These Summer Storms

The novel’s opening pages highlight its focus on turbulent, unsettling weather: “A rumble [sounds] in the distance…the heavy promise of a nearby storm” (13). This line foreshadows both the literal storms that will strike the island and the emotional upheavals about to unfold. Summer storms by the water arrive quickly, with streaks of lightning and booming thunder, soaking everything before giving way to clear skies. Likewise, each family confrontation mirrors this weather pattern of erupting chaos, emerging truth, and a strange clarity taking hold afterward. Franklin Storm’s tech empire, Storm Inc., features a cyclone as its symbol, a visual emblem of his power, a force that pulls everything into its center and leaves destruction in its wake. For his children, that name is both a privilege and a trap, connecting their identities to a legacy of control, manipulation, and the suppression of their independence. Long before a weather front darkens the sky, the Storm family is in the eye of a metaphorical squall.

Alice describes how the sand dollars “lie flat and isolate themselves. For protection. […] The best way to weather storms” (157). The starfish’s defensive instincts parallel those of the Storm children, who have survived their father’s manipulation by hiding parts of themselves, lying low, and avoiding confrontation until they’re ready.