destiny ♡ howling libraries's Reviews > Nothing but the Rain
Nothing but the Rain
by
by
destiny ♡ howling libraries's review
bookshelves: review-copies, adult, dystopia, bipoc-rep, horror, z-2023-reads
Aug 04, 2023
bookshelves: review-copies, adult, dystopia, bipoc-rep, horror, z-2023-reads
This little dystopian horror tale chilled me right to the core. In Aloisville, it's been raining everyday—how long this has been going on is anyone's guess, because the rain washes people's memories away with it. Even a single droplet can erase your morning, and the more the rain touches you, the more it takes away. This novella is told through Laverne's journal entries as she attempts to find a way to hold on to what is happening, to make sense of it all, and it's like a trainwreck you just can't look away from no matter how much it horrifies you.
I loved the fact that this story was told through journal entries, because you know you're only getting a small portion of the story. Laverne really has no clue what is going on, but she has her theories, and all we can do is guess along with her as more is slowly revealed. Perhaps the most unnerving part of the story for me was how Laverne suspects the government (and maybe even some of the citizens around her) knows more than they're letting on, because her rage and fear and paranoia are palpable and it's so easy to imagine ourselves in her shoes.
Laverne herself is a very flawed, yet enjoyable character to read through the lens of. She's a 63-year-old retired physician who is very bright, capable, and entirely unused to feeling so helpless and oblivious. She comes off as crotchety and irritable most of the time, which added a reality to her character that I loved because it was so easy to imagine meeting someone just like her.
My only complaint about Nothing but the Rain, and the reason I gave it 4 stars despite gushing about it so much, is that it's too short and would've benefited tremendously from being developed into a full novel! I hope that Salman will consider revisiting this world, maybe through a sequel novella, because there are so many questions I want answers to and so much more time I'd like to spend with Laverne.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
✨ Representation: Laverne and a side character are both Black
✨ Content warnings for: (view spoiler)
———
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I loved the fact that this story was told through journal entries, because you know you're only getting a small portion of the story. Laverne really has no clue what is going on, but she has her theories, and all we can do is guess along with her as more is slowly revealed. Perhaps the most unnerving part of the story for me was how Laverne suspects the government (and maybe even some of the citizens around her) knows more than they're letting on, because her rage and fear and paranoia are palpable and it's so easy to imagine ourselves in her shoes.
Laverne herself is a very flawed, yet enjoyable character to read through the lens of. She's a 63-year-old retired physician who is very bright, capable, and entirely unused to feeling so helpless and oblivious. She comes off as crotchety and irritable most of the time, which added a reality to her character that I loved because it was so easy to imagine meeting someone just like her.
My only complaint about Nothing but the Rain, and the reason I gave it 4 stars despite gushing about it so much, is that it's too short and would've benefited tremendously from being developed into a full novel! I hope that Salman will consider revisiting this world, maybe through a sequel novella, because there are so many questions I want answers to and so much more time I'd like to spend with Laverne.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
✨ Representation: Laverne and a side character are both Black
✨ Content warnings for: (view spoiler)
———
twitter | booktok | bookstagram | blog
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Reading Progress
February 2, 2023
– Shelved
February 2, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
February 2, 2023
– Shelved as:
review-copies
February 2, 2023
– Shelved as:
adult
February 2, 2023
– Shelved as:
dystopia
August 3, 2023
–
Started Reading
August 3, 2023
–
Finished Reading
August 4, 2023
– Shelved as:
bipoc-rep
August 4, 2023
– Shelved as:
horror
August 4, 2023
– Shelved as:
z-2023-reads
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Dana
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Aug 04, 2023 10:47AM
OMG, it sounds so good! I definitely need to read this one. It seems to be my cup of tea.
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