The Light Pirate

Published in 2022, Lily Brooks-Dalton’s The Light Pirate is an adult dystopian fiction/magical realism novel. Climate change accelerates, pushing Florida into a future where hurricanes are fiercer, rising sea levels reshape the landscape, and the state faces apocalypse. The story follows the Lowe family and Wanda, an unusual child born during a catastrophic storm, as they navigate the collapse of civilization. The novel is a Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee for Fiction (2023) and explores themes of survival, family, and the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness.

Citations in this study guide refer to the ebook edition released by Grand Central Publishing in 2022.

Content Warning: The source material contains depictions of the deaths of children and parents.

Plot Summary

Frida meets a lineman named Kirby Lowe in the aftermath of a hurricane that strikes San Juan, Puerto Rico. A year later, the couple are married and expecting a child as another tropical storm approaches their home in Rudder, Florida. Frida anxiously entreats Kirby to head inland with her, but he insists his preparations will be enough to keep them and his two sons, Lucas and Flip, safe. The power goes out overnight, and Kirby’s foreman calls him into work early in the morning. While he is away, Frida begins having contractions, and Lucas convinces Flip to sneak out and play in a nearby trailer park with him. When Kirby returns home from work and sees that the boys are missing, he hurries off to search for them. As the boys try to make their way home through the storm, Flip is carried away by the winds. A shell-shocked Lucas takes shelter with Phyllis, a neighbor who is a survivalist. Kirby brings Lucas home, where he finds Frida and their newborn daughter lying on the kitchen floor. Frida names the baby Wanda after the hurricane and then succumbs to blood loss.

The narrative moves 10 years into the future. Lucas, now 22, works with his father as a lineman, braving increasingly catastrophic weather, dwindling crew members, and insufficient equipment to try to keep the lights on in Rudder. Lucas secretly applies to college in the hope that an education could help him save his dying town. On her last day of summer vacation, Wanda sneaks to the Edge, the dangerous place where the crumbling boardwalk meets the hungry sea. The town’s inhabitants superstitiously blame her for Rudder’s decline because she is named after the hurricane that devastated the area 10 years ago. A group of bullies push her into the ocean. A girl named Brie tells the boys to leave Wanda alone, but her twin brother, Corey, holds Wanda’s head underwater. Suddenly, Wanda begins to glow. The light spreads across the sea, causing the alarmed bullies to retreat.

After Wanda visits the Edge, Kirby doesn’t trust her to stay at home unsupervised. He arranges for her to go to Phyllis’s house after school. The 10-year-old is fascinated by the retired biology teacher’s extensive scientific knowledge and ease in nature. During a visit to one of Phyllis’s research plots, Wanda falls into a lagoon, and little lights appear and try to speak with her. Together, they investigate the phenomenon and discover that the mysterious lights fill any body of water Wanda touches.

Months later, the town’s municipality goes bankrupt, and the city hall shuts down. Lucas is accepted to Berkeley, and Kirby applies to jobs near the university. Wanda has no desire to leave Phyllis or the land that her friend has taught her to love. A week before Wanda and her father are meant to join Lucas in California, a flood kills Kirby. Wanda decides to stay with Phyllis rather than live with her brother. The following spring, the United States government declares that Florida will be closed in a year. Most residents evacuate, but Phyllis and Wanda remain in the dangerous swamp that was once Rudder. When Wanda is 16, Lucas returns. He wasn’t able to complete his degree because the university system shut down. Instead, he’s been using his lineman’s skills to help people in need. He stays with Wanda and Phyllis for a month before leaving again to do what he can to mitigate the crumbling of society.

One day, Corey spots Wanda and Phyllis when they’re out gathering supplies. Corey and his father break into the women’s home at night, and Wanda kills them both. Phyllis and Wanda burn their house and withdraw into a shelter up in the treetops of a nearby swamp. The intruders’ attack leaves Phyllis with a traumatic brain injury, and her memories gradually fade. One night, she loses her way in the swamp and rebukes Wanda for illuminating the water to find her, implying that the intruders discovered their previous home because of her glow. Wanda patiently cares for and protects her aging friend.

Years later, Phyllis dies, and Wanda uses the lessons her friend taught her to survive on her own. One of those lessons is to stay away from the few remaining humans in Rudder. However, Wanda’s crushing loneliness leads her to break this rule and forge a tentative connection with a woman called Bird Dog. Wanda flees from Bird Dog when she realizes that she is Corey’s sister, Brie. She observes Bird Dog in secret and learns that the woman belongs to an unlikely family of six unrelated drifters. Wanda joins Bird Dog on a scavenging mission but then flees from her again when Bird Dog suggests that Wanda light up the water. Her flight causes Wanda to be out on open water when the dangerously hot sun rises.

Although Wanda makes it home, the lingering effects of her heatstroke prevent her from noticing the approach of a hurricane three nights later. Caught by surprise, she curls up in her buffeted canoe. The water in Wanda’s canoe shines like a spotlight and guides Bird Dog to her. She pulls Wanda out of the water and shelters under the inverted canoe with her. After the storm passes, Wanda tells Bird Dog that she won’t run away from her again, and they kiss. The storm destroyed the shelter used by Bird Dog’s community, so Wanda guides them all to her home. Wanda and Bird Dog enjoy a long and beautiful life together. Their community thrives and grows, and multiple children develop supernatural abilities that help them adapt to their ever-changing environment. As Wanda’s life draws to a close, she sees the light choose a new keeper and feels at peace.