The Displacements
Fiction
Penguin
July 5, 2022
Audiobook
448
Library loan
An adrenaline-fueled story of lives upended and transformed by an unprecedented catastrophe.
To all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna--the world's first category 6 hurricane--upends everything they have taken for granted.
When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing, and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rush of evacuees from across the American South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will "normal" ever return?
A suspenseful read plotted on a vast national tapestry, The Displacements thrillingly explores what happens when privilege is lost and resilience is tested in a swiftly changing world.
My review:
As someone who now lives on the southeast coast, this one hit close to home! I've stayed put through a category 1 hurricane, but I think that may have been enough for me. This story starts when a category 5 (or possibly an unknown entity 6) hurricane is bearing down on the family's multi million dollar home. In their hast to pack up and leave, the family mistakenly leaves the mother's purse behind, rendering the family without any funds in the middle of a disaster. The family is brought to a tent city FEMA camp, where they must stay while they attempt to get things sorted out. What follows is the effects of homelessness on this affluent family. Really engaging and well written, I was lost in the story of each of the family members. It felt very realistic, and I loved the story arc of what happens to the "haves" when they become "have nots". Lots of interesting turns in this one that kept the story churning forward to its satisfying conclusion.
A great family drama encapsulated within a natural catastrophe, this is one you won't want to miss. However, here's hoping all the hurricanes miss my area this season!
