I’m not in New Orleans, but I’m in South Louisiana. We weren’t so hard hit by the hurricane ourselves, but I’ve had a lot of contact with people who were. I think the reason a lot of people (including me) were caught off-guard is that we have predictions of murderous hurricanes fairly often. Off the top of my head, I can easily remember two times that we had several days off school for an anticipated hurricane and it didn’t even rain. That was probably what frightened me the most about this book, how Miranda thought nothing was really going to happen, and something really did. That hit close to home for me.

jenclair – Yeah, definitely wait until you can handle something heavy. I did not at all realize when I started how heavy it was going to be, and I wish I had.

So, are you in New Orleans? I’m in Mississippi and I can relate to what you said about the grocery stores running out of everything when a hurricane’s on the way. Last time we had one come through, I took a photo of the flashlight aisle at Walmart. Apart from a few tiny mini-flashlights, it was totally empty, of course. It was horrible after Katrina because our area got power sooner than most and that meant people were coming from three directions to strip our grocery store shelves for months. It’s good to be prepared before hurricane season even begins, but like that man you interviewed there are always going to be some people who can’t possibly prepare. They’re way too unpredictable. Such a sad story. I can see what that left you speechless.

Ellira – Oh, that is really nice of Ms. Pfeffer! And I agree, it was a good representation of this kind of disaster – too good. Made me all sad.

trish – Oh, definitely hopeful at the end, and not in a deus ex machina way at all (I thought). It’s just that rebuilding seems impossible, to me, after everything they’ve been through. The whole normalcy thing, that couldn’t come back. I was still really sad about it.

Jenny – I really am relieved that I wasn’t the only one who found it terrifying, and it really is. Just be prepared for how totally bleak it is. 🙂