DOWNPOUR

A horror novel focuses on a mysterious and dangerous rainstorm.

Scott and Dana are a couple who live in rural Illinois. They have a young daughter and a teenage son. Times are not great for the family: Money is in short supply and Dana has confessed to an infidelity. But things are about to get a lot worse. When a strange storm cloud appears, it initially seems to be just a quirky occurrence. Scott and his family have survived a tornado, and while they don’t want to face another one, they at least know what to do during a tempest. But this is no ordinary storm. As the TV news reports, the “problem with this system is that it’s not following normal storm formation patterns, which makes it completely unpredictable.” Later, other surprising weather patterns appear throughout the country. It soon becomes apparent that exposure to the rain does peculiar things to people and animals. When the family dog, Wilbur, finally comes inside the house, he is both aggressive and in poor health. The rain seems to corrode whatever it touches. Sooner or later, the house is likely to crumble. Maybe everything will be fine once the rain stops—if it ever does. Scott, who is established as the main protagonist, comes with a bleak backstory. His father was an alcoholic and his mother left the family. Scott can’t even manage to fix the family’s riding lawn mower. Such grim details do not add a lot to Hawkins’ tale. Much of the work’s terror stems from the idea that anybody can get caught in this nasty, freakish storm, whether the person hails from a happy family or not. Once things escalate, there is a lot more than a lawn mower to worry about. As the tension and violence effectively build, readers will keep anticipating how events are going to play out. At a certain point, even if it does stop raining, the riveting tale makes it clear that Scott and his family will never be the same again.

Despite a few clunky elements, this gripping horror story creates a tense and terrifying situation.