Author: Julie Rogers
Genre: Sci Fi, Dystopian, Post Apocalyptic
Release Date: 1st November 2019
BLURB from Goodreads
If she succeeds in finding him, he’ll be charged with murder. If she fails, he won’t likely survive on his own.
It’s 2064. Ana lives in the City, an experimental community that has had little contact with outsiders in decades. When her older brother Finn disappears on her 22nd birthday, a seemingly impossible event given the City’s extensive monitoring, she quits school, moves into her station wagon and embarks on an obsessive manhunt. Unable to find him on her own, she’s forced to partner with Aaron, a detective with his own complicated history and agenda.
Together they comb the dregs of the outside world, encountering both the horrors of lawless survivor communities and the unclaimed beauty of the old world. As Ana comes closer to understanding her brother’s disappearance, she’s forced to confront the truth about herself and her place in the City.
It’s 2064. Ana lives in the City, an experimental community that has had little contact with outsiders in decades. When her older brother Finn disappears on her 22nd birthday, a seemingly impossible event given the City’s extensive monitoring, she quits school, moves into her station wagon and embarks on an obsessive manhunt. Unable to find him on her own, she’s forced to partner with Aaron, a detective with his own complicated history and agenda.
Together they comb the dregs of the outside world, encountering both the horrors of lawless survivor communities and the unclaimed beauty of the old world. As Ana comes closer to understanding her brother’s disappearance, she’s forced to confront the truth about herself and her place in the City.
PURCHASE LINKS
REVIEW
After looking at the cover and title, I initially
thought that this book would about a drought, the lack of rain and how people
coped with that. The whole dry, parched looking cracked earth/mud with just
patches of green grass starting to come through. Then the authors name being in
a bright orange autumnal leaf design. All great things separately but they kind
of led me down the wrong path for what I thought the book was going to be
about. However, when you start to think about the deeper plot of the book after
reading it, I suppose certain aspects of the cover does represent some sections
of the book. The grass could represent the fact those inside the walls that cut
themselves off from “the outside” and are beginning to reap the rewards of what
they have sown? Yet the dry cracked mud/earth could represent the fact that
though those on the inside of the wall are doing okay, they could still use
resources that are available outside their perimeter wall. After reading the
book, I would say I did enjoy it but still feel a tad confused about the actual
relevance of the cover and title of The Rain Belongs Here. I think the cover is
really good, it just led me to the wrong conclusion about the book, I was
expecting something quite different to the book I read. This genres listed for
this book are, Sci-fi, dystopian, and post-apocalyptic which I totally agree
with though I would also add futuristic to that list as the book is set in the
year 2064.
The main character in the book is Ana and her
brother has disappeared, which is unusual as he didn’t give Ana any idea that
he may be going anywhere. Even worse is the fact the friends he disappeared
with have been found dead. Ana has stopped going to school to concentrate on
searching for her brother, Finn.
The government are determined to recruit Ana, to
team up with one of their own to go “outside the wall” and bring her brother,
Finn back to face charges for the murder of his friends. Ana isn’t getting very
far on her own, but has to undergo some special training to make sure she is
fit enough for the mission. Ana also has to sign a contract that if anything
should happen to her outside of the wall perimeter that they are in no way
liable and basically owe her nothing. Ana is placed under the care and
instruction of two of their operatives Noah, and Aaron. Both Noah and Aaron are
considered somewhat disposable, out of favour with the government and this job
is to be considered part of their way to make amends for past misdemeanours.
Ana at first kept faith that Finn was just staying
at a friend’s house but she is soon forced to face the fact that Finn has
intentionally left the apparent safety on the inside of the wall and
disappeared into the wilds of the outside.
The book then tells the story of Aaron and Ana
going outside the safety of the perimeter walls to search for Finn. Naturally
Ana is wanting to find her brother Finn and prove his innocence whereas Aaron
is tasked with the job of finding Finn and returning him to inside the
perimeter wall and proving his guilt. Noah, Aaron’s and Noah’s daughter’s
future depends on Aaron being successful. It soon becomes clear that Aaron and
Ana have growing romantic feelings towards each other despite them having
totally different reasons for searching for Finn. In fact, it is so clear that
they are on opposing sides that at one point in the book Aaron asks Ana if she
plans to hit him over the head, leave him for dead, take all the supplies and
search for Finn and join him wherever he is staying. Aaron and Ana visit
different pockets of communities that have been created, a commune, an Amish
settlement, a woman running an orphanage to learn more about Finn, and what has
happened. It seems he has met a woman called Miriam and he is somewhere with
her. Then rumours abound that a tribe of people calling themselves the “Band”
may have him. It soon becomes apparent that Ana will have to use all her
arsenal of training and her brain as well as brawn to gain her brothers freedom
from the Band.
I did enjoy the plot of the book, Ana searching for
her brother and discovering he is not the same person she thought he was. Some
of the things she is told about her brother don’t fit with the Finn she knows
and loves. Then there’s how Ana handles things on the “outside” and her
possibility of a relationship with Aaron, who genuinely seems to care for her.
There’s also lots of interaction between Ana and Aaron and those that are
creating their own ways of living and getting by how they can.
There were things that I wasn’t totally keen on
such as the start of the book was quite slow for my personal reading taste, and
in some area’s the plot just felt a little disjointed. The timeline jumped
about a little too much for me. I think it would be an easy thing to fix by
perhaps labelling the individual Chapters a little more clearly and a few
things tightened up a little. At certain intervals whilst I was reading the
book I wasn’t overly looking forward to my “reading time” like I usually do. I
did enjoy the book in the end and thought it had an interesting plot and some
great characters, such as Ana, Arron, Noah and Hooper. I think how the book
ended, it could well read as a standalone, most things seemed to be wrapped up,
except for Ana getting to really sit down and talk to Finn, so perhaps that
suggests there could be more in the future.
To sum up, the book isn’t the easiest read, and requires you to concentrate on certain details and remember some facts and dates, but is well worth the effort of sticking with it, and reading it until the end. When you remember relevant clues from earlier in the book as you near the end of the book it is quite a satisfying feeling. The whole “Ooo, I wondered if that was the case” or “Ooo, I didn’t see that coming despite that clue”.
To sum up, the book isn’t the easiest read, and requires you to concentrate on certain details and remember some facts and dates, but is well worth the effort of sticking with it, and reading it until the end. When you remember relevant clues from earlier in the book as you near the end of the book it is quite a satisfying feeling. The whole “Ooo, I wondered if that was the case” or “Ooo, I didn’t see that coming despite that clue”.
**I
have since discovered that there is a follow up to The Rain Belongs Here, it is
called Hanging City - and yes it will be going on my want to read wish list.**
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