CHASING HELICITY INTO THE WIND

Fourteen-year-old Helicity, survivor of both a tornado and a flash flood in her eponymous first outing (2018), is back for more encounters with stormy weather.

This time, she’s spending summer vacation at a bed-and-breakfast on the Gulf of Mexico, but not before a frighteningly turbulent flight from her home in Michigan. Unexpectedly, Helicity’s crush, fellow weather fan Sam, arrives with her brother, Andy, who has secretly become addicted to pain killers after his serious injuries during the tornado. Now Andy is hanging around with a sketchy dude, and they may be responsible for a series of break-ins. Meanwhile, Helicity falls for hunky Trey, then endures a sequence of strong thunderstorms with him—and Sam. Naturally, a major hurricane is also on the way. In an effort to locate missing Andy, Helicity ultimately finds shelter in an abandoned lighthouse as the hurricane barrels ashore. Dealing with her conflicted romantic feelings—Sam or Trey?—she moves from one weather-related cliffhanger to another as Zee sometimes interrupts the action to offer brief explanations of these weather events. These are too little to satisfy those who might choose this effort for an immersive meteorology experience rather than hackneyed melodrama. The cast of predictable characters are nearly all white except, perhaps, Trey, who has a Spanish surname.

Even with its flaws, this effort slightly outpaces the first, edging marginally closer to believability.