My Problem with Shouting at the Rain

This past month, I’ve read a few books, all of them being disappointing, unfortunately. I wasn’t exactly sure why I disliked them, I just knew that there was something about each of them that left me unmoved and bored. However, after some retrospection, I found the sources of my dissatisfaction with one of the books, which was called Shouting at the Rain. 

            Shouting at the Rain follows a girl named Delsie, and her life on Cape Cod. She lives with her grandmother, and has no recollection of either of her parents, as they left her when she was young. Delsie not knowing who her parents are becomes a main theme in the story and remains as one of Delsie’s biggest focuses in her life. What seems to be the main conflict of the book besides Delsie’s parentage is her summer best friend dumping her for a new friend named Tressa. For the majority of the book, Delsie tries to deal with one of her only friends growing up and no longer being interested in her. While she suffers through her loneliness, she meets a boy named Ronan, who has just moved to Cape Cod. At first, he appears disrespectful and snarky, but after he stands up to Tressa and Brandy for Delsie, she begins to see his true character and why he hides behind a cold mask. The two of them become close friends and bond over their issues with their parents and feeling broken inside. Throughout the book, Delsie goes through a journey of understanding why her parents left her, coming to terms with being an orphan, and being content without Brandy as a friend. Along the way, Delsie strengthens her relationships with her community and neighbors, and helps others become at peace with themselves.

            On the surface, this seems to be an inspiring book full of good messages for teenagers. However, when I read it, I felt like I was reading the script for an inspirational video or somebody’s 5th grade emo poetry. (I’m not trying to drag either of those things, I’m just saying they have their own place, and that place is not in a full-length book for young adults.) It felt like I was just being preached at by the author for the entire book, without getting to see any real substance or development to the characters. An example of this is in the first chapter, where one of Delsie’s friends that we barely see again for the rest of the book asks her what it’s like to be an orphan. Delsie has a huge identity crisis and resolves to find out who her mother was, thus setting off the plot of the book. My problem with this scene is not the material itself, it’s the placement and delivery of it that bother me. It could be compelling to set off the main character on a journey to find their past, if the reader knows why it matters to them and why they’ve suddenly decided to do it. However, as a reader, I just can’t find the motivation to care about a character that I’ve known for one sentence and their dilemmas, especially if it’s the only thing I know about them. I have no connection to this character, therefore it’s hard to have empathy for them, since they haven’t come to life yet. If the premise of the story is uninteresting to the reader, it makes it much harder for the rest of the story to be compelling. 

Secondly, it doesn’t make sense that Delsie’s friend who has known her for many years would abruptly ask her this question, and Delsie’s reaction to the question is even more confusing. I find it hard to believe that during Delsie’s entire childhood and teenage years, she had not been asked once about being an orphan, or she had not thought about who her parents were before. It just doesn’t add up, and in my mind, it just seems like a sloppy way to let the author start talking about positive messages through her undeveloped characters. This theme of using out of place questions or actions from characters to discuss darker topics continues throughout the whole book, and for me, it ruined any connection I had to the characters or the plot, leaving me disinterested and unsatisfied. I personally would not recommend this book.

-Clara