The Boy in the Rain: A Book Review
Book cover image from FANTASTICFICTION
Artfully crafted, beautiful in detail and depth, The The Boy in the Rain deserves reading. I will note that it was too sexually explicit for me, so I could not read every word, however, I leapt ahead easily, skipping a few scenes throughout.
The scenes were scattered and few between, mostly focusing on the story itself. i.e. the sexual scenes added to the story without taking over the story.
Even so, the book captured me completely. This is something I have not said of a novel in a long time. It’s the sort of book you could easily stay up all night reading. Again, that is something I’ve not done in a long time.
The story is that of forbidden love in a time when such love was not only looked down upon, but illegal, resulting in two years hard time in a labor camp, with many folks dying as a result from disease, abuse, and overwork.
Mention of famous folks, like Oscar Wilde, who experienced such horrors, helped to bring into reality the painful historicity of this atrocity. Reading the story entrenches you into the emotions and feelings it involves being so bitterly rejected societally. That nothing about who you are is acceptable is a painful, moving, and enlightening experience.
The characters filled my heart with warmth with beautiful development, largely why I embraced the reading of it, which drew me in further.
The story is a touch controversial for anyone who was raised conservatively such as I was, but nonetheless, it was challenging for me in a good way – an opportunity to embrace my beliefs more fully without compromising the story as if it were about me.
The setting is vivid and draws you in, leading you to forget that you’re not in an old painting of London and Nottingham. The characters are mostly warm and compassionate. Some are confusing, others surprising, all extremely well crafted and heartbreakingly developed.
If you can handle the slightly erotic elements and infidelity, or know how to skip them, and you want a beautiful, challenging story, this book is a high recommendation from me.
Looking for more great fiction? Check out these other MockingOwl Roost book reviews.
Editor-in-Chief of The MockingOwl Roost, Rita Mock-Pike is the granddaughter of aviatrix, Jerrie Mock, first woman to pilot an airplane solo around the world. Rita has found inspiration from her grandmother’s life and flight and pursued many of her own dreams in theatre, podcasting, novel writing, and cooking up delicious food from around the world. She now writes on food, travel, pets, faith, and the arts. She’s happily married to Matt, and faithfully serves the very fluffy kitten queen, Lady Stardust.
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