A great sub-genre fusion

Gregg Hurwitz enters the realm of young adult fiction with an interesting fusion of zombie and alien invasion sub-genres. That sentence isn't much of a spoiler, as both facts are abundantly clear early on. The devil is in the details, however, and and it's those detail that make this book so interesting.

Overall the book remains a thriller, Hurwitz's specialty, and it's a good one. I've come to the conclusion that an important part of the reading (or listening experience) when it comes to thrillers is that the reader must simultaneously be eager to learn what happens next, yet also dreads to find out. There must be an undercurrent of great risk to the characters that sometimes hits home. There must be failures, even tragedies, and enough of them to make the reader really feel that there's a great possibility that the current action might go against the protagonists. In this, I found The Rains a great success.

The action is sometimes a little over-the-top, but not extremely so. It falls within the realm of action films, with enough exaggeration to be exciting, but not so much as to make one wonder about the physical humanity of the characters. In this, I have nothing really to complain about. Characterisation matters more: their motivations during these sequences, how they feel and react to their situations, and how they behave towards each other. It's far more important that realism exists there and Hurwitz shows great skill in crafting the characters.

There isn't really a singular villain. Like any zombie plot, it's more of a matter of the world broadly turning against the protagonists. There is a in important figure later into the book, but even that figure doesn't factor as an individual who seems to be ultimately critical to defeat. It's important, sure, but not the main focus. Again, as a zombie plot, it's the entire situation that's against the protagonists.

If there is one named individual who seems to act against the protagonists, it's the character of Ben Bratton. He, however, is less of a villain than he is a foil. Ultimately, he has the same interest of survival as everyone else, but has less motivation to be proactive. He's a bully, but rather defensive in stance, and it is revealed that his actions are driven by what amounts to a rather nihilistic view of his life in the town. He is by no means one-dimensional, though he tends to vacillate between being a blatant impediment and being regretful over his actions. In short, he's very human.

The protagonists themselves are strong and virtuous. Chance Rain idolises his big brother Patrick, who is very much a decisive leader. It comes almost to the point where I initially thought that Patrick was ultimately the hero of the story, with Chance as the narrator playing witness to it all. That's not quite the case, however, as (like all good YA fiction) there is a measure of growth in Chance over the course of the book.

The story does not end with this volume. Indeed, The Rains ends in a bit of a cliffhanger. I fully intend to listen to the second book, though perhaps after a bit of a break from thrillers.

The narrator, Todd Haberkorn, turns out a great performance. He provides a youthful sounding voice to Chance and rather shocked me with his first voicing of Patrick's girlfriend, Alexandra. I thought a female narrator had popped in for a moment...

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