Dark Water Rising (2006) is a historical novel set in Galveston, Texas, during the devastating 1900 Atlantic Hurricane that caused catastrophic damage and loss of life. The novel is a coming-of-age story that centers on Seth Braeden as his family moves to the thriving city just before the hurricane strikes. The novel was written by Marian Hale, whose previous works of historical fiction include The Truth About Sparrows, which follows a family surviving the Great Depression, and The Goodbye Season, which focuses on the deadly flu epidemic of 1918. The book won the 2007 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year award. Hale was inspired to write the novel when her husband brought home an old book written by survivors of the storm—“a full account of the 1900 Galveston Storm, written right after it happened” (223). Hale reports that the accounts were so deeply personal and so gut-wrenching she felt as though she’d experienced the storm herself. The book included details that Hale put into the book; for example, a survivor of the storm told the story of saving the infant, Tom. Much of the dialogue in those scenes of the book comes from the account of a grown-up Katherine Vedder, who wrote about the night of the storm. The novel makes use of many first-hand accounts of the storm, lending authenticity to its description and characterization.

This guide uses the 2006 Square Fish edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The novel refers to Black people as “colored,” but this guide will use the term Black to follow the example set by Black scholars, writers, and journalists. The novel contains graphic descriptions of the aftermath of a natural disaster, including loss of life. It references ecological disasters and their devastating effects. The book references and depicts sexism and intense racism and oppression toward Black and Latinx people.

Plot Summary

At his Uncle Nate’s urging, Seth Braeden and his family move to Galveston, Texas, in search of opportunity. Seth’s father got a job as a construction supervisor and hopes to develop the position into his own contracting business. Seth’s father is an excellent carpenter, and Seth hopes to follow in his footsteps someday. His father, however, has other plans: he wants Seth and his brothers to go to college and become doctors or lawyers. Seth is very worried about the idea of being forced to go to college.

On the train ride to Galveston, Seth cares for his four-year-old sister, Kate, a task he resents because he feels it’s work for a girl or a younger child. He also helps manage the behavior of his younger brothers, Matt (12) and Lucas (10). When the family arrives in Galveston, they are met by Seth’s Uncle Nate and his hired man, Ezra. The family is more accustomed to seeing Hispanic people than they are Black people; Seth’s father makes a comment comparing Black people to horses, which Seth finds objectionable.

The family travels first to Uncle Nate’s. On the way, Uncle Nate points out many of the city’s impressive structures and features. The family is excited by the sights, and also by the bustling atmosphere. At Uncle Nate and Aunt Julia’s house, the extended family visits. Seth learns his cousin, Ben, is working a delivery job to help pay for his college classes; Ben wants to be a doctor. Seth sees a beautiful girl down the street but is distracted from her by Papa and Nate’s conversation about him. They tell him they found him work as a carpenter until school starts but insist he must save a portion of his wages to pay for college classes. Seth does not want to go to college but agrees, excited about the carpentry job. Ben tells Seth the beautiful girl’s name is Ella Rose. The family moves into their rental house the next day. They meet the neighbors, who are kind and welcoming. The house is nicer than what they are used to, and everyone is excited.

Seth starts his carpentry job a few days after they settle in. He meets Henry Covington, Ella Rose’s cousin, and Josiah, Ezra’s grandson. The carpentry job goes well, and Seth’s boss, Mr. Farrell, is pleased with his work. Seth walks home with Josiah, trying to befriend the other boy, but Josiah maintains the formality required of him, a Black person in a racist society. They work with a man named Zach Judson, who awakens in Seth a sense of a true “calling” to carpentry. He begins to see carpentry as more than a job.

Seth works only a few days before the storm strikes. Ella Rose comes to the jobsite to tell them the storm flags went up. Mr. Farrell sends them all home. Josiah and Seth head toward Uncle Nate’s, battling the deepening floodwaters and the flying debris as they travel. When they arrive, they find Aunt Julia and the boys. Seth checks on Ella Rose and finds her alone. He takes her to Uncle Nate’s to weather the storm. Seth says he must go to the rental house to check on his family; Josiah volunteers to go with him. Together the boys fight their way through the worsening storm, watching as people around them are swept away by water or felled by flying debris. They see many deaths and are unable to help save anyone except each other. They also see catastrophic damage as the water destroys homes and business, even the large ones that seemed like monuments days before.

Back at the rental house, they discover a note saying the family went to Uncle Nate’s. Josiah suggests they shelter with some neighbors, the Vedders, and Seth agrees. The house is battered by the water and eventually swept off its foundation and tossed aside, but it stays upright, and those sheltering inside are able to climb to the second floor to escape the water. At one point in the storm, they rescue five people who are floating by on an upturned roof. The people have an infant with them; at first, Seth thinks the infant is dead, but they are able to warm and revive it. The Vedders’ house and the people inside survive the storm.

Seth and Josiah are worried about their families but must wait until the water recedes before they can take the trip home. As they travel, they come across dozens, if not hundreds, of dead bodies, including the body of a nun and nine children who were tied together to try to survive the storm. They climb a 20-foot-high wall of debris and hear a girl, Sarah Louise, calling out. Sarah Louise asks them to remember her name so that she does not die anonymously. Seth wants to help her but has no tools, and the debris is too tightly packed. He struggles to accept that he can’t help, but Josiah helps him.

Back at Uncle Nate’s, they are happy to be reunited with their families. Uncle Nate and Ben did not make it home from the lumberyard. Though Seth and his father look at the hospitals, morgues, and routes between the house and Nate’s lumberyard, they are never able to find Nate or Ben’s bodies. Papa hears about a volunteer crew working to rebuild the bridge so supplies can make it from the mainland. He decides to join the crew and sends Seth and Josiah home alone. Seth is angry and resentful but agrees to pass on Papa’s message to Mama: that everything happens for a reason.

Josiah is soon captured and pressed into service of a body gang—he will be required to load bodies onto a barge, weight them down, and dump them into the gulf. Seth is horrified by this but continues home because he knows he has to take care of his family. Seth’s younger brother, Matt, is responsible for taking Papa his meals in the evenings, staying with him overnight, and coming home in the mornings. Seth worries about Matt seeing the same horrible things he did, but Mama insists Seth is needed at home and cannot take over Matt’s job.

Seth leads the rebuilding efforts, repairing the roof while Ezra rebuilds the outhouse. In his father’s absence, Seth operates as the leader of the house. He takes to the role well. He rebuilds the house, but he also builds confidence in himself and his abilities. His relationship with Ella Rose builds, but he is not sure if she sees him as a man, a friend, or a brother. The family takes Ella Rose in, and Aunt Julia comes to depend on her. Henry Covington and his younger brother, Spencer, find them. Ella Rose is thrilled and relieved to see some of her family alive, though Henry reports he and Spencer are the only survivors. Henry tells Seth the burials at sea failed; the weighted-down bodies are washing up on shore. The city begins to burn the bodies instead, leading to dozens of fires burning all day and night around town.

By the time Papa returns, Seth and Josiah are rebuilding Ezra’s home in the yard. At first, Seth is nervous that his father will find his work inadequate, but he comes to have confidence in himself and his abilities. In the process of finishing Ezra’s house, Seth begins to think of himself as a carpenter and knows his work is clean and precise. Papa is changed, too—though he’s still not effusive with his praise, he seems softer than Seth remembers and is more affectionate.

Rebuilding efforts last for months. Thanksgiving and Christmas come. The city celebrates, but loss and trauma hang heavy as a pall over everyone. On New Year’s Eve, many of the city’s residents make their way down to the beach to watch fireworks and sing together. It is a time of celebration but also of collective grieving; people embrace and grieve together. Seth’s trauma lingers with him well after everyone goes to bed. He returns to the beach where he thinks about his own ”ghosts” and accepts they will always be with him. He resolves to tell his father tomorrow he will not be going to college.

Seth asks his father into Uncle Nate’s study and tells him he decided not to go to college and to be a carpenter. Instead of answering, Papa calls for Aunt Julia. She soon returns with the rest of the family and a large, sheeted object, which they reveal to be a sign reading “Braeden and Son, Building Contractors.” This means Papa decided he and Seth will go into business together—he accepts Seth’s decision about his future and his skills as a carpenter. Seth is overjoyed. He realizes Papa stayed away on the bridge repair crew to allow Seth time to step into his role as an adult.