Review: Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

Title: Rain Reign

Author: Ann M. Martin

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Publication Date: 10.7.2014

Pages: 320

Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary

Series: N/A

Source: ARC from publisher

Rating: 4 ½ Stars

Summary (from Goodreads):

Rose Howard has OCD, Asperger’s syndrome, and an obsession with homonyms (even her name is a homonym). She gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose’s rules of homonyms, is very special. Rain was a lost dog Rose’s father brought home. Rose and Rain are practically inseparable. And they are often home alone, as Rose’s father spends most evenings at a bar, and doesn’t have much patience for his special-needs daughter.
Just as a storm hits town, Rain goes missing. Rose’s father shouldn’t have let Rain out. Now Rose has to find her dog, even if it means leaving her routines and safe places to search. Rose will find Rain, but so will Rain’s original owners.

Hearts will break and spirits will soar for this powerful story, brilliantly told from Rose’s point of view.

Review:

This is a review I have been agonizing over. And fair warning, it’s going to be a long one.

Let me start of by saying I’ve been a fan of Ann M. Martin from the BSC days. If you don’t know what the BSC is, then you have issues. BIG ones. My friends and I even started our own BSC when we were 11. So now that you know I’m already a lifelong fan of Martin’s, let’s move on.

I’m not someone who gets overly emotional when reading. I’ve just never been that girl who cries and sobs and gets so entrenched in fictional characters that it impacts me, Hannah, on an emotional level. That being said, I legit cried my way through this book. Heck, I’m tearing up writing this review.

Bear with me because I’m about to get more personal than I’ve ever been on this blog. This story is a little unique because I know Rose. I just call her a different name – my sister.

I have an older sister who has autism in addition to a multitude of other learning disabilities. It’s not been easy on my family – my parents never expected to have an almost 40-year-old child living with them because mentally she’s the age of a 9 year old. I never envisioned staying at the same job for 11 years because she worked with me and I was terrified of someone mistreating her if I left. My brother and sister-in-law also rearrange plans to help out. But we’re family and it’s what we do.

Also like Rose, my sister has this dog. This irritating 6 pound ball of fluff and yap that just centers her. It makes zero sense and unless you see it with your own eyes—you see the way my sister was before and after Lyla (the dog)—you’ll never get that bond and how it works. I still don’t quite get it.

No, my sister doesn’t have an obsession with homonyms like Rose does, but she has other quirks that sometimes drive me absolutely batty, so even though it takes a few pages to really get into Rose’s character and the pacing of the book, I found myself smiling and shaking my head because anything less would be untrue to the character.

Rose’s voice has this unique innocence that Martin nailed. It’s the same way my sister views the world. This beautiful way of how bad things can be washed away by the calendar flipping days.  The way you and I used to think before we became jaded and older. In a lot of ways I envy Rose and my sister.

This is not going to be a book people everywhere love or want to read. It will be weird and different and foreign to a lot of people. But to me? This is every day.  

Buy Rain Reign Now