The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum

 

Summary (from the publisher): How far would you go to protect a sibling-and at what cost to yourself?

In Those Who Save Us, Jenna Blum proved herself a master storyteller with brilliant insight into the spectrum of human emotion. Now, Blum turns her sights to the most intimate and mysterious of family relationships-that between twins-in her powerful and provocative second novel.

As a teenager, Karena Jorge had always been the one to look out for her twin brother Charles, who suffers from bipolar disorder. But as Charles begins to refuse medication and his manic tendencies worsen, Karena finds herself caught between her loyalty to her brother and her fear for his life. Always obsessed with the weather-enraptured by its magical unpredictability that seemed to mirror his own impulses—Charles starts chasing storms, and his behavior grows increasingly erratic . . . until a terrifying storm chase with Karena ends with deadly consequences, tearing the twins apart and changing both of their lives forever.

Two decades later, Karena gets a call from a psychiatric ward in Wichita, Kansas, to come pick up her brother, whom she hasn't seen or spoken to for twenty years. She soon discovers that Charles has lied to the doctors, taken medication that could make him dangerously manic, and disappeared again. Having exhausted every resource to try and track him down, Karena realizes she has only one last chance of finding him: the storms. Wherever the tornadoes are, that's where he'll be. Karena joins a team of professional storm chasers - passionate adventurers who will transform her life and give her a chance at love and redemption—and embarks on an odyssey to find her brother before he reveals the violent secret from their past and does more damage to himself . . . or to someone else.

Review: Twins Karena and Charles have always been close, but as teenagers, Charles' struggle with bipolar disorder causes friction between them. Always obsessed with tornados, but when a storm chase goes wrong, the twins' lives are changed forever. Twenty years later, Karena has not seen her brother in two decades and goes after the storms in one last ditch effort to track him down. By joining a team of professional storm chasers, Karena unwittingly changes her life. 

This novel is broken into three sections. In the first, adult Karena goes storm chasing in pursuit of Charles, who she hasn't seen in twenty years. This section reminded me a lot of the thrill or the movie Twister. It's fast paced and the scenes with tornados are harrowing. Her search for Charles, as well as her burgeoning love interest, are compelling. In the second section, the novel moves back in time to when the twins were teenagers, to show what drove them apart and what secret they've kept all these years. And in the final section, the twins must confront each other, their secret, and how to finally deal with their past so that they can move forward. 

I enjoyed this novel a lot until the third and final section. The relationship between Karena and Kevin felt unrealistic and off, as did the way Karena interacted with Charles. From the way everyone responded to and handled the big secret to the final chapter that is supposed to show a happy resolution one year later, it just all felt off and was difficult to believe. The ending seemed to imply that all Charles needed to solve his mental health issues was to repent of his mistakes and also that Karena would be left unfulfilled until she was a mother and I disagreed strongly with both takes. 

Stars: 3