The Stormchasers

Charles Hollingdahl leaves his twin sister, Karena, behind when his bipolar disorder becomes too hard for his family to cope with. After 20 years of searching, Karena, now a journalist, finds her "missing half" while researching a storm-chasing story. Celeste Ciulla presents a credible portrayal of Karena's struggles to foster her relationships with both her brother and her lover, who is a friend of Charles. Ciulla is harder to believe, however, in performing the men in the story, who sound stereotypically scratchy and stilted. The thinly crafted plot does not make her job any easier. Delivering the excellent meteorological descriptions, however, presents no problem for Ciulla, and the dramatic storms provide the best parts of the production. R.L.L. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

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.