Hurricane Girl is the perfect, fast-paced poolside read

If you’re looking for a quick read that tightropes between comedy and horror, you need to pre-order Marcy Dermansky’s newest novel, Hurricane Girl.

The novel follows Allison Brody, a 30-something woman who escapes an abusive relationship, drives across the country to live in a quiet beachfront house. And all is well until… a hurricane destroys Allison’s ramshackle home and her dream life. Uprooted, Allison checks into a motel, goes to a bar, meets a nice man goes home with him, and said man hits her over the head with a glass vase.

By the way, this is only the first 20 pages of Hurricane Girl. Allison then almost immediately drives from North Carolina back to her hometown in New Jersey (?!?!). We follow Allison as she recovers from this traumatic incident, as she oscillates between anger and resignation, between revenge and escapism.

My only complaint about Hurricane Girl was that it ended a tad abruptly for me. The ending, however, does not negate the experience of reading Hurricane Girl and seeing how Dermansky strikes a delicate balance between comedy and horror and what is & isn’t reality.

If you’re a fan of Dermansky’s previous book Very Nice (a decadent yet literary read)—Hurricane Girl will also be right up your alley, although it is definitely darker than Very Nice (thought just as funny).

Hurricane Girl comes out on June 14th. Pre-order Dermansky’s fifth novel from your favorite bookstore.