Title: The Rain.
Series: The Rain, #1.
Author: Virginia Bergin.
Publication Date: July 17th, 2014.
Publisher: Macmillan.
Format: Paperback, 384 pages.
Source: Provided By Publisher.
My Rating:



It's in the rain...and just one drop will kill you.

They don't believe it at first. Crowded in Zach's kitchen, Ruby and the rest of the partygoers laugh at Zach's parents' frenzied push to get them all inside as it starts to drizzle. But then the radio comes on with the warning, "It's in the rain! It's fatal, it's contagious, and there's no cure."

Two weeks later, Ruby is alone. Anyone who's been touched by rain or washed their hands with tap water is dead. The only drinkable water is quickly running out. Ruby's only chance for survival is a treacherous hike across the country to find her father-if he's even still alive.


It feels like I haven’t written a review in about a year, although it has only been a couple of months. So, I apologise if I seem a little rusty! The Rain is set in a diary format and it is as if the main character is speaking directly to you, I absolutely loved this, as I don’t come across books like it very often! The Rain is a brilliant and pretty darn awesome post-apocalyptic novel with a really fantastic premise and interesting characters. Every time I go to get a glass of water now, I pause for a second and need to remind myself that it hadn’t happened in real life – not yet at least!


Ruby is our main protagonist and I actually started off liking her quite a lot, she seemed like a very typical teenage girl and was generally a pretty bubbly and interesting character. However, the more I read The Rain, the more I grew to dislike her. Ruby turned out to be an irritating, annoying, frustrating, big-headed, over dramatic, rude and mean character. The way she treated people, her family included, made me want to whack her over the head with the book. I know she’s only seventeen, but you would think, given the circumstances (and the fact that she’s nearly an adult) she’d mature a little, but she just got worse as the book went on. I don’t know whether this was Virginia Bergin’s plan all along, but Ruby was definitely not a character I would want to know!

Overall, The Rain was a really good book that I found really difficult to put down; I needed to find out what would happen next! Virginia Bergin’s writing is different and unique and I have to say I’ve definitely not read anything like it before. I loved the format the book was in, a diary written by Ruby and although I didn’t like Ruby’s character, it didn’t detract from the brilliance of the book. Virginia Bergin is a fantastic author and I can’t wait to read more from her in the future, I would also definitely recommend The Rain to any post-apocalyptic fan as it really is a unique read!


Quotes
Simon’s hands snatched round my middle and pulled me back. He pinned me to him.
My scream died in the air; it died and joined all the other screams. They live like ghosts, like echoes in the minds of the living.
My scream burst out and died and lungs refused - refused - to suck air in. I wanted to stop, to die with that scream.
‘Breathe, breathe, breathe,’ Simon kept saying. He was crying. He would not let me go.
Then it comes. Your lungs suck in air; your body decides for you. You will live.
You’re one breath away from her, then two, then three, then four, then five.
Mum, I am still breathing. - Page 72 & 73.

Whitby, outside, had started to whimper...and the sound of his crying, it was awful and I could feel I was about ready to totally yee-haa...and then...something kicked in, just for a second, about how..I dunno. How it’s so hard now to work things out it’s maybe easier to work them out with other people, but how being with other people is dangerous as well as safer...because you have to agree all the time...because if you don’t sort it out and you don’t agree, a lot of things can go wrong.
Basically people can die. [...]

My eyes were so tear-blurry I could hardly even see Whitby running after the car, barking. Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me.
I could hardly even see him until he was just a tiny dot, sitting in the middle of the motorway, howling. - Page 304.

I had these thoughts – strange, but not scary – about how maybe there’d be so few people left now that the animals would set up a human zoo and bring their animal children to stare at us and tell them in Animalese to shush and not frighten us, and give us mobile phones to play with and feed us on tinned stuff and bottles of cola. Yikes! And try to get us to breed! Imagine spending the rest of your life trapped in a cage with Darius Spratt, being forced to try to like each other. – Page 343.



Hey fellow book lovers. :D I Am SO sorry for my huge absence over the last month or so - at first things were going badly, and then all of a sudden hundreds of things started happening at once. I've been seeing friends, and I've just started two courses so I can go back and take my Maths and English GCSE's as I never managed to take them at school. So everything is really hectic and I've had a lot of work to do and there's really been no free second for me to do anything really at all! I am however, still working on my new blog, I've nearly finished editing everything and I hope to have everything public very soon, but I can't promise you when. On top of all that, I've barely read ANYTHING over the last two months, which is really irritating - but hopefully eventually I'll start up again. I think I've just been in a huge reading slump. Anyways, that's it for today, I'll try and update again very soon - but until then, take care guys!

Video


Photos And Book Information
The Castle by Sophia Bennett.
Flashes by Tim O'Rourke.

Killing Sound by Paul Southern.
City of Halves by Lucy Inglis.

A MASSIVE thanks to Chicken House who sent me, The Castle, Flashes, Killing Sound and City of Halves for review. They all look really amazing and I can't wait to start them. :)


A HUGE thank you to Walker Books who sent me this copy of The Jewel for review, it looks incredible. :) Also, a BIG thank you to Macmillan who sent me a beautiful finished copy of Trial By Fire for review, I can't wait to finally start both these books. ^.^



A HUGE thanks to Bloomsbury who sent me, Better Than Perfect, Heir of Fire and The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel Vl.1 for review! :) They all look great and I'm so pleased to have them in my collection. ^.^



When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle.
Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini.

Fault Line by Christa Desir.
The Alchemy of Forever (Incarnation, #1) by Avery Williams.

The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle.
SYLO (The SYLO Chronicles, #1) by D.J. MacHale.


I GOT SO MANY PRETTY BOOKS! :D :D I'm honestly lost for words and I have no idea what to say except I'm SO excited about all of them! :) I know this is a really late book haul, and I should probably really get around to filming my September Book Haul soon, but I just need to revel in the glory of these amazing books. ^.^ Plus, they have some really beautiful covers, I mean, just LOOK at them! :D Have you read any of these books? Let me know! ^.^



What books have you brought or received lately? Leave me a comment or a link to your blog post and I'll be sure to check it out. ^.^ Happy reading! (: