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Carrie Slager's Reviews > The Color of Rain
The Color of Rain
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I found The Color of Rain on one of the blogs I read regularly, Books Without Any Pictures. Grace’s description along with the cover interested me so much that I went out and bought the book. Would it live up to my expectations?
Yes! In fact, Cori McCarthy’s novel actually surpassed my expectations. For a YA novel (albeit strongly recommended for older young adults) it tackles some pretty heavy issues including rape, abuse, prostitution and trauma. Many authors have found their banes in these issues, but Cori McCarthy tackled them head on without really preaching to her audience. No, she presents these issues within the story and allows readers to infer a lot of the effects on poor Rain through her thoughts and actions.
Rain is an interesting character to say the least. She will do anything, literally anything, to save the life of her brother, who is “Touched” and likely to die without treatment. This anything includes prostitution aboard the ship of Johnny Vale, who has taken a personal interest in Rain because she is a natural redhead. Every girl on the ship has a bracelet and their colour denotes their position (yellow for all crew members, green for higher ups, etc.), but Rain is given a red bracelet as part of her being Johnny’s favourite, a dubious honour.
Johnny is quite the villain, doing everything from playing mind games to literally torturing Rain and those she loves. He’s callous and ambitious, a dangerous combination for those around him, especially Rain and his assistant, Ben the Mec (a human with mechanical enhancements). It’s a testament to Cori McCarthy’s writing talent that the decisions Johnny forces Rain to make don’t make readers hate her but rather send home the message about abuse.
I wouldn’t call The Color of Rain fast-paced in terms of action, but there was a lot of character development and inner conflict that I had to keep going to find out what happened. And just when I thought I knew what the ending was going to be, Cori McCarthy threw in a huge, horrifying twist. Obviously she’s not one of these writers that babies her characters, which made me love her debut novel even more.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Yes! In fact, Cori McCarthy’s novel actually surpassed my expectations. For a YA novel (albeit strongly recommended for older young adults) it tackles some pretty heavy issues including rape, abuse, prostitution and trauma. Many authors have found their banes in these issues, but Cori McCarthy tackled them head on without really preaching to her audience. No, she presents these issues within the story and allows readers to infer a lot of the effects on poor Rain through her thoughts and actions.
Rain is an interesting character to say the least. She will do anything, literally anything, to save the life of her brother, who is “Touched” and likely to die without treatment. This anything includes prostitution aboard the ship of Johnny Vale, who has taken a personal interest in Rain because she is a natural redhead. Every girl on the ship has a bracelet and their colour denotes their position (yellow for all crew members, green for higher ups, etc.), but Rain is given a red bracelet as part of her being Johnny’s favourite, a dubious honour.
Johnny is quite the villain, doing everything from playing mind games to literally torturing Rain and those she loves. He’s callous and ambitious, a dangerous combination for those around him, especially Rain and his assistant, Ben the Mec (a human with mechanical enhancements). It’s a testament to Cori McCarthy’s writing talent that the decisions Johnny forces Rain to make don’t make readers hate her but rather send home the message about abuse.
I wouldn’t call The Color of Rain fast-paced in terms of action, but there was a lot of character development and inner conflict that I had to keep going to find out what happened. And just when I thought I knew what the ending was going to be, Cori McCarthy threw in a huge, horrifying twist. Obviously she’s not one of these writers that babies her characters, which made me love her debut novel even more.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
July 29, 2013
–
Finished Reading
February 10, 2014
– Shelved
February 10, 2014
– Shelved as:
books-i-bought
