The Rain

by Virginia Bergin

An apocalyptic thriller, The Rain by Virginia Bergin is a coming of age story of survival in a scary, weather-beaten world.

One minute sixteen-year-old Ruby Morris is having her first proper snog with Caspar McCloud in a hot tub, and the next she’s being bundled inside the house, dripping wet, cold and in her underwear. Not cool.

As she and Caspar shiver in the kitchen, it starts to rain. They turn on the radio to hear panicked voices – ‘It’s in the rain . . . it’s in the rain . . . '

That was two weeks ago, and now Ruby is totally alone. People weren’t prepared for the rain, got caught out in it, didn’t realize that you couldn’t drink water from the taps either. Even a drop of rain would infect your blood, and eat you from the inside out. Ruby knows she has to get to London to find her dad, but she just doesn’t know where to start . . .

After rescuing all the neighbourhood dogs, Ruby sets off on a journey that will take her the length of the country – surviving in the only way she knows how.

• ISBN10: 1447266080
• ISBN13: 9781447266082
• Publish Date: 17 July 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Macmillan Children's Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

When I saw H2O available for review on Netgalley, I was dead excited. I've seen a few reviews of it - one good, one not so good, of the British version where it was simply called Rain, and I was quite excited to see for myself whether this was my kinda novel. I was chuffed to pieces to be accepted for a review copy, and I couldn't wait to dive in.

I'm not sure what year H2O is set, but it does have a decidedly dystopian feel, especially once the rain comes. But at the start, it could be 2014 - Ruby is a typical teenager, kissing her crush in a hot tub during a hot summer's evening, when the parents of the boy hosting the party arrive home in a panic, talking about killer rain, and from there it's like a survival story, of the very best kind. The novel sucked me in from the word go, and Ruby was such a great narrator.

Ruby was an interesting character - for the most part, I loved her and admired her survival skills even after everyone she loves dies, and even though there are dead bodies littered all over the country. She has her wits about her, though, and if I ever found myself stuck and in need of help, I'd call her. But, she irritated me at times. The way she acts towards her step-dad, and her school friend Darius embarrassed me. I also didn't understand why in what was essentially an apocalypse she was more concerned with putting on make up, and wearing a pretty dress. Can you imagine Katniss Everdeen doing that? And for me, that made Ruby seem so childish, which was a shame.

It was quite scary at times reading H2O, I mean can you imagine the weather attacking and killing you? Scary. But it was awesome, and very, very compelling. It ends quite abruptly, and I know a second book is forthcoming, which is exciting, because I devoured H2O. It rattles along at such a good pace. And my only other complaint is all those poor bloody animals. It just... As an animal lover, the animal scenes were all a bit tough to take, even though I knew it was fiction. I'm looking forward to the sequel immensely. I loved the world, loved the plot, loved the characters, and the pacing was spot on. H2O is a must for all dystopian fans.This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read