Eye of the Storm (review)

4/5 stars


Eye of the Storm is an older middle grade dystopian novel.  It follows in the recent trend of dystopian novels with a basis in science.  Which makes me smile happily every time.

In the not so distance future due to climate change, tornados have become the greatest threat to mankind.  Formerly regulated tornado alley in the Midwest, they're everywhere now.  The storms have gotten so bad that their are roadside shelters along every Interstate, students are homeschooled via computers and playing outside has ceased to exist (okay that might be the present).  The day after I finished this book we had tornado warnings in Kentucky. Let's just say this book did not help my weather-panic.

This book is near flawless.  The characters, even the bad guys, have believable motivations.  The pacing was spot-on, the first half of the book slowly building then the second half everything coming to fruition. Once the rising action and main plotline started rolling I had trouble stopping reading.

Probably the only real flaw in this book, in my opinion, was that I had trouble believing the characters were only 13.  They were the brightest minds of their generation, but they were trying to solve scientific concepts that I had trouble grasping (storm dissipation using satellites and focused microwave energy).  But honestly, in the grand scope of flaws that's something I can live with.  I'd rather read a novel with smart kids than a novel that treats kids like they are stupid.

Great dystopian for the younger sect.  With science, the tingles of first crushes and the terror or tornados where can you really go wrong?

On the Friday after I finished this book  Kentucky had a massive tornado outbreak.  Just 20 miles up the interstate East Bernstadt was hit with an F2 tornado. Five people died, many were injured and lots of families lost their homes.  If you are interested in helping the people of East Bernstadt check out this link: www.helpforeb.com. Many of the injured lived in trailers so they lost everything in the storm. However I'm so proud to be a Kentuckian.  People from all over the region are pitching in because we believe in taking care of our own.