Don’t Call Me a Hurricane

Inspired by teen activists, as detailed in an author’s note, Hagan (Watch Us Rise) pens a hefty novel-in-verse centering a fictionalized account of the year-round locals of Long Beach Island, a real-life New Jersey beach community, recovering from hurricane devastation. Like many residents, white Eliza Marino, 17, and her family lost nearly everything in the hurricane five years ago. The Marinos have since rebuilt their home and the seafood shack they co-own with the family of Eliza’s best friend, Isa, who is Puerto Rican. Determined to save their barrier island from outside development, Eliza, Isa, and their two friends form the Climate Justice Seekers. But their mission is complicated by Eliza’s growing feelings for a wealthy summer visitor, New Yorker Milo Harris. Repetitive climate change rhetoric slows plot momentum and sometimes overwhelms Eliza’s otherwise moving internal battle between her passion for the ocean and her terror of its destructive capabilities, which manifests in frequent panic attacks as she relives her younger brother Jack’s near-drowning. Periodic harrowing hurricane flashbacks and evocative descriptions—“the shoreline and sunsets sinking into the bay and rising over the ocean”—buoy this love letter to LBI’s coastal landscape and tight-knit community. Ages 13–up. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (July)