Poisonous Raindrops Will Kill You | The Rain

The Rain by Virginia Bergin

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Release date: July 17th. 2014

Genres: Sci-fi, Survival, Dystopian, YA

Pages:  384

Source: Bought it

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It's in the rain... and just one drop will kill you.

They don't believe it at first. Crowded in Zach's kitchen, Ruby and the rest of the partygoers laugh at Zach's parents' frenzied push to get them all inside as it starts to drizzle. But then the radio comes on with the warning, "It's in the rain! It's fatal, it's contagious, and there's no cure."

Two weeks later, Ruby is alone. Anyone who's been touched by rain or washed their hands with tap water is dead. The only drinkable water is quickly running out. Ruby's only chance for survival is a treacherous hike across the country to find her father-if he's even still alive. 

(Minor cussing words can be found throughout the whole review)

I picked this book up when I was having a field trip to Jogja. I was in a local mall and decided to check the bookstore (Periplus) out. I was crossing my fingers and telling myself not to buy anything due to my current money situation, but I just couldn't help it that I have severe book issues. So, I decided to buy some books. I bought The Rain because the summary looked promising and damn, the cover was so cool. It looked like something with a dark and interesting story. But, turned out you really can't judge a book by its cover and its summary.

The Rain is a story about a girl, Ruby Morris, who, at the beginning of the book, is just having a party at her friend's house. She is having a great time until her friend's parents start telling them to go inside the house because it is going to rain. It turns out that there's something wrong and dangerous in the rain. Anyone, anything, who makes contact with the rain or the tap water is unapproachable and most likely to be dead in a few hours. As Ruby struggles with the threat that life has laid out in front of her, she has to face the fact that the last person she wants to be seen with on earth is currently stuck with her.

There are so many things I dislike about this book:

The main character, Ruby Morris, just can't set her priorities straight. I mean, seriously, in the middle of an apocalypse, most of us would stock up food and water, especially water. But, our dearest main character decides to do a make over and dye her hair instead. She cares about her appearance more than her own life. When she's supposed to check the weather and clouds for any sign for future killer-rain before going outside, she just keeps ranting about how stupid she's going to look if someone sees her. I just don't get what is happening in her stupid mind. There's one gif that I just can't help but use in this review:

The writing is deformed as fuck. I don't know if it's just me or the writing really is bad. All I know is that I tried so hard not to skip pages because I just HATED how the book is written. I tried so hard to be open-minded and embrace the words and pages in front of me, but I just couldn't. I was pretty much disappointed to the moon and back when I first opened the first page. I thought this book was gonna be a super grand story with beautiful and uncanny writing which I loved because hell, I  really liked the idea of the killer-rain, but no, the writing has to be all over the place and pretty much incomprehensible. It looks like the writer literally just threw words on her computer and decided whether it could be called as a book or not, unfortunately, the answer was maybe, so she took it as a yes. I can't even remember how I managed to finish this book in the first place.

Then, out of nowhere, a boy appears, and I guess we're just supposed to ship him and Ruby together as we actually have no other options. Because, well, pretty much everyone is dead now.

I know maybe I have said this, but, I just need to emphasize some things. I truly truly expected so many things when I picked this book. I mean, it's a killer-rain! It's a book about rain that kills! What could go wrong with that? I really wanted to know how the characters or anyone in this book were going to deal with it. I expected badass characters and mind-blowing scenes. Instead, we were given a girl who's apparently able to survive the whole thing by pure luck. It's such a good idea, but unfortunately it's written in such a horrible way that it's like throwing a diamond in a pile of poo.

I wouldn't say I hate this book because I did enjoy it at some points, no, cross that, I did enjoy it at very few points. I liked how the character is able to do something right at very few points. I liked how the plot is fast-paced and not filled with bullshit. I liked how so many things are so unpredictable and I couldn't help but gaped at the book, because, hell, I surely didn't see it coming at all!

Finally, when I knew that there was going to be another book in the series (yeah! Ruby survives for another book! How surprising is that?!), I decided to give it a shot. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as this one. Because surely this one is so messed up. The next book is called The Storm and I'm going to review it very soon (I already owned a copy and finished reading it a few months ago).

The Rain is a book with such a good idea, but, unfortunately, the writer doesn't seem to know how to write properly and the idea is gone to waste. I won't really recommend this book to anyone, but if you're looking for a very light read or simply want to know how bad the book really is, then maybe you should read this.

My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars

Reviewed by Inas