A titillating tempest

Millennials, we are so back. From iconic fashion and celebrity comebacks to Laguna Beach cast reunions and blockbuster sequels, the early 2000s are trending.

And riding this wave of early aughts nostalgia is Booktok-famous Winnipeg author Nisha J. Tuli, who has penned the perfect homage to dystopian young adult (YA) fiction with her new romantasy, Storm Breaker.

The perfect comfort read for a generation raised on one unprecedented calamity after another, and an excellent introduction to the next generation of dystopian YA lovers, Storm Breaker follows a familiar formula: strong female heroine with a secret power, school trials, love triangles, forbidden romance and a system that is built on a lie.

What more could one ask for? Tuli has crafted a world that isn’t just reminiscent of the genre, but true to it in every way. And yet it works without feeling clichéd.

Set some 500 years in the future, Storm Breaker takes place in New Manhattan, a bastion of hope for the last human survivors of the earth-shattering storms brought on by climate change during the “Warming Age” of our time. Defended by The Shield, a governing body that protects and defends New Manhattanites from climate and human threats, the city has figured out a way to not only survive but thrive.

Classism is deeply entrenched in New Manhattan’s social structure, where the rich (Society) benefits from wealth and power, while “cogs” (working-class folks) and “hollows” (the poor and downcast) live to serve. And then there’s the dangerous “solitudes”: those who live in the Wastes, outside the city limits and protection of The Shield.

Poet Graves is the undeniable princess of Society — her father serves as the head of one of The Shield’s reigning Houses and though she’s barely an adult, she’s already betrothed to the son of another House. Her future is mapped out for her — and it chafes.

So too does the rare, magical and forbidden power she possesses: Poet can channel the power of storms. Where others might be incinerated by lightning, she can absorb it — and it’s a power she craves. The only catch: people like her are deemed a threat to society and summarily disposed of.

Forced to keep her powers a secret, Poet heads to the illustrious Amery Academy, where she trains among society members and cogs alike, choosing career paths and declaring fealty to one of the four ruling Houses of The Shield for the rest of their lives.

Despite her father’s expectations, Poet longs to forge her own path and dreams of entering the elite Storm Guard, the force that protects the city from storms. And she longs for a mysterious student named Rook, a solitude from the Wastes who challenges the very foundation her worldview is built on.

What happens when Veronica Roth’s Divergent series meets Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen suite, with a touch of Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing saga (sans dragons)? Thanks to Tuli’s expert craftsmanship and love of coming-of-age fiction, you get a cinematic and addictive tribute to dystopian YA at its finest.

The stakes are high, the pacing is fast, the romance is sizzling and the setting is vivid. Add in some young adult angst and parental drama, plus a scintillating cliffhanger (a sequel is coming this fall), and you might just have the next Hunger Games for young and old (ahem, elder millennials) alike.

Katrina Sklepowich is a professional book lover who runs a blog at LiterallyKatrina.com when she isn’t working as a communicator at RRC Polytech.