3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
When Fire Met Rain by Henry Reign is a work of fiction that follows the adventures of Christian, the Rainmaker. Christian is a gifted nomad who causes rain to fall wherever he goes. Because of this, he can't stay in one place but has to keep moving to avoid causing a flood.
One day when the Rainmaker is resting his tired body, he sees a young girl wandering about. Although he perceives her as pretty, she seems troubled as she has run away from her home with no destination in mind. The Rainmaker asks her a little about herself and sets on a mission to take her back to her home. He pities the girl and sees a lot of his younger self in her. The Rainmaker takes on the burden of taking the girl back to her home because he doesn't want to see her repeat the same mistakes that he made when he was young. Although this is an unusual pairing, the two have a great adventure awaiting them.
Throughout the adventure and the chaos, the themes of responsibility, hard work, obedience, ingenuity and perseverance are carefully woven into the storyline. This story teaches the youth not to act out and be submissive to authority because one irrational act could have a massive ripple effect.
Reading this book was as exciting as it was interesting. The story is well paced and alternates between first and third person points of view. The author uses realistic imagery to paint picturesque scenes that had me feeling like I was right there with the characters. I liked that both the girl and the Rainmaker are given a voice. Although not much back story is provided about the protagonists, the author achieved a great deal by focusing on the now, as he stated at the beginning of the book. The writing style is unique with just enough complexity to warrant the reader's full concentration. I especially liked how vividly descriptive the language is and by the time the story ended, I was caught off guard and craving for more.
I must admit that I was quite uncomfortable with the idea of a little girl being in the companionship of a grown man who's not her relative. I desperately hoped that nothing would happened to the girl and I was glad that the Rainmaker was true to his word and acted like a father figure. The pair did have some great moments on their journey and they ended up learning a lot from each other. The Rainmaker shared valuable nuggets of wisdom with the girl, which I also found useful and ended up having many favorites.
The only downside is that there are a few typos and grammatical errors but this did not dampen the reading experience. These could easily be reconciled with a round of editing. There is also a whole chapter towards the end that I strongly feel should be shifted in position from location 684 to location 610 on the Kindle version because it somehow interrupted the chronology of events in the story.
I therefore rate this book 3 out of 4 stars and I would recommend it to lovers of fiction stories and anyone who craves an unorthodox read.
******
When Fire Met Rain
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Mercy Bolo's review? Post a comment saying so!
