The Stormchasers

March 1, 2010
Blum (Those Who Save Us
) visits Tornado Alley in this vivid novel about a set of twins with a dark history. At home in Minnesota, Karena Jorge gets an unexpected call informing her that her twin brother, Charles Hallingdahl, whom she hasn't seen in the 20 years since something went very wrong during a storm chase, has been admitted to a Kansas mental hospital. Charles suffers from rapid cycling bipolar disorder, and all Karena knows is that he refuses medication, he can be a danger to himself and others, and he is still obsessed with storm chasing. When she rushes to the clinic and finds he has already left, Karena joins a professional storm-chasing tour company, hoping to find her brother in the caravan of watchers who follow major storms. In the course of the tour, Karena confronts the past and the way it has shaped her life. The unpredictable and dangerous storms provide a framework for an exploration of the bond between siblings (and its limitations), and Blum renders the stormy backdrop as richly as she does her nuanced characters.

March 15, 2010
A somber, effective portrait of twins—of the strength they gain and the harm they do to one another.

Karena hasn't seen her twin Charles in 20 years, since he was 18 and briefly committed to a psychiatric ward for his bipolar disorder. Now on their birthday, it seems both surprising and perfectly natural that she should receive a call from a mental-health clinic in Kansas. After years of trying, she has found Charles, the joyous other half of herself, and also the source of her guilt. She leaves Minneapolis the next day but is crushed to discover he's checked himself out. As Charles is a lifelong stormchaser (in fact his published photographs of tornados are the only evidence Karena has had over the years that he's still alive), Karena decides to join a storm-chasing tour. A staff reporter for a Minneapolis paper, Karena uses the story she is writing about summer stormchasers as a cover to question everyone she meets for information on Charles. Along the way Karena begins a relationship with Kevin, one of the tour operators, who was once close friends with Charles but, like Karena, was banished when Kevin had Charles hospitalized for dangerous behavior. Kevin and Karena survive an almost fatal storm, and just as the tour ends, there's a miracle at the end of the rainbow—Karena finds Charles, who was close by all the time (in fact, during his 20-year absence he has kept tabs on Karena) and ready to go home. The narrative steps back to their 18th birthday and the events that drove them apart—his mania and suicidal depression, a storm, an accident, a murder, a guilty secret that has haunted them for 20 years. Charles' storminess (he imagines his illness like a storm, a natural, neutral phenomenon) is beautifully rendered—Blum offers a meticulous portrait of bipolar disorder and the heartbreaking damage it does to those it affects.

A strong second novel from bestseller Blum (Those Who Save Us, 2004, etc.).

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April 15, 2010
Thirtysomething Minnesota newspaper reporter Karena Jorge is on a mission to Tornado Alley, ostensibly on assignment to cover a storm-chasing tour group but in reality on a quest to find her twin brother, Charles Hallingdahl, who is bipolar and has just been released from a Kansas hospital. Charles has been chasing storms of one form or another for the 20 years that Karena has been searching for him, ever since an unspeakable tragedy drove him away from home when they were 18. Karena knows that following the storm chasers is her best hope of finding him again. But she didn't know that she would fall for tour guide Kevin Weibke along the way or that he would have his own history with Charles. Mystery, romance, and adventure blend well in this meticulously researched tale. The author's use of the present tense for the main narrative and the extensive flashback can be unnerving and serves little purpose, but the pace and dialog are breezy enough by midpoint to carry the reader along. This is an honest depiction of mental illness told with all the pain, humor, hubris, and guilt that the "healthy" sibling bears. VERDICT Undiscriminating women's fiction fans and those with a special interest in extreme weather should welcome Boston resident and creative writing instructor Blum's second novel (after "Those Who Save Us"). [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 1/10.]Jenn B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll.-Northeast, TX

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2010
Twins Karena and Charles share an unbreakable bondand a devastating secret. Twenty years ago, 18-year-old Charles, who suffers from bipolar disorder, and his sister were out storm chasing when they collided with a motorcyclist. The two swore to each other they wouldnt report the deadly incident to authorities; after all, they were legal adults and could do serious prison time. In the years that followed, the siblings disappeared from each others lives. Karena pursued a career as a newspaper reporter. Charles endured stints at various mental-health facilities and fed his true passion: chasing storms. (He always said that his mental state was akin to a tornado: terrifying and unpredictable as it spun out of control.) When Karena receives a distressing phone message about Charles, she ventures into the eye of the stormliterallyto find him. Blum (Those Who Save Us, 2005) intertwines two narratives: Karenas search for Charles (and induction into the wild world of weather) and her recollections of their rocky childhood. The tales work together nicely in this moving, if occasionally overwrought, novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)