FORCE OF NATURE

In Clark’s YA debut, a teenager inherits superpowers with planetary implications.

For Chloe Lovejoy’s Sweet 16, she’s handed a key by her Weather Channel–obsessed Grandma. She’s disappointed that it’s a key not to a shiny new car but to her family legacy: Chloe will begin training to take over as Mother Nature at age 21. She may be an average student, but Chloe descends from a line of remarkable women, “bestowed with a power so great it’s humbling.” Their HQ—the garage—looks like NASA headquarters, with advanced technology that controls the Earth’s weather. There’s also a large antique volume, The Book of Nature. But like the unpredictable climate change–affected weather, Chloe’s life is disrupted when Grandma dies, leaving her to navigate the planet, her tumultuous family, a charming adversary, and disbelieving friends. This climate superhero story set in Central California is written with a light hand but goes a little awry in execution. Readers may understand the story as a metaphor for the power that the U.S. wields when it comes to climate policy or the ways young people are shaping the climate conversation, but the treatment of concepts like thinking globally while acting locally and the great responsibilities that come with possessing great power come across as trite. The characters are well-etched, however, especially in terms of friendships and a budding romance. Characters are largely cued white.

A bit under the weather: stronger in characterization than in the treatment of larger themes.