Bringing Home The Rain

I hesitated to post this review, because I've encountered the author around the ‘nets and he seems like an ok guy. However, for me this book just didn't do it. First, I didn't realize when I picked this up, that it isn't really a novel. It's more like several longish short-stories in one volume. I think that if the author re-developed this into true novel form, it would improve greatly. I read this book because it had an interesting premise. There was an idea there. It could have been so very good, but for me it was not great. It has the feel that it should have been workshopped with a good writing group to tighten the outline. It also seemed in need of an editor. There were a noticeable number of errors in punctuation, spelling, and word choice (using the wrong but similar sounding word, but not in a way that seemed intentional). That took away from it a bit for me.

I've read vast amounts of literature, fantasy, sci-fi, horror. I've seen despicable characters made sympathetic. I've seen other extremely down-and-out characters made sympathetic (or made unsympathetically hate-able). In this case, I never came to care much about the characters in this book. The protagonist hints at things in his past that might help us care more about him, but they aren't actually revealed. Yeah, he's from a poor, tough area in the rural American South, and I love that setting, and it should have made this aces for me, but somehow we just kept getting Big Hints. “Something bad” happened to the main character to make him the junkie he is. “Granny” is scary powerful, and he won't go around her. It was deeply disappointing that we don't get to meet Granny. There are fae in this book's setting, it seems, and they even like one of the main character's actions enough that they leave him a reward! We don't see them, just the reward they left. The rest of the book, this isn't mentioned again! Not the effects of this on the character, nothing (just a sudden fae powerup [maybe] with unspecified effects, then forgotten)! Just Big Hints and Loose Ends all around.

It seemed the entire time to me that the main character was narrating his life as if it were the life of someone else, not his own. It was a very detached first-person narration in some ways. Perhaps this was an intentional artistic choice that has just whooshed past me as a reader. Perhaps all the hinting, forgetting, and loose ends is intentionally done to make us feel more like the hot mess that the main character is, but for me that didn't connect.

At this point, I feel like, I would love to see the main character grow and progress. There are Big Hints that he may, but I just read this entire book without getting much of that. I didn't like any character enough to make me sure I want to read the next book. There are still Big Hints of things I might really like later, but there are SO many other books on my to-be-read list. So, I may check in on this author later again, because I really wanted to love this. However, every book is not for every reader, and you may love it. For me, as the stars say: “It's OK”.