Anna's House – It's Full of Books

More information about the book

Full title: What Stands in a Storm: A True Story of Love and Resilience in the Worst Superstorm in History

Author: Kim Cross

Genre: Nonfiction

Number of pages: 320 (very hard to read through the tears) pages in my paperback edition

What the book is about: The devastating tornado outbreak (one of them anyway) that hit the South of the U.S. in April 2011. The book is set in Alabama most of the time, and we follow the lives of those impacted by the tornadoes, before, during and after the disasters.

My review

(I amended the one I’ve already posted on Goodreads and The Story Graph and added some things.)

But first, my rating: 4 tearful stars.

The original review (spoiler-free):

A fantastic read, very informative, but the best part of it is probably the way it brought to life so many people who were affected by the April 2011 tornado outbreak(s). Brought tears to my eyes many times over.

The only “fault” that I would say this book has (and it’s not a fault per se) is the way some stories/chapters broke the pace of the book overall, by going into relative detail into past events.

What I want to add (which is NOT spoiler-free):

I’ve said above that the book is very informative. And it is. And maybe you don’t know if you should read it because you’re not very interested in tornadoes in the first place. But the thing is, this book, while being very informative, is also very accessible. Everything that you need to know about tornadoes, if it’s the first book you really read about them, is explained, and in an accessible way, which is great. And the book still isn’t boring, or maybe it is sometimes, but not in a lot of places. Coming back to that later.

Or right now, because, you know, structure (yeah, that’s my teacher’s mind speaking xD). I’ve mentioned that some of the chapters broke the pace of the book. They were, for me, the hardest to go through, because I’d become so attached to some of the people this book is about (and I can’t say characters, obviously, because those people are, or were, real), and then there’s a chapter which is more about science, or about the meteorologists warning people in the affected areas… And it just took me away from the stories I was more invested now.

But that’s probably because I was more invested in the people the tornadoes affected than the meteorologists. Though some of the chapters featuring them really made my heart ache as well.

And while we’re talking about my heart aching… Spoiler alert first! You’re going to read the stories of some people who didn’t make it. And you’re going to be so invested in their lives, and your hearts are going to break when you learn about their fates. And the people they left behind. Those chapters at the end, dealing with the families of some of the teenagers who died… I quite literally cried my heart out.

Here is a quote that really moved me, about someone who lost her sister in the outbreak.

Michelle raised her chin and smiled through the tears as she walked in her sister’s shoes.

And here is another one, about that same person who hears her sister speaking to her (in a way) in a dream:

“It is not your time. But I will see you again.”

While the book talks about fatalities, it also talks about survivors. And their stories, and how they overcame their trauma, were so touching as well. Here is, again, a quote to illustrate that:

She turned around to face Adam Watley, the paramedic who rescued her on April 27. She hugged his neck and burst into tears.

And I’m going to stop there with the sad quotes.

And also with the review, because nothing else really comes to mind. I just hope you’ll give this book a chance, because it certainly deserves one.

If you happen to have read it, you can tell me what you thought about it in the comments!