Title: When the Rain Came
Author: Matt Eicheldinger
Genre: dystopia
Age range: teen
Similar book: Rebel Darling by Valerie Best
Summary (provided by publisher): “If we stay here, if we keep wandering without a real plan, we won’t last. Maybe The Hill is dangerous. But maybe it’s not. It’s the only plan we have.”
Seventeen-year-old Aurora knows how to survive. Life in the foster system has taught her how to stay quiet, stay smart, and stay ready. But nothing could prepare her for this: a never-ending storm that swallows cities, drowns forests, and turns the world into a flooded wasteland.
Trapped in a collapsing house with her strict prepper foster parents, Aurora is forced to live by their rules just to stay alive. Until the day they disappear without a trace.
Alone. Abandoned. And running out of time.
All Aurora has is a waterlogged scrap of paper and a name: “The Hill.”
With looters closing in and the floodwaters rising higher each day, she’s left with one impossible choice—stay and wait for the storm to take her, or risk everything on a journey through the drowned remains of the world, to a find a place that may or not exist.
It’s forward or nothing.
What I liked: The scenario here is strong and reasonably plausible. We have a character with enough information to stand a chance of survival and a background that makes her flexible and willing to take chances. The pacing is strong and there is enough action to propel the reader forward
What I didn't like: The characters aren't especially complex. The plot takes some logical leaps. This is clearly the first in a series so the ending isn't particularly satisfying. While the individual moments are engaging the plot overall isn't especially beleivable.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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