The Netflix drama Hurricane Season is a gritty and disturbing story that has captured the imagination of the viewers, mixing its genres and telling an often harrowing story. The film starts with a group of teenagers finding a body in the local canal, but the story behind the terrible event leads to revelations and secrets being revealed. The woman who is found is regarded by the townsfolk to be a witch, which resonates enough with real-life history to have fans wondering if perhaps it is based on a true story. It isn’t, or at least not directly, but that does not mean there isn’t a grain of truth to the whole thing in a roundabout way.
Directed by Elisa Miller from the book Temporada de Huracanes by Mexican novelist Fernanda Melchor, the film explores some tough themes about growing up, love, relationships, and the consequences of actions. It’s in this source material that the real “true story” of Hurricane Season is to be found.
Is Hurricane Season on Netflix based on a true story?
No, Hurricane Season is not a true story. It is based on a novel, but if you look a little closer, there is some information in the book that may have been inspired by a real event. The inspiration for the novel came from a real-life event, and initially, the author was more interested in writing about the crime that involved the murder of an old woman whom people referred to as a witch.
In the true crime case, the woman was murdered in Veracruz by her ex-partner, who stated that he thought the woman had used supernatural powers on him.
The book, and film, also explore the murder of a so-called witch, and mirrors the real-life tragedy, with the murdered body being found floating in a river. So, although the film and novel were inspired by a real event, the situation, characters, and events in both the novel and the film are works of fiction.
The book was originally titled Temporada de Huracanes, and was first printed in 2017 by Literatura Random House.
Sophie Hughes would translate the book into English and release it in 2020, bringing the story to a larger audience.
What else has Fernanda Melchor written?
Fernanda Melchor. Photograph: Lizbeth Hernandez
Melchor has a degree in journalism and wrote both fiction and nonfiction for The Paris Review as well as many other publications such as Letras Libres and Vanity Fair.
Her first novel False Liebre, or False Hare, was published in 2013 and was acclaimed for its interesting prose style and explored themes of violence and abandonment.
Her second novel Hurricane Season would go on to be an award-winning novel. It was followed by her third book, Páradais, which was published in 2021 and also translated into English by Sophie Hughes.
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