‘The Rain Heron’ By Robbie Arnott
Four out of five stars.
I wish I had paid more attention to the book while I read it. I read the book in an afternoon, almost in one sitting. I flew over the pages, inhaling the story in big gulps. Now, looking back, I can dimly remember the things I missed. How did the author describe the beautiful setting the characters were traveling in? How were all of the characters connected to each other? I think I missed something. While there isn’t anything wrong with reading some books quickly, I feel as though I only scratched the surface of this book, there was more to find if I had just slowed down a little bit.
The atmosphere of the story is what pulled me in in the first place. A beautiful setting, a little bit of the mysterious and the magical, with a large dose of the unknown. It isn’t a fast paced book, but there is enough mystery I kept flipping pages trying to find out what would happen next.
‘The Rain Heron’ is about a cast of characters who are all connected in some way to this magical being called the Rain Heron. One has seen it, one desires it, the other follows the one who desires it. In this particular world, there is magical creatures if you know where to look for them. Their existence is kept secret from any outsiders, but rumors of them still abound. These creatures are all wild, untamable things which will kill you unless handled carefully.
The Rain Heron is one of those creatures, and a newly formed government in the wake of a coup desires to attain this rumor and use it to their own ends. So of course, they send their best, most ruthless people to get it. The one person who knows its existence for sure, and could bring them to it, is an old woman who lives alone on the mountain. The woman in charge of this task force intends to coerce or force this solitary hermit to give up the location of the Rain Heron.
The plot is not completely linear. Once or twice the main story pauses to give the backstory of some character. One of those jaunts into the past I didn’t even know who I was reading about until the end, which was kind of odd. At first it seemed like a completely unrelated story until I reached the end and saw the tie in to the main story.
There are three points of view in the story. First, we start with the old woman on the mountain as she struggles against the government agents who want the Rain Heron for themselves. Next, we follow the doctor of that task force as he wrestles with the implications of what they have just done. He disagrees with his leader, but he respects her too much to act on his disagreement. Finally, we follow the woman in charge, the one who does everything in her power to take the Rain Heron. While at the end of the story we see all of the characters again, the point of view never jumps back to follow that character. I liked that, because I never got lost, wondering who we were following now and when we had jumped points of view.
All of the characters were complicated, broken characters struggling to make sense with themselves and the world they lived in. Their personal struggles with identity and grief were all backdropped by a country that was slowly falling apart. A military coup happened before the main events of the book began, forcing people to take sides, and watch their loved ones go fight their neighbors. Not only is their political upheaval, but I got the idea that there was environmental upheaval as well. In some places it doesn’t rain enough, in some places it rains too much. Wild storms take out towns, and in some places it is too cold, while in others it is too hot. There is so much going on in the background, but it never takes over the main story, or the characters inner struggles. It is just the background, feeding into and reflecting the characters struggles and growth.
What I liked the most was the redemptive arc of the woman who leads the group to capture the Rain Heron. She comes to terms with herself, and what she has done over the course of her career. In a way, the blinders she has put over her eyes fall off, and she is able to see things clearly for the first time. Past all of the excuses she tells herself and lies she believes to what is actually true about her and about the people around her.
All in all, I enjoyed the books themes and characters. The plot was engaging and kept me turning pages to find out what would happen next. Most of all, I loved the setting a beautiful descriptions of the world. (who knew rain could be described so beautifully?) In a couple places it was a little too violent for my personal taste, but that was the only problem I had with the book.
If you have read it, let me know what you think!
Shaina Merrick
The Beauty of a Story 