R&R Review Wednesday: Escaping the Rainfield by Eliza Rich

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Goodreads Blurb:

"“April 12, 2003. “Beep. Beep. We interrupt your radio station to bring you this important message. The counties of… no. The states of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and southern portions of Iowa and Nebraska are in a Flood Warning.””

This was no typical flood warning. With eleven states expecting three to ten inches of rain for an unprecedented number of days, the United States was in a frenzy. Families were evacuating their hometowns in hopes of locating refuge on dry land, but Hannah Davis’ family thought that they could out wait the storm. When their panicked Grandmother reaches out to them, requesting help, they find themselves fighting the weather and time to rescue her. As if that wasn’t enough, shortly after joining forces with two of Hannah’s classmates, Adrian and Ophelia, they come face to face with a gang that wants Adrian dead. As the days go by the family grows increasingly wary whether or not they will reach their Grandmother in time. Will the Davis’ be able to come together to outwit the storm and its surrounding catastrophes? Or will Hannah’s affection for Adrian put her family in more danger than it is worth?"

Review:

Thank you to the author, Eliza Rich, and Olivia (who organizes the Review Chain) for gifting me with a copy of Escaping the Rainfield in exchange for an honest review!

This book, sadly, was mostly a disappointment for me.  Perhaps I've read too many complex novels, but everything needed more development.

1.  The characters.  The characters definitely needed more development.  I frequently found myself baffled by their actions and by the main character, Hannah.  She continually frustrated by me jumping to insane conclusions and consistently falling into the sexist Christianity stereotype (which I'll talk a bit more about later).  The characters didn't always have separate voices which led to several moments of confusion on my part.  There weren't a lot of character development moments or descriptors so much so that I was even confused on the ages of the teenagers until around halfway through the book.  One character I loved, though, was Hannah's younger sister, Abi.  She was written so well and she stood out from the others and made me feel more connected to the story.

2.  The plot.  The plot was very well structured and did keep me interested although several other elements of the book didn't help.  It follows the dystopian mystery plot line and structure which really worked in the book's favor.  I loved the addition of Adrian's past and learning more about him through plot events.  One issue I did have with the plot was the ending.  To me, it seemed very perfect and very fairytale like.  That doesn't bother me if it fits the content but I don't think this kind of story deserves that type of ending.  Another issue I had was the lack of technology.  You would think that they'd be looking for a radio or something to listen to the news and see what's going on but instead, they just keep pushing on and don't seek additional information.

3.  The setting.  This is where I had the most problems.  In general, I wish the author had more descriptions and more exposition at the start.  I felt like I was just dropped in and nothing was really elaborated on.  The settings and physical spaces weren't described nearly as well as they could have been which made me feel very removed from the story.  Also because of the lack of description, a lot of character traits were lost as well for me.

4.  Religion.  I'm not one to dislike religion in a book.  Religion is a large part of a lot of people's lives so I think it's entirely accurate to have it portrayed (especially in a life or death dystopian).  However, I do think that perhaps the author could have toned it down just a smidge.  I mentioned above how the characters didn't seek any information about the storm.  Instead, they simply prayed and kept discussing whether it was God trying to flood the earth again (think Noah and the Ark).  While that's an entirely reasonable assumption for a  person of Christian belief, it irked me a bit that it was all being boiled down to a religious issue.  Also, like I mentioned above, the characters frequently fell into the sexist Christian stereotype where men are expected do all of the heavy lifting and the woman are supposed to always agree and go along with what the men want.  I resented that.

5.  The romance.  There isn't much romance in this which I truly appreciated.  Romance can be amplified so much by life or death situations and I loved how the author refrained from making it a focal point.  However, the ending was a little meh for me in terms of the relationships that are formed.

6.  The idea.  This is the best aspect of this book and what drew me to it in the first place.  If you read the blurb, you know what I mean.  I've never read an apocalyptic novel focused on rain before.  They're all about illnesses or heat or climate change or something; not a giant spout of rain that causes intensive (think 5 feet of sitting water) flooding.  I loved the concept and the idea that the author had, just not the way it was executed.

The Final Verdict:

This novel, unfortunately, fell flat for me.  While the idea is fabulous, I don't think the characters or setting were executed properly and left so many holes.  I did appreciate the toned down romance, however.

2 stars

Meet the Author

I grew up in Iowa with a vast intrigue for the unexpected. Like many of my peers, I began to question how to would handle situations differently from my parents and fellow classmates in middle school. My imagination ran wild with all of the potential “what if’s”, but the question of how to outwit Mother Nature always stuck with me. Over the next eight years, I revised the plot for Escaping the Rainfield and let the characters find unexpected solutions to the dilemmas I would throw in their path. Now, as I finish college, I am excited to share the tale of one family seeking refuge from the greatest flood America has ever known.

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