.