Chasing Helicity

Zee, Ginger. Chasing Helicity. 2018. 204p. ISBN 9781484780381.

Almost done with middle school, Helicity has always liked the weather, and the stronger the weather pattern, the better. Her parents, however, don't share her interest, and they generally prefer her older brother, a football star heading to college on a full scholarship. Helicity, who was named after her grandmother's favorite weather phenomenon, the spinning of a tornado, loves that her grandmother was a pioneer in weather predicting and in studying storms.

Escaping a party at her home, Helicity heads to the local peak with her horse, only to see a freak tornado forming in the distance. When it destroys her home in Michigan, Helicity finds herself living in a motel with a brother who's been hurt looking for her. Helicity has to contend with the guilt that her brother may never play football again, even as he begins abusing pain killers.

When an opportunity to study storms present itself, Helicity takes it with her parents' begrudging permission, and she heads out west chasing storms. But sometimes, the chaser becomes the person being chased, and storms do not care for humans. Helicity's choices are about to change her life ...