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The Displacements
To all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna—the world’s first category 6 hurricane—upends everything they have taken for granted.
When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing, and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rushof evacuees from across the American South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will “normal” ever return?
A suspenseful read plotted on a vast national tapestry, The Displacements thrillingly explores what happens when privilege is lost and resilience is tested in a swiftly changing world.
When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing, and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rushof evacuees from across the American South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will “normal” ever return?
A suspenseful read plotted on a vast national tapestry, The Displacements thrillingly explores what happens when privilege is lost and resilience is tested in a swiftly changing world.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published July 5, 2022
399 people are currently reading
20.1k people want to read
About the author
Bruce Holsinger
20books862followersBruce Holsinger is the author of five novels, including Culpability (forthcoming from Spiegel & Grau), The Displacements and The Gifted School (both from Riverhead), and many works of nonfiction, most recently On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age (Yale University Press). His books have been recognized with the Colorado Book Award, the John Hurt Fisher Prize, the Philip Brett Award, the John Nicholas Brown Prize, the Modern Language Association's Prize for a First Book, and others. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and many other publications and he has been profiled on NPR's Weekend Edition, Here & Now, and Marketplace. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
He teaches in the Department of English at the University of Virginia, where he specializes in medieval literature and modern critical thought and serves as editor of the quarterly journal New Literary History. He also teaches craft classes and serves as board chairman for WriterHouse, a local nonprofit in Charlottesville.
He teaches in the Department of English at the University of Virginia, where he specializes in medieval literature and modern critical thought and serves as editor of the quarterly journal New Literary History. He also teaches craft classes and serves as board chairman for WriterHouse, a local nonprofit in Charlottesville.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 937 reviews
July 19, 2022
Miami is booming. According to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal, the cost of apartments is rising faster in and around the Magic City than anywhere else in the United States.
“In some desirable neighborhoods,” the Journal reports, “landlords are doubling the rent after a lease expires because they know transplants from the Northeast and West Coast are willing to pay that much more.”
Before loading your moving van, read “The Displacements,” by Bruce Holsinger. Yes, it’s just a novel, but Holsinger has built an apocalyptic plot on ground more secure than the foundations of many Miami homes. After all, considering the risks of hurricanes and floods driven by climate change, Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan economic think tank, called Miami “the most vulnerable major coastal city in the world.”
Of course, we’re tragically adept at discounting scientific projections about storm surges and deaths per 100,000, particularly if those surges cause the deaths of people we never meet. But Holsinger brings the cost of climate change home — home to McMansions in Coral Gables, Fla. The folks in this wealthy community imagine that tornadoes hit only trailer homes and that if the weather turns nasty for a spell, they can always decamp to their cottages in Michigan. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
“In some desirable neighborhoods,” the Journal reports, “landlords are doubling the rent after a lease expires because they know transplants from the Northeast and West Coast are willing to pay that much more.”
Before loading your moving van, read “The Displacements,” by Bruce Holsinger. Yes, it’s just a novel, but Holsinger has built an apocalyptic plot on ground more secure than the foundations of many Miami homes. After all, considering the risks of hurricanes and floods driven by climate change, Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan economic think tank, called Miami “the most vulnerable major coastal city in the world.”
Of course, we’re tragically adept at discounting scientific projections about storm surges and deaths per 100,000, particularly if those surges cause the deaths of people we never meet. But Holsinger brings the cost of climate change home — home to McMansions in Coral Gables, Fla. The folks in this wealthy community imagine that tornadoes hit only trailer homes and that if the weather turns nasty for a spell, they can always decamp to their cottages in Michigan. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
August 24, 2022
. . . after Tuesday there's not going to be a Miami.
You want the world to pay attention to your story, you make it all about white people in peril. Works every time.
Take a family (very white, very over privileged), comprised of the type of people who buy 68 dollar ice cream cakes for an eight-year-old's birthday party, force them to flee their McMansion in a hurry as the first ever Category 6 hurricane barrels toward Florida, take away EVERYTHING from their credit cards to their dignity, and force them to live in a tent in the middle of a field, and you just know you've got some tasty drama on your hands.
The author mixes up the action at thecamp (because camp has negative connotations, we'll call it a "megashelter"), with historical reports of The Great Displacement, interviews with survivors, and climate scientists that can be unnerving, subtle reminders that even though you may be feeling smug, sitting high and dry hundreds of miles inland, when a massive storm (and notice I said, when, not if) hits a major city (or two), you WILL be impacted.
The biggest takeaways here are a lesson in resilience, and the philosopher Vonnegut's message about being kind.
Oh, that, and the fact that we should ALL be prepared, because what is to come is not going to be pretty.
You want the world to pay attention to your story, you make it all about white people in peril. Works every time.
Take a family (very white, very over privileged), comprised of the type of people who buy 68 dollar ice cream cakes for an eight-year-old's birthday party, force them to flee their McMansion in a hurry as the first ever Category 6 hurricane barrels toward Florida, take away EVERYTHING from their credit cards to their dignity, and force them to live in a tent in the middle of a field, and you just know you've got some tasty drama on your hands.
The author mixes up the action at the
The biggest takeaways here are a lesson in resilience, and the philosopher Vonnegut's message about being kind.
Oh, that, and the fact that we should ALL be prepared, because what is to come is not going to be pretty.
August 1, 2022
I was in the middle of what I think will be one of my top books of the year (FRESH WATER FOR FLOWERS) when my preorder of this book came out. What’s one to do? My choice was to binge the new!
This is a page turner in the best of ways: well written, great character development with all of the relationships (between the family members especially) so believable. And most of all this book is about the very timely reality of our changing climate and the disasters that are happening. Good fiction can be the best way to experience empathy. It isn’t always “them” who are dealing with natural disasters (or fleeing another country due to war or other circumstances). Sometimes it is US.
Highly recommend this one. Another winner from Bruce Holsinger.
Notes to self RE small joys:
When one character (not a savory one btw) says “between you and I” and our protagonist, who has much bigger fish to fry than grammar, responds with “between you and ME” before going on with her conversation. ❤️
I was listening to the audible and when they ask Alexa to turn on a certain television show my obedient Alexa did just that. Life imitating art 😂
This is a page turner in the best of ways: well written, great character development with all of the relationships (between the family members especially) so believable. And most of all this book is about the very timely reality of our changing climate and the disasters that are happening. Good fiction can be the best way to experience empathy. It isn’t always “them” who are dealing with natural disasters (or fleeing another country due to war or other circumstances). Sometimes it is US.
Highly recommend this one. Another winner from Bruce Holsinger.
Notes to self RE small joys:
When one character (not a savory one btw) says “between you and I” and our protagonist, who has much bigger fish to fry than grammar, responds with “between you and ME” before going on with her conversation. ❤️
I was listening to the audible and when they ask Alexa to turn on a certain television show my obedient Alexa did just that. Life imitating art 😂
Read
August 31, 2022When there is any natural disaster in the world, but not your world, do you ever wonder how the people cope? Have you imagined losing all you own, everything you've worked for, the magnitude of having to truly start all over again? It's easy to say “but I'm alive”; yet how do you continue to live under these devastating circumstances?
Bruce Holsinger's Displacements is an authentic rendering of the force of mother nature's wrath and the the destruction it leaves behind. From the beginning, when residents of Coral Gables to Miami, FL must grab what they can and evacuate, this reader felt their fear in ways I never thought about.
The characters we follow throughout this tragedy of devastation is a wealthy one, a mother and two teens, who must flee the Category 6 Hurricane that is approaching Miami. The mother, an artist, the wife of a surgeon, soon realizes the depth of her family's plight. Her purse is mistakenly left behind. No money, no credit cards, no ID. She struggles to feed her family, find gas for the car, as she tries to get them to a shelter. They end up in a government encampment. Food, clothing, toilets, privacy, all we take for granted must be rationed and shared.. You'd think those in the same boat would band together but just like any community there are thefts, crimes, fights, racial prejudice, and the government to contend with. Not exactly the safe haven she envisioned.
Displacements is a thriller to be certain, but also an eye-opener, one that is thought provoking on many levels. It is a fast paced page-turner, one that reads like non-fiction. It is already of my best 2022 reads and likely will be an all-time favorite, one remembered for years to come.
This is the first book I've read by Bruce Holsinger. Thankfully, he has a healthy backlist for me to choose from. What should I try next?
Bruce Holsinger's Displacements is an authentic rendering of the force of mother nature's wrath and the the destruction it leaves behind. From the beginning, when residents of Coral Gables to Miami, FL must grab what they can and evacuate, this reader felt their fear in ways I never thought about.
The characters we follow throughout this tragedy of devastation is a wealthy one, a mother and two teens, who must flee the Category 6 Hurricane that is approaching Miami. The mother, an artist, the wife of a surgeon, soon realizes the depth of her family's plight. Her purse is mistakenly left behind. No money, no credit cards, no ID. She struggles to feed her family, find gas for the car, as she tries to get them to a shelter. They end up in a government encampment. Food, clothing, toilets, privacy, all we take for granted must be rationed and shared.. You'd think those in the same boat would band together but just like any community there are thefts, crimes, fights, racial prejudice, and the government to contend with. Not exactly the safe haven she envisioned.
Displacements is a thriller to be certain, but also an eye-opener, one that is thought provoking on many levels. It is a fast paced page-turner, one that reads like non-fiction. It is already of my best 2022 reads and likely will be an all-time favorite, one remembered for years to come.
This is the first book I've read by Bruce Holsinger. Thankfully, he has a healthy backlist for me to choose from. What should I try next?
July 13, 2022
this surprised me in the best ways—it was truly such a thought provoking and suspenseful read. i really enjoyed it and the author did a fantastic job weaving the future and past together… some paragraphs left me speechless as he put my thoughts into words in the most elegant and relatable way.
it’s a futuristic/dystopian novel, but extremely suspenseful. despite its length, it moves very quickly. i think i finished in 3 sittings (420+ pages). lots of dialogue and fun images/newspaper clippings/etc. throughout.
if you liked LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND, you should definitely pick this one up. it’s stronger and has some similar elements and themes.
thankful to the Riverhead team for sending this my way and putting it on my radar!
it’s a futuristic/dystopian novel, but extremely suspenseful. despite its length, it moves very quickly. i think i finished in 3 sittings (420+ pages). lots of dialogue and fun images/newspaper clippings/etc. throughout.
if you liked LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND, you should definitely pick this one up. it’s stronger and has some similar elements and themes.
thankful to the Riverhead team for sending this my way and putting it on my radar!
August 21, 2022
Two stars for "it was okay."
This book is designed to generate unease in the reader. It focuses on a wealthy white woman who needs to get her three children out of Miami as a Cat 6 hurricane approaches. Her surgeon husband stays behind to manage hospital duties. Somehow her purse gets left behind, and she is left with no money, no phone, no ID, no credit cards. The family abandons their minivan when they run out of gas, and eventually ends up at a FEMA megashelter in Oklahoma. There, a microcosm of American society is rebuilt, along with its accompanying moments of kindness, terror, racism, violence, and magic. Other main characters include Rain, the Black woman who runs the megashelter, and Tate/Steven, an insurance man/drug dealer from Houston who goes to the shelter to "help"/sell drugs. We get some of everyone's back stories, which lends a bit of nuance to each of their characters, but not much.
I almost put this book down because the plot felt lazy, but somehow I finished it in bits of time here and there (that's what happens when you can read a book on your phone). I'm left with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, that "I can't believe I read the whole thing" sensation. There are some moments that rise above the muck - like when young Mia recognizes that the children in the camp are "doing the work" around antiracism through their Range game and are on their own because the adults aren't "doing the work." (Mia's character is arguably the most developed of them all.) But there are more moments that made me cringe a bit, like how much the author relied on the "strong Black woman" trope when writing Rain's character, and how the wealthy white family is fine in the end because all of their travails are overcome-able and in fact seem to bring them a new kind of centered happiness. And the bit about getting their minivan back in the end was just ludicrous.
Moving on to something else.
This book is designed to generate unease in the reader. It focuses on a wealthy white woman who needs to get her three children out of Miami as a Cat 6 hurricane approaches. Her surgeon husband stays behind to manage hospital duties. Somehow her purse gets left behind, and she is left with no money, no phone, no ID, no credit cards. The family abandons their minivan when they run out of gas, and eventually ends up at a FEMA megashelter in Oklahoma. There, a microcosm of American society is rebuilt, along with its accompanying moments of kindness, terror, racism, violence, and magic. Other main characters include Rain, the Black woman who runs the megashelter, and Tate/Steven, an insurance man/drug dealer from Houston who goes to the shelter to "help"/sell drugs. We get some of everyone's back stories, which lends a bit of nuance to each of their characters, but not much.
I almost put this book down because the plot felt lazy, but somehow I finished it in bits of time here and there (that's what happens when you can read a book on your phone). I'm left with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, that "I can't believe I read the whole thing" sensation. There are some moments that rise above the muck - like when young Mia recognizes that the children in the camp are "doing the work" around antiracism through their Range game and are on their own because the adults aren't "doing the work." (Mia's character is arguably the most developed of them all.) But there are more moments that made me cringe a bit, like how much the author relied on the "strong Black woman" trope when writing Rain's character, and how the wealthy white family is fine in the end because all of their travails are overcome-able and in fact seem to bring them a new kind of centered happiness. And the bit about getting their minivan back in the end was just ludicrous.
Moving on to something else.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 3, 2022
This is outstanding!! Enjoy!!
July 14, 2022
Thanks to @riverheadbooks for both an ARC and finished copy of #TheDisplacements.
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 by Bruce Holsinger is a wild ride that will leave you with a whole lot to think about. After an unprecedented category 6 hurricane hits Florida and Texas within a 10 day span, Daphne Larsen-Hall finds herself, her college age step-son and her two young children displaced, along with millions of other Americans. Adding to the confusion, all her ID was left behind, and her husband is nowhere to be found. The family ends up in a mega-shelter, living in a tent in rural Oklahoma together with thousands of others left homeless. For the first time in her life, Daphne experiences what it’s like to live going without, to have no money, to lose any semblance of a safety net, even as her skin color continues to offer protection others are denied.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 is a wonderfully written cautionary tale of a future none of us want. Through the eyes of the director of the Oklahoma shelter and others, the reader is forced to take a closer look at the growing impact of global warming on our planet. Wildfires, heatwaves, tornadoes, and hurricanes all seem to be more prevalent as time moves on. Yet our preparedness for disasters lags and our willingness to enact change moves much too slowly. With thoughtful, creative prose and characters I grew to really care about, Holsinger delivers a story that is at the same time compelling AND terrifying. I highly recommend this one! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 by Bruce Holsinger is a wild ride that will leave you with a whole lot to think about. After an unprecedented category 6 hurricane hits Florida and Texas within a 10 day span, Daphne Larsen-Hall finds herself, her college age step-son and her two young children displaced, along with millions of other Americans. Adding to the confusion, all her ID was left behind, and her husband is nowhere to be found. The family ends up in a mega-shelter, living in a tent in rural Oklahoma together with thousands of others left homeless. For the first time in her life, Daphne experiences what it’s like to live going without, to have no money, to lose any semblance of a safety net, even as her skin color continues to offer protection others are denied.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 is a wonderfully written cautionary tale of a future none of us want. Through the eyes of the director of the Oklahoma shelter and others, the reader is forced to take a closer look at the growing impact of global warming on our planet. Wildfires, heatwaves, tornadoes, and hurricanes all seem to be more prevalent as time moves on. Yet our preparedness for disasters lags and our willingness to enact change moves much too slowly. With thoughtful, creative prose and characters I grew to really care about, Holsinger delivers a story that is at the same time compelling AND terrifying. I highly recommend this one! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
July 31, 2022
So many things brought up in The Displacements were interesting and thought-provoking, it was really an encapsulation of worst-case scenarios and all of my fears. Some things I felt could've been left out but it overall held my attention very well.
July 17, 2022
2.5 stars rounded down
Overly long, slow, and chock full of unlikeable characters making terrible decisions. The writing was very surface-level but the message was very heavy-handed.
Overly long, slow, and chock full of unlikeable characters making terrible decisions. The writing was very surface-level but the message was very heavy-handed.
November 27, 2022
Though this novel isn’t horror whatsoever, it terrified me because it’s a look at what is coming, or what is already here: the climate crisis, worsening storms, the devastation it wreaks on people’s lives. A hurricane—the first category 6–has hit Miami and is soon to hit Houston/Galveston. Those cities are gone, thousands if not millions of Americans are displaced, their lives uprooted completely, in a government system not equipped whatsoever to handle these problems. Don’t read this if you’re easily depressed by the evening news.
As he did in The Gifted School, this author gives us a cast of characters whose lives intersect at pivotal moments, and he plays those characters off one another in different ways, thrilling ways, and the end result is a smart social commentary that isn’t shy about the fact that it’s a social commentary. It’s Dickens for the Trump/Biden era (and just beyond). This is very much a NOW novel, in the immediate aftermath of COVID, when trust in the government is maybe at an all-time low. And maybe rightfully so. It’s from that comes The Displacements.
I’m not sure why exactly I knocked off a star, except it just feels right. I liked the characters but didn���t love them, couldn’t fully open my heart to them: they all have edges, they’re all fun to read about, but I couldn’t fully connect with them. But I could certainly easily connect with their plight.
As he did in The Gifted School, this author gives us a cast of characters whose lives intersect at pivotal moments, and he plays those characters off one another in different ways, thrilling ways, and the end result is a smart social commentary that isn’t shy about the fact that it’s a social commentary. It’s Dickens for the Trump/Biden era (and just beyond). This is very much a NOW novel, in the immediate aftermath of COVID, when trust in the government is maybe at an all-time low. And maybe rightfully so. It’s from that comes The Displacements.
I’m not sure why exactly I knocked off a star, except it just feels right. I liked the characters but didn���t love them, couldn’t fully open my heart to them: they all have edges, they’re all fun to read about, but I couldn’t fully connect with them. But I could certainly easily connect with their plight.
August 5, 2022
You know that's popular of a blinking, speechless Carrie Bradshaw? That was basically me when I finished this brilliant—and all too believeable—book.
Bruce Holsinger created an adrenaline-fueled narrative that kept me on the edge of my seat, a climate disaster scenario where the world's first Category 6 hurricane destroys Miami and Houston, forcing thousands (millions?) of IDPs (internally displaced persons) to flee.
There are shady characters aplenty paired with dramatic plotlines that feel lifted from the headlines. And I couldn't help but reach its suspenseful conclusion wildly impressed by the talent it took for Holsinger to pull this story off—a story that required no small amount of research and felt like he had a crystal ball in his office and could look into our (bleak) future as he wrote it.
Kirkus predicts this new release is "destined to be a blockbuster" while the NYT describes it as a "hypnotic," "upsetting" story that is a "thorough translation to fiction of what it can feel like to live right now."
I believe both things to be true, just as I believe I'll still be thinking about this book with every climate change headline I read in the future.
Bruce Holsinger created an adrenaline-fueled narrative that kept me on the edge of my seat, a climate disaster scenario where the world's first Category 6 hurricane destroys Miami and Houston, forcing thousands (millions?) of IDPs (internally displaced persons) to flee.
There are shady characters aplenty paired with dramatic plotlines that feel lifted from the headlines. And I couldn't help but reach its suspenseful conclusion wildly impressed by the talent it took for Holsinger to pull this story off—a story that required no small amount of research and felt like he had a crystal ball in his office and could look into our (bleak) future as he wrote it.
Kirkus predicts this new release is "destined to be a blockbuster" while the NYT describes it as a "hypnotic," "upsetting" story that is a "thorough translation to fiction of what it can feel like to live right now."
I believe both things to be true, just as I believe I'll still be thinking about this book with every climate change headline I read in the future.
August 3, 2022
I really tried with this book! I almost DNF at page 77, then again at page 123. I listened to the audio during the day, then read the physical book that evening. The characters are shallow and unlikable. That’s fine… sometimes that happens in books, movies, etc. But despite that this book was simply talk no action. Boring, boring, boring and more boring. I kept waiting on the twist. It happened but was predictable and didn’t really stand out in the story. I honestly feel like I wasted my time reading this book. I should have DNF at page 77. 🤷🏽♀️
July 19, 2022
Modern, sharp, incisive. Bruce Holsinger is a beautiful writer -- every word in this book is exacting, and the dread and tension that he extracts out of his plot and characters were truly riveting. I loved it.
July 30, 2022
I truly feel like I have just read a masterpiece. There were times when the reading was so intense that I had to take a break. And even, just now, as I have finished, I feel my heart beating a little faster. Much to think about…”maybe muddling through is underrated.”
July 21, 2022
3¾⭐
NARRATED BY🎙️Austenne Grey
NARRATION 📣She performed well enough…but all the POVs that she did sound alike and I couldn’t keep track of all of them.
Ɱ◎◎ĐႽ…
⬧ Slow-burn Survival Story ⬧ Intertwining stories from Hurricane aftermath ⬧ Climate change, FEMA, and the opioid crisis in relation to disasters ⬧ Sobering, eye-opening, & apocalyptic-ish
While not adrenaline-fueled like the synopsis states…it did have a near-apocalyptic feel to it. It started out like it might be action-packed but that only lasted for a short bit. It was definitely more lit-based than action-based. Focusing more on what the shelter/tent-city was like in Oklahoma that the family was bused to. I now know I’m quite happy I don’t live near the Ocean. If I did, after listening to this book, I definitely would want a better “bug-out” plan. Overall, it was dragged out a little too much with a rather meandering pace, especially the ending. Although I did like the closure that some threads were given.
Total Score 7.29/10⬧Opening-8⬧Characters-8⬧Plot-7⬧Atmosphere-7.5⬧Writing Style-7⬧Ending-7⬧Overall Enjoyment-7
NARRATED BY🎙️Austenne Grey
NARRATION 📣She performed well enough…but all the POVs that she did sound alike and I couldn’t keep track of all of them.
Ɱ◎◎ĐႽ…
⬧ Slow-burn Survival Story ⬧ Intertwining stories from Hurricane aftermath ⬧ Climate change, FEMA, and the opioid crisis in relation to disasters ⬧ Sobering, eye-opening, & apocalyptic-ish
While not adrenaline-fueled like the synopsis states…it did have a near-apocalyptic feel to it. It started out like it might be action-packed but that only lasted for a short bit. It was definitely more lit-based than action-based. Focusing more on what the shelter/tent-city was like in Oklahoma that the family was bused to. I now know I’m quite happy I don’t live near the Ocean. If I did, after listening to this book, I definitely would want a better “bug-out” plan. Overall, it was dragged out a little too much with a rather meandering pace, especially the ending. Although I did like the closure that some threads were given.
Total Score 7.29/10⬧Opening-8⬧Characters-8⬧Plot-7⬧Atmosphere-7.5⬧Writing Style-7⬧Ending-7⬧Overall Enjoyment-7
July 21, 2022
Add a weather emergency to lazily written stereotypes (oh those darn gun loving racist white people) and you degrade what should have been an environmental thriller into a WOKE wet-dream.
July 10, 2022
Thank you @novelvisits for the gifted ARC and @prhaudio for the complimentary audiobook.
I love novels that force me to consider what I would do in a harrowing situation and THE DISPLACEMENTS is one such climate fiction story.
The entire Florida Peninsula and Houston area are decimated by category 6 hurricane Luna. The consequences of impending climate change are catastrophic and displaces millions of people throughout America. The story follows the affluent Larsen-Hall family as they find themselves in the ominous aftermath of the hurricane.
I was immediately drawn into the story with its steady sense of foreboding and eerily plausible plot. As the family gets settled into a relief camp the story loses a bit of the fast-pacing it started out so strongly with and becomes more of a character study. The camp serves as a microcosm for society and Bruce Holsinger raises some interesting questions about race, privilege, and our collective responsibility to care for the earth. Some readers may find the messaging to be heavy-handed, but for me the book left me feeling concerned and contemplative.
Despite its 400+ page length I flew through the novel with a combination of print and audio. The story was well-narrated by Austenne Grey but I appreciated having the physical copy in front of me. Interspersed throughout the book is a digital chronicle of the disaster from a bird's eye perspective with maps that are best viewed vs listened to.
While this is an unsettling read, the way the author explores important themes resonated with me. I can see THE DISPLACEMENTS making for a fantastic book club discussion.
RATING: 4.5/5 stars
I love novels that force me to consider what I would do in a harrowing situation and THE DISPLACEMENTS is one such climate fiction story.
The entire Florida Peninsula and Houston area are decimated by category 6 hurricane Luna. The consequences of impending climate change are catastrophic and displaces millions of people throughout America. The story follows the affluent Larsen-Hall family as they find themselves in the ominous aftermath of the hurricane.
I was immediately drawn into the story with its steady sense of foreboding and eerily plausible plot. As the family gets settled into a relief camp the story loses a bit of the fast-pacing it started out so strongly with and becomes more of a character study. The camp serves as a microcosm for society and Bruce Holsinger raises some interesting questions about race, privilege, and our collective responsibility to care for the earth. Some readers may find the messaging to be heavy-handed, but for me the book left me feeling concerned and contemplative.
Despite its 400+ page length I flew through the novel with a combination of print and audio. The story was well-narrated by Austenne Grey but I appreciated having the physical copy in front of me. Interspersed throughout the book is a digital chronicle of the disaster from a bird's eye perspective with maps that are best viewed vs listened to.
While this is an unsettling read, the way the author explores important themes resonated with me. I can see THE DISPLACEMENTS making for a fantastic book club discussion.
RATING: 4.5/5 stars
July 28, 2022
Not my cup of tea. Good story but the writing was so so, the characters were shallow. The environmental message was important too heavy handed.
September 19, 2022
This book broke me, so I'm just going to pour it all out right here. Please excuse me for getting all personal about things that are meant to be about a fictional novel. This story is about a Cat 6 hurricane that first hits Miami and then circles the gulf to hit Houston. And I am crying.
In 2005, I lived in Alexandria, Louisiana, an easy 2 hours north of the gulf of Mexico. When Hurricane Katrina was making her way in, several of my friends from New Orleans and Baton Rouge and surrounding areas sluffed their way up to stay at my house for the weekend. We watched the stormless rain on CNN while we drank our alcohol of choice, having a hurricane party that was sort of fun and not particularly worrisome. And then the morning came, as the levies broke and things got unexpectedly scary.
I was a criminal defense lawyer, as were many of the folks at my house. And New Orleans and much of southern Louisiana and Mississippi were drowned. No one could go home to southern Louisiana. What happened to our clients -- especially people in the jails of southern Louisiana? A constantly rotating cast of folks camping out in my house and my office spent the next six months or so trying to figure out how to represent all the people who sat in Louisiana jails for innumerable reasons during those months. It was a very hard time.
It was a hard time for people who lost their homes, their livelihoods, their families. It was a hard time for the people who tried to help those who lost their homes & their livelihoods & their families. It was just a very hard time. And recovering from all of that wasn't easy or fast.
A decade-ish later, my daughter was living in Houston with my two tiny and most precious granddaughters when Hurricane Harvey came. A terrifying time.
I keep on trying to just breathe in and breathe out and do my little part to lessen the dying of our planet. And I gasp again as I read this novel.
In 2005, I lived in Alexandria, Louisiana, an easy 2 hours north of the gulf of Mexico. When Hurricane Katrina was making her way in, several of my friends from New Orleans and Baton Rouge and surrounding areas sluffed their way up to stay at my house for the weekend. We watched the stormless rain on CNN while we drank our alcohol of choice, having a hurricane party that was sort of fun and not particularly worrisome. And then the morning came, as the levies broke and things got unexpectedly scary.
I was a criminal defense lawyer, as were many of the folks at my house. And New Orleans and much of southern Louisiana and Mississippi were drowned. No one could go home to southern Louisiana. What happened to our clients -- especially people in the jails of southern Louisiana? A constantly rotating cast of folks camping out in my house and my office spent the next six months or so trying to figure out how to represent all the people who sat in Louisiana jails for innumerable reasons during those months. It was a very hard time.
It was a hard time for people who lost their homes, their livelihoods, their families. It was a hard time for the people who tried to help those who lost their homes & their livelihoods & their families. It was just a very hard time. And recovering from all of that wasn't easy or fast.
A decade-ish later, my daughter was living in Houston with my two tiny and most precious granddaughters when Hurricane Harvey came. A terrifying time.
I keep on trying to just breathe in and breathe out and do my little part to lessen the dying of our planet. And I gasp again as I read this novel.
August 1, 2022
It took me an entire month to slog through Bruce Holsinger’s hefty new novel The Displacements about the aftermath of the world’s first Category 6 hurricane. Me taking a month to read a book is never a good sign - it simply means that I did not feel compelled to pick it up; that it felt more like a chore than an escape. And such was the case with this novel.
As someone who was displaced by Hurricane Ida just last year, I was really excited to read this book. I thought that this story would be affirming and would allow me to connect with characters and worlds similar to my own. Unfortunately, the book’s stale, distant writing style and superficial, meandering plot kept me from enjoying the majority of this novel. Of all the stories Holsinger could tell about a mass displacement by the world’s first superstorm, and this drivel is the best that he could do?
As someone who was displaced by Hurricane Ida just last year, I was really excited to read this book. I thought that this story would be affirming and would allow me to connect with characters and worlds similar to my own. Unfortunately, the book’s stale, distant writing style and superficial, meandering plot kept me from enjoying the majority of this novel. Of all the stories Holsinger could tell about a mass displacement by the world’s first superstorm, and this drivel is the best that he could do?
September 14, 2022
An addictive read that covers a lot of ground: climate change, socio-economics, drugs, familial strife, politics, FEMA, and so, so much more. Good flawed characters and sharp dialogue that makes their peril feel real. This is an excellent choice for a book club book because there are so many talking points and topics for discussion; it truly is a fun and fast read that addresses some of the biggest challenges humanity is facing. Yet it balances the heavy themes with a thriller-like story’s pace.
I consumed this novel more so than read it. An easy recommendation.
I consumed this novel more so than read it. An easy recommendation.
June 8, 2022
4-4.5 RTC
Read
December 24, 2022need to let this one simmer a bit
January 31, 2023
THE DISPLACEMENTS
Bruce Holsinger
I don't live in Florida, however, I live on the Texas Gulf Coast. While I don't have as much experience with hurricanes as those in LA, I have been victim to complete personal loss once and lots of damage more times than I really want to remember. The worst is working public service during the hurricane while your family leaves for higher ground, never fun.
I enjoyed the book and found the parallel stories quite interesting and realistic in many ways. My significant other was part of the FEMA Katrina cleanup in New Orleans and then on Boliver after Ike. The stress to accommodate the needs of so many is great and I bet having your husband declared dead is another issue.
I enjoyed the book a great deal and recommend it to anybody that is interested.
4 stars
Bruce Holsinger
I don't live in Florida, however, I live on the Texas Gulf Coast. While I don't have as much experience with hurricanes as those in LA, I have been victim to complete personal loss once and lots of damage more times than I really want to remember. The worst is working public service during the hurricane while your family leaves for higher ground, never fun.
I enjoyed the book and found the parallel stories quite interesting and realistic in many ways. My significant other was part of the FEMA Katrina cleanup in New Orleans and then on Boliver after Ike. The stress to accommodate the needs of so many is great and I bet having your husband declared dead is another issue.
I enjoyed the book a great deal and recommend it to anybody that is interested.
4 stars
October 8, 2022
I’m sooooo sick of authors shoving current events down our throats 🤮 Reading is an ESCAPE. I might as well have turned on CNN or FOX. That’s basically what this book was. It showed both “sides” so that was a little unique compared to some newly published literature, but COME ON MAN. Give us a break from real life.
August 14, 2022
One of my favorite books this year — beautiful,
evocative writing and a gripping, thought-provoking story about climate change, family, wealth, tribalism and more. Hard to put down. Favorite part: A middle-age mom correcting the grammar of her drug-dealing son’s thug boss.
evocative writing and a gripping, thought-provoking story about climate change, family, wealth, tribalism and more. Hard to put down. Favorite part: A middle-age mom correcting the grammar of her drug-dealing son’s thug boss.
July 31, 2022
Wow! Intense. I didn't want the story to end. Bravo Bruce Holsinger 👏
October 3, 2022
There are two types of white people (this was an actual phrase that appeared in this book), and the author really REALLY wants you to know that he's one of the good ones. He does this by calling racist Florida rednecks "cracker", and by putting a strong independent Black woman character who is definitely not a trope in charge of a whole FEMA camp.
Setting the cringe 21st century ultra-woke white male academic bubble messaging aside, the first 100 or so pages were promising: a mega-hurricane follows a similar development path to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, catching an unprepared Miami (and Houston) off guard and causing a massive rapid evacuation. The people are shuffled into FEMA camps across the Southeast. The story follows the family of a wealthy Florida artist as they flee the massive hurricane. Stripped of their affluence by a series of unfortunate events, they adjust to life in a refugee camp.
The characters are poorly developed, especially the ones who actually make decisions that drive conflict, who are all caricatures of the groups they're trying to represent (blue collar trades worker is also a good ol' boy sovereign citizen, young upstart insurance salesman with a side hustle who had his moral compass erased by a manosphere podcaster, the sullen jaded self-destructive teenager). The plot, to the extent there is one, is convoluted and tries to touch on all the hotbutton political issues of the day (racism and sexism, refugees, climate, immigration, breakdown of rule of law, the opioid crisis) at once. It feels like the author doesn't personally know anyone outside of his immediate ultra educated wealthy and white social circle, but has read about them so can approximate very much how they'd behave in these circumstances.
Not that any character really impacts the resolution of the conflicts, mind.
The author states his beliefs clearly at the end "we're fucked, just muddle through" which was my biggest overall gripe with the work. Science fiction has always been optimistic. Even dystopic novels like "Starship Troopers" or "Man in the High Castle" the main characters take action to try to remedy their situations even when things feel hopeless and often while not succeeding in toppling empires, do change the course of their worlds' histories. "The Displacements" just promotes learned helplessness and dismisses any action we can take to stave off the worst effects of climate change (which the author frames as "turn coal plants into solar farms and plant trees") as ultimately pointless. We are all victims of circumstance, nothing you can do, just keep your head down and be resigned to your fate. Uninspiring would be a generous phrase for it.
Setting the cringe 21st century ultra-woke white male academic bubble messaging aside, the first 100 or so pages were promising: a mega-hurricane follows a similar development path to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, catching an unprepared Miami (and Houston) off guard and causing a massive rapid evacuation. The people are shuffled into FEMA camps across the Southeast. The story follows the family of a wealthy Florida artist as they flee the massive hurricane. Stripped of their affluence by a series of unfortunate events, they adjust to life in a refugee camp.
The characters are poorly developed, especially the ones who actually make decisions that drive conflict, who are all caricatures of the groups they're trying to represent (blue collar trades worker is also a good ol' boy sovereign citizen, young upstart insurance salesman with a side hustle who had his moral compass erased by a manosphere podcaster, the sullen jaded self-destructive teenager). The plot, to the extent there is one, is convoluted and tries to touch on all the hotbutton political issues of the day (racism and sexism, refugees, climate, immigration, breakdown of rule of law, the opioid crisis) at once. It feels like the author doesn't personally know anyone outside of his immediate ultra educated wealthy and white social circle, but has read about them so can approximate very much how they'd behave in these circumstances.
Not that any character really impacts the resolution of the conflicts, mind.
The author states his beliefs clearly at the end "we're fucked, just muddle through" which was my biggest overall gripe with the work. Science fiction has always been optimistic. Even dystopic novels like "Starship Troopers" or "Man in the High Castle" the main characters take action to try to remedy their situations even when things feel hopeless and often while not succeeding in toppling empires, do change the course of their worlds' histories. "The Displacements" just promotes learned helplessness and dismisses any action we can take to stave off the worst effects of climate change (which the author frames as "turn coal plants into solar farms and plant trees") as ultimately pointless. We are all victims of circumstance, nothing you can do, just keep your head down and be resigned to your fate. Uninspiring would be a generous phrase for it.
June 14, 2022
I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that feels more like a movie—and one that would (and probably will) kill at the box office! (If Will Smith does not star in this film, I will be shocked.) I was so into the unique and terrifying plot, taken in by the effortless prose and carefully constructed set of characters. This was cli-fi, dystopian, and literary all at once. It was long, but paced well, so that I was always engaged and never bored. I devoured the ~450 pages in two days.
This story encouraged the reader to reflect on our beliefs about racial and socioeconomic privilege, and how these may impact our actions and options in an emergency situation. It evaluated the role of family, how unexpected stress place a burden on relationships, and how tragedy can transform familial ties. This book was thought-provoking, impressive—and made me all the more worried about the direction our world is going in.
This story encouraged the reader to reflect on our beliefs about racial and socioeconomic privilege, and how these may impact our actions and options in an emergency situation. It evaluated the role of family, how unexpected stress place a burden on relationships, and how tragedy can transform familial ties. This book was thought-provoking, impressive—and made me all the more worried about the direction our world is going in.
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