The Rain

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I got half-way through it, and the MC, Ruby, didn't get any smarter, didn't even LOOK AT THE SKY WHEN SHE WENT OUTSIDE. Although the denouement is signalled fairly early on, when Mrs. Davidson observes how Mr. Davidson had experienced great difficulty in getting his South Sea island constituents to recognise sin, the real pleasure lies in enjoying the masterful storytelling. W. Somerset Maugham is, as usual, on top form. It's no surprise that the story has been adapted on numerous occasions into plays and films. Es gibt unnötige Absätze, zusammengewürfelte Wortkombinationen, verwörtlichte Geräusche (Bsp. WUUUUUUUMMMMMSSSS oder so etwas) und Schimpfwörter werden mit Schmetterlingszeichnungen ersetzt (das fand ich irgendwie cool, muss ich sagen). Auch einen andereren Nebencharakter, der sich alleine durch die Welt durchschlägt, fand ich sehr interessant. Natürlich wird er für seine Vorsicht und Logik von Ruby erst mal ausgelacht … Dieses Mädchen, mir fehlen die Worte. Along with Ruby, there are many intriguing characters met along the way. As it is a disaster situation, most of them are not in the story for long, but I believe that is the way things would be in such a situation. Not every story will get a resolution.

H20 or The Rain (if you're from Britain) is a book that I've been really looking forward to reading for quite some time. We all need water to survive so the concept was equally terrifying and ingenious. Now take that idea of tainted water and add in a pathogen of some sort that eats you from within and replicates in said water and you have yourself a pretty damn interesting story. Außer dem sehr gelungenen Anfang und dem sehr guten Ende ist ein Hänger im Mittelteil drin. Wir begleiten Ruby (und ärgern uns über sie), allerdings wird die veränderte Welt total gut verbildlicht, wodurch man etwas entschädigt wird. Die Autorin scheut sich nicht verwesende Leichen zu beschreiben, was zur tristen Atmosphäre viel beiträgt. An manchen Stellen sieht man auch, dass die Autorin eigentlich einen sehr flüssigen Schreibstil hat. Die Betonung liegt auf eigentlich.In later adventures of Ruby, she finally decides to go out and open the houses of her neighbors and set their pets free. She does this so she can get them killed later or abandon them. She also releases the prisoners in the police station, something I assumed would have a point but didn't. She tries fake tan, takes all the make up and designer clothing she wants, and promptly loses most of it. She dyes her hair red and eats lots of chocolate. Basically she does what a five year old with no grasp of the situation would do, instead of a fifteen year old. Oh, so I'll be honest here. I totally judged the book by the cover on this one. But could you blame me? It just looks so cool. I have never willingly not finished a book before, but this book was so frustrating that I couldn't go on. Not only did this book have a really stupid and annoying main character, it had a really rubbish ending!

Allein die Idee gibt so viel Potenzial für Konflikte, dass ich dachte, das Buch könnte gar nicht nicht unterhaltsam sein. Allerdings traf mich die volle Wucht der Wahrheit spätestens nach den ersten paar Kapiteln. Der Schreibstil.

Teaching about the latest events?

In short, if you love a good natural disaster novel and don’t mind having your heart broken, “H2O” is a wonderful choice for upper middle graders and up. Hypocrisy, self-conceit, mercilessness, and human weakness in the face of temptation are all expressed in this short story. The combination of those may lead to drama. With such summary, I was excited to read it because it was something new. It started out great, with a funny narrator in a "diary" form of Ruby. She was witty and funny and I really thought that I was going to like her. Plus there was actually an explanation of why the rain might have turned deadly (umm meteor?) and even though it wasn't perfect, it went with the story. First, let's start off on a semi-good note (and unfortunately there are only two good things that I can say about this book):

Personally I think this is the best book I have read this summer, beating the trilogy "the hunger games" which I would describe as similar in the style of writing, e.g strong female character leading it, with a few traumas thrown in. There are people slating what ruby does in the book, such as her own mini riot, but as a teenager I can safely say this book is extremely relatable. I may not smear myself in make-up but would steal and go crazy if people are dying all around me, and although there are traumas for ruby, there are many bits of good humour in the book. Hotel accommodation is unavailable so they're required to seek lodgings with a local trader and his native wife. However, a 2nd class passenger, a lone woman, also acquires accommodation there and proceeds to ply her trade on the premises to the consternation of the missionaries who proceed to make her life intolerable and seek her expulsion, whilst attempting a religious conversion. Das alles und dieser unsympathische Charakter von Ruby, der Protagonistin, hemmen den Lesefluss ungemein. Zuerst erhofft man sich, dass Ruby ihre unreife Einstellung zur Seite legt und endlich mal anfängt nachzudenken. Später verflucht man sie nur noch, weil sie sich so doof verhält, dass kein einziger Mensch, in einer apokalyptischen ENDZEIT wo die Ressourcen so rar sind, sich so verhalten würde. So putzt sie sich die Zähne mit Cola (genau, es gibt nichts zu trinken), trinkt alles Wasser auf, das sie sich angesparrt hat und übergibt sich dann (es gibt immer noch nichts zu trinken) und in dieser lebensbedrohlichen Welt macht sie ungeschützt eine Radtour (der Regen ist giftig und es könnte jederzeit anfangen zu regnen) und von ihrer Eitelkeit will ich gar nicht erst anfangen. Maugham is, sadly, a little out of fashion now, but that is a shame. It is easy to forget how hugely successful he was – both as a novelist, travel writer and in the theatre. Indeed, just this one story spawned a successful play, which ran for 608 shows in New York, as well as three films (1928, 1932 and 1953) and even an opera in 1997. He travelled widely and brings to bear his immediate knowledge of the area where he has set this story, as well as his descriptions of the characters.First off, while I liked the character Princess, being mute did make it hard to connect with her character. I understand she was traumatized and that's why she didn't speak but she could still have a personality despite that. You just have to be a bit more creative with making it known. Opening Sentence: If this was a really good story, like the kind you read for fun, it would have such a great beginning. Not a bad book but nothing spectacular. I chose to start this book because I was really in the mood for something apocalyptic and I definitely got that, but from a very interesting premise comes a very just-okay book. Secondly, I wish the ending wasn't so ambiguous. I'm not sure if this is going to be a series either so that definitely adds to the “huh,that's it” factor I experienced. Breaking out of the typical YA apocalypse mould, I couldn’t put the book down because Bergin has created such a scarily imaginative concept. I couldn’t go out for days without wondering why people were jumping in puddles when there was the chance they could get infected!

Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way. Zuerst dachte ich: Das ist ungewöhnlich und interessant, aber vielleicht gewöhne ich mich ja daran. Dann wollte ich irgendwann nur noch, dass die Protagonistin endlich den Mund hält, weil ich es nicht mehr ausgehalten habe. Ihre verdrehten Gedankengänge plus dieser grausame, Leser unfreundliche Schreibstil.It also reflects on colonialism, its dehumanizing tendencies, and prejudices which sometimes have a dangerous effect.