The Good Timing of Catastrophes
Review of ‘Catastrophe Theory’ by Rebecca Lowry Warchut
TW: Mentions of illness.
From AI technology to brain tumors, first love to hurricanes, this YA book has a bit of everything to keep a reader turning the page.
A little bit about the story: Vera is a typical seventeen-year-old with an atypical problem: she has a brain tumor that has affected her sight to the point where she has very limited vision. From being a soccer star at her high school, she’s now having to deal with the big “C” as she and her mother Eliza fly down to St. Petersburg in Florida to have a surgery that will hopefully save Vera’s vision — and her life.
But her mother has a lot of secrets of her own, and many of them are tied up with Lucia, one of the candidates vying for the job of director at the prestigious Dalítorium — a museum in St. Petersburg dedicated to the life and art of Salvador Dalí.
As the story progresses, the family’s secrets are revealed one by one as a category 5 hurricane descends on the city. Vera has to struggle not only with her own illness but also finding out the secrets her mother has held for so long. Will the truth destroy her, like the hurricane is predicted to cause ruination to the city of St. Petersburg?
