When I first starting reading the book I had a hard time with it jumping around to the different stories. But once I got used to it, it was fine and I really enjoyed the book. All of the different stories weren't interesting on their own, and then you see where it all meets up! I would definitely recommend this book!

this book was difficult to read. I loved the premise, and the locale in Canada. The book just didn't deliver on the synopsis. I think it could have done with a fair amount of editing by a seasoned editor, as ordinarily I love dystopian fiction, and the climate aspect was quite topical.

While this didn't turn out to be my cup of tea, I thought the writing was great and would definitely give other works by this author a chance. Absolutely loved the premise of this story. I would love to come back to it one day and give it another go because I think it's an interesting concept.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an advanced reader copy.

“The northern mining town of River Meadows is one of three hotspots in the world producing ghost ore, a new source of energy worth twenty-eight times its weight in gold. It's also linked with slippages of time and space that gradually render the area uninhabitable. After the town is evacuated, the whole region is cordoned off, the new no-go zone wryly nicknamed "the Park."

Three intertwined stories flow from the disaster of River Meadows. Alex Hewitt and his sister, Amery, were among the first to be shipped out of the contaminated town. Now an accomplished game designer, Alex has moved on, but his sister has not, making increasingly dangerous break-ins to save animals trapped in the toxic wasteland. When at last she fails to return from a trip inside the fence, Alex flies to River Meadows to search for her, enlisting her friend, Michio Amano, a mathematician who needs to transcend the known laws of physics if he and Alex are to succeed.”

If the Book of Rain was a short story, it would fit very well with How High We Go in the Dark – speculative fiction, post-apocalyptic, “easy” fantasy, hint of mystery. This also has a sprinkle of Hollow Kingdom (minus the zombies and a funny crow) with its talking birds.

I’m glad Thomas Wharton discussed Alberta’s oil sands in the book through the “ghost ore” and I enjoyed the Canadian references and “decoherences” aka next-level déjà vu. But oh man was this ambitious! I found it hard to follow with multiple POVs, flashbacks, diary entries, and the random drift to stream-of-consciousness writing, and because of these, I highly recommend picking up a physical copy rather than audio. As some reviewers have said, this story really picks up around the 60% mark… which is a little too late in the book lol.

Since I did not quite enjoy this, I’m going to feature a few articles about the “ghost ore” aka Alberta’s oil sands in this post.

1. This is the world's most destructive oil operation—and it's growing by Stephen Leahy (April 2019)
2. Canada’s Tar Sands: Destruction So Vast and Deep It Challenges the Existence of Land and People by Nicholas Kusnetz (November 2021)
3. World of Change: Athabasca Oil Sands (Earth Observatory – NASA)

I absolutely loved this book!! I couldn’t put it down.
I just loved all the characters. I highly recommend this book.

The Book of Rain is only the second environmental suspense that I have read. It is an interesting read that kept me wondering how things would turn out for Alex, Amery, and the planet as a whole. This was a tricky one to get into as it's really info heavy and alternates between multiple POV's at the beginning. Once the ground work is laid though I really got into it, and couldn't put it down. I love how it tackles the theme of the massive environmental toll the Alberta tar sands are taking of our planet, bleeding it dry, through a comparable resource names ghost ore.

A unique eco-dystopian story with flawed execution.

This book has all the things I look for, it's written by a Canadian, it's sci-fi, eco-horror/dystopia and recommendations that liken the book to Station Eleven. My expectations were set, however the book I was hoping to read doesn't start until the 60% mark.

We're following a young brother and sister who pass through a small Alberta mining town with their parents. Mysterious wobbles, or decoherences give people glimpses of alternative realities, and sends the young sister to a hospital. The family decides to call the town home and never leaves. We meet the brother as an adult when he can't get ahold of his sister and goes back to their hometown to find her. Now the decoherence has taken up a widening space around the town, forcing residents to leave, a fence to be built and people to be kept out. We find out his sister has been returning to document the mysterious events happening within it's borders, and is likely lost somewhere inside.

It's not until the 60% mark that we even get a glimpse of what is inside the decoherence boundary, which is when the books pace starts picking up.

The idea behind this story is unique, dark and has lots of potential. Unfortunately the pacing is slow and our characters aren't compelling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an advanced reader copy.

I didn’t enjoyed the story. I think it was okay. I picked that story only because it was a free ARC from NetGalley, and I thought it has a very interesting promise, mix of my favourite genres - sci-fi, fantasy, and post-ap.
However, I cannot go along with the characters, especially Claire.
The writing style is good. Kind of was interesting that the last part was written in the poetry style, from the perspective of birds.
Took me some time to finish the book, which actually less than 490 pages. I just was not pulled into the story not by the plot, not by the characters.

I was initially drawn to this novel because of its comparison to the work of Emily St. John Mandel. After completing the book, I can see why the comparisons were made; however, I must stress that Thomas Wharton's work was unique. The world that Wharton creates is familiar enough to the reader that its characters, along with their worries and desires, resonate strongly. I appreciated the air of mystery throughout the book. Events and occurrences weren't simply explained to the reader. Rather, you had to continue exploring the narrative to make connections and see the full picture.

My only criticism of The Book of Rain involves the ending of the book. I thought the concept of moving forward into the future and looking back on the events of the story, but from the perspective of a bird, would have been a better way to open the novel. By creating this air of mystery (what happened, who are the people involved, why is a bird narrating), the author would be quickly drawn into the narrative, hoping to piece together just what led to this strange and unfamiliar future.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel. I highly recommend it for fans of St. John Mandel, but also for people who enjoy stories about family and exploring the unknown.

I really wanted to love this book and get lost in the world and feel that connection to my home country and beyond but I'm not going to lie this book felt like a chore to finish.

It was technically proficient and clearly written with meaning, but I often found myself bored during passages and wondering when the story would pick up more. The chapters were way too long for my attention span and the book was riddled with flashbacks that didn't necessarily add to the story and often left me more confused as to where I was in the plotline. The mix of chapters, headings, diary entries, and other writing forms muddled the storyline and the random added points of view confused me even more.

There's a possibility that because I was bored and confused the whole time that the ending passed right over my head. It just didn't feel complete and I didn't get to know what happened to certain characters. My brain just hurts.

This was spectacular, climate post apocalypse sci-fi is a genre I am really into. How all the characters story aligned and a reality of where our world is headed.

I found the overall premise of The Book of Rain and the environmental concepts to be interesting and relevant. I thought this book started off strong and I was very interested to see how it would all play out. However, as the book progressed, I didn't find myself feeling as engaged. In the end, I liked the overall concept, but not the execution as I was looking for more connection or tension between or for the characters.
Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for the digital copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting one to read. I had to really force myself to pay attention to the different characters and the jumps through time, Some parts seemed very important while you were reading them only to find that they weren't in the grand scheme.

Set in a not-so-distant future, a new "ghost ore" is mined and has serious environmental repercussions. The open ending was slightly disappointing, I kept trying to flip to the next page thinking my kindle was frozen so I was left a little confused and underwhelmed.

Weird book lovers, this book is for you. As I read this book, I kept wondering how I would have felt about it 15 years ago had it been assigned in my Contemporary Canadian Literature class. Would I have been grateful that this book broke the mould of what I <i>assumed</i> all Canadian literature was like then, or would I have been overwhelmed with the complicated plot and time jumps, unable to really grasp how it all came together?

I mean, to be honest, even now I'm trying to grasp how it all came together. Would someone please tell me about the character looking through the suitcases and why her perspective was necessary and who she was grieving?

<i>The Book of Rain</i> is an ecological scifi with (in my opinion) a little horror thrown in. The book examines the effect humans are having on this world and what it takes one girl (and some others in her family/community) to make a positive impact on nature. The book also seems to be saying that it is our role to consider the individuals affected by our choices, including the individual animals at risk as well. In fact, this book would pair very nicely with a discussion on the Indigenous spiritual concept of seven generations sustainability, which places the responsibility on the current generation to consider what impact their actions will have seven generations forward. <i>The Book of Rain</i> span generations and vies the reader a glimpse this far into the future.

The book takes place in an Alberta mining town that mines a mineral required to fuel the world: ghost ore. However, this ghost ore seems to have some alarming characteristics and side effects. Most concerning seems to be the wobbles, or decoherences that happen in the mining town which seem to give people glimpses of alternative realities. But is the presence of alternative realities enough to save the world from the way humans ravage it?

While this book is definitely unique, convoluted, and has me continuing to piece together my understanding of all the disparate pieces of the book, I enjoyed it. It is clearly a well-constructed and interesting book.

I received this e-arc from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I have been waiting for a book like this to be written for a long time. I think this book raises important questions and points towards real problems. Through the framing of this story I think more people will discover the perspective and language they need to engage in the reality of the climate crisis.

This book required careful thought and attention. I appreciated the invitation into an open ending.

I wanted to love this book and it definitely had high points, but unfortunately it wasn't the book for me. I had trouble keeping track of the characters with the timelines and perspectives shifting, and the ending left me with more questions than answers.

I was attracted to The Book of Rain because it is set in the Canadian province where I live. I liked the idea of an alternate history with an ore and of ripples in time. This being a climate change fiction also piqued my interest. I found the writing beautiful and the notes on bird and animal patterns as well as the fictional history of River Meadows informative but not enough to create an emotional connection. I was intrigued by the characters and setting but not immersed enough to be completely invested to know more. I found the narrative to be challenging because the two characters are in separate locations and both are built through flashback style storytelling. There is a lot of jumping around in time and it didn’t build a cohesive plot of where the book was going.

Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of the book for an honest review.

Reading the Book of Rain was a transfixing experience. Set in a not too distant future, the book centres largely on a town rendered uninhabitable die to the human mining of a substance called ghost ore. The mining causes temporal pockets and disturbances.

I really enjoyed the winding mystery of the book, Wharton's pacing really hits the perfect tempo to keep you on the hook. Initially two separate narratives, Wharton paints dynamic three dimensional characters facing loss and a struggle to understand one another. The book does have a somewhat fractured feel to it that was frustrating, but I think that was somewhat of the point.

The Book of Rain asks big questions about how we treat our world and what the consequences of those actions might be. If you're a sci Fi fan, this one is worth the read.

Canadian author, Thomas Wharton, captivates in this haunting and thought provoking novel. This is the first novel that I’ve read from this author. The story blends, different timelines, and time dimensions and is about four different characters Alex and Amery, Micho and Claire. A commentary on humans, the environment and the impact we all have and the ramifications that could come to pass if we don’t recognize our impact in the ways that we are failing all living things in this world. I loved the way this book emmersed me in this alternate world and what could come to pass. I highly recommend reading it. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC for my honest review

I wasn't aware that this book was going to be science fiction. Fiction yes but not science fiction. So once I realized that it was science fiction I could start wrapping my head around it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I liked the characters and how they were being drawn out. And the storyline was interesting but I wasn't sure where we were going. And I liked the environmental angle but in the end it turned out to be more a sideline/gimmick than a real attempt to address our environment.
Now back to the science fiction. Actually perhaps science fiction/mysticism. For me there were a lot of gaps in the story. Many which could be inferred but others were in need of further explanation/narration. What were the "ghosts"? Too little was mentioned about the crazy cult. What's up with the burnt barn? And Amery and time/dimension travel? And then we take a big jump into left field with the 2nd to last chapter with the epic story told by the magpie.
It seemed the latter half of the book needed more. Did the writer run out of ideas or was the book edited back. Either way the later part of the book (starting with the trek into the park by Alex & Michio) didn't seem to match the material previously. We get dumped into the deep end of science fiction/magical/religious shenanigans. It seemed like a rushed ending.
3 stars