Earthquake Terror

“The deserted campground seemed eerie, like a ghost town. It’s too quiet, Jonathan thought. Where is everyone? Even though the purpose of a camping trip was to get away from the city, it seemed unnatural to hear no boat motors, no radios, and no human voices except for his family.”

The novel’s opening lines use words such as “eerie” and “unnatural” to set a mood of foreboding, well before any other hint of the impending disaster arrives. Even in the midst of enjoying his afternoon excursion, Jonathan feels disquieted by the ominous silence rather than peaceful, and in this way, Kehret uses carefully chosen diction to set the stage for the disaster to come.

“The whole family waits for Abby, Jonathan thought. We have already wasted half the morning, waiting for Abby. He wondered if his parents ever got as frustrated by it as he did.”

At the beginning of the novel, Jonathan exudes the typical shortcomings of an impatient older brother as he struggles with an inner conflict between frustration and empathy toward Abby. He often loses patience as the family modifies their activity to fit her slower pace and mobility. Here, at the novel’s beginning, he mostly feels annoyance at having to wait for Abby constantly, but by the novel’s ending, he gains a new appreciation and empathy for his sister. 

“He felt as if he were on a surfboard, catching a giant wave, rising, cresting, and sliding back down again. Except he was standing on dry land.”

As the chaos of the earthquake strikes, Kehret uses simile and metaphor to describe the unnatural sensation of the ground’s movement. In this quote, she compares the vibrations of the earth to surfing an ocean wave. Her use of simile helps the reader understand what Jonathan is feeling even if they have never experienced an earthquake before.