To start, Chasing Helicity is a young adult novel that tackles a few things I was pleasantly surprised by, while also ignoring some pretty glaring things that were... problematic.
I loved Zee's writing style, it was clear and concise, the bigger words were defined before being used- perfectly accessible to a younger audience. I especially enjoyed her launching into a major conflict within the first three paragraphs to really capture a young audience.
I noticed immediately that of the family, the father is the definition of toxic masculinity, while the mother just puts up with it. In fact, his rages, belittling of Helicity, and general bullying behavior is taken as just another part of life. I feel like this is really sending the wrong message to the young women reading this book in a very formative time.
Of the other three male characters, one is a side kick named Ray who is great but only gets about as much 'screen time' as Helicity's best friend Mia, which is to say not much. Ray is the only positive male role model in the book. Helicity's brother steals from her and gets hooked on opioids though this is more of an undercurrent instead of an overt conflict. Helicity's work partner and crush is an egotistical overly cocky 17 year old that literally puts people's lives in danger, and refuses to honor literally the only thing she requests of him, which is to call her by her name instead of her age. Let's just say none of the male characters in this book are ones who I would want to spend any extended time with, except Ray, he seems nice.
The book is incredibly good at getting past trauma. Helicity, her best friend Mia, her mentor Lana and her mother Elizabeth are all very strong characters who carry the weight of tragedy on their shoulders. Unfortunately, because this is a Disney book, Lana has to have both parents in her backstory die at a young age. In fact, None of the female characters are really much of anything until they are formed by trauma. Another thing I noticed was that in order to further Helicity's story, a woman has to be horribly injured and possibly die- why this is necessary I am not sure. It seems to me to be perpetuating the "girlfriend in the refrigerator" trope.
Another example of 'women getting horribly injured for not a lot of reason' is a quote about halfway through the book that reads, "Andy told her about one woman he'd seen at the hospital who'd slipped, fallen onto a broken window, and needed sixteen stitches to close the gaping wound in her abdomen." I applaud her use of graphic imagery to get a safety point across while also giving some scary imagery to young readers- but only one man (excluding victims of a storm that die 'offscreen') gets injured... and it's a broken arm. Why do all injuries have to be girls and women?
I feel pretty torn on this book; it is well written but I'm not sure I would recommend it. The protagonist is strong, her mentor is even stronger and more resilient but there's these insidious undertones of toxic masculinity that just made it seem like a bad thing to give to young women. I'd say give it a pass, but by all means take a look if you'd like to read about storms, storm chasing, and the undervalued kid thriving!
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