Who Knows the Storm

I’m continually fascinated by post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories. Great worldbuilding aside – and unlike science-fiction, paranormal, or fantasy – these genres are in the unique position of actually being possible. Mother Nature hasn’t been peaceful in recent years and extreme weather conditions have hit multitudes across the world. Hence, in my mind anyway, the world, a country, or in this instance, an island - New York City – being consumed by a tragic weather anomaly could occur at any time. The decision Nox Boyet has made, to stay in the city of his birth and to protect its citizens from the criminals and gangs that inevitably spring up when disaster occurs, is certainly one I can respect and admire.

“The District—welcome to Las Vegas’s sluttier cousin.”

Nox was sixteen when the rains came to New York, when the flooding began and people started dying, when he was left alone in his parents’ brownstone – his father having died and his mother in a sanitarium north of the city, and when Nox died on an overcrowded ferry in storm-swept waters on Evacuation Day. Or, at least, that’s what Nox has allowed everyone to believe and his name is listed on the plaque commemorating those who died that day. Seventeen years later he still lives in the brownstone in Old City, works an electrician’s job during the day, fights to raise his teenage adopted son, and at night he walks the streets to protect his part of the city from the drug dealers and gangs. The area of the city that used to be Central Park and the wealthy homes is now New City and the District, made up of glitzy hotels, casinos and brothels that cater to the wealthy tourists who want something different than they can find elsewhere. It is there that Cade works as a “model” in the Iron Butterfly, the oldest and classiest of the establishments.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to do this with someone where money wasn’t exchanged? Wouldn’t it be lovely to be with someone just for the experience? He’d never had that. But that wasn’t his life. He had a job to do.”

Cade grew up on an old established family farm in South Carolina, one where parcels had been sold off through the years as the family couldn’t fiscally hold on to it due to drought or other disasters. When he came home after graduating from college with a degree in English literature and no job prospects, he got some modeling jobs and then a few more, and then he met a recruiter for the Iron Butterfly in the District – where they were fighting the federal government to legalize prostitution on the island. Initially, Cade thought the whole thing was a joke, at least until the recruiter wrote a number on a piece of paper, and then Cade wasn’t laughing anymore. Now he’s one of the most recognizable faces in New City, commands a lot of money for his time, and he decides whether his time involves sexual activity or not. It is Cade who keeps the family farm afloat (much to his father and brothers’ disgust) by sending money home.

There are a lot of people with a lot of secrets in this book. Nox, Sam, Cade, Rachel, Mr. White, and many more. Each layer that gets uncovered produces more depths and more people involved back to the very beginning when Nox was a teenager and his father was killed. Not to mention Nox’s activities as the Vigilante has caught the interest of people who want him dead for his destruction of the drug trade that is making dealers a lot of money.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot due to its suspenseful aspect. I was a little disappointed that the love story portion wasn’t more fleshed out although the circumstances didn’t really allow for that. I can give a warning that this novel ends on a cliffhanger with Nox, Sam, Cade, and Rachel leaving the city via boat and heading to Cade’s home in South Carolina. I suspect that Nox and Cade will be returning to the city at some point in the future as Nox still needs answers as to who is behind all the deaths and the threats to his, Sam’s, and Cade’s lives. I will definitely enjoy reading the second installment and getting some answers which currently elude me.