The Color of Rain

August 5, 2013
McCarthy's bleak debut novel delivers readers into Earth City, "the most forgotten planet in the universe," where Rain White and her 12-year-old brother, Walker, are orphaned. Lo, a prostitute, takes them under her wing and encourages Rain to sell her body to avoid scrambling for survival. Walker is also infected with a disease that decays the mind; Rain's desperation is heightened by the fear that police will discover Walker's condition and send him away with the rest of the "Touched." On this lawless future Earth, power falls to those who can readily escape the planetâlike Johnny, an attractive starship captain who offers to transport Rain and Walker to a region called "the Edge," where an alleged cure for Walker's condition awaits. However, Johnny's assistance comes at a cost: his personal possession of Rain. McCarthy's poetic language glows throughout her descriptions of a desolate and melancholy universe. Psychological and physical torture, gruesome deaths, and sexual slavery create a dense, claustrophobic narrative that may require even mature readers to come up for air. Ages 13âup. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary Agency.

April 15, 2013
A science-fiction thriller delivers on suspense but turns squeamish over its edgy premise. Seventeen-year-old Rain White is so desperate to escape the slums of Earth City that she agrees to trade her body to a handsome young starship captain for passage across the Void and medical treatment for her brother. But Johnny, it turns out, has a whole stable of "girls," expected to sexually service his passengers and crew. When Rain discovers that his real business is even worse, it will take all of her smarts and courage just to survive. The futuristic societies and technology here are not mere window dressing but integral to the plot. Rain's narrative voice is generally thoughtful and poetic, except when she's berating herself for her inexplicable attraction to Johnny (despite presenting him as consummately vicious and abusive) while disregarding her obligatory gorgeous, supportive and noble secondary love interest. More disturbing, although everyone exclaims how pretty, clever and brave Rain is, and although the story (commendably) never romanticizes sex work, Rain--even after years on the streets with her prostitute best friend--remains unbelievably virginally innocent and prudishly judgmental. Her sexual encounters are glossed over in vague terms (unlike the many graphic descriptions of gory violence), and her unselfish motives and lack of alternatives are so frequently emphasized that her constant wallowing in shame and self-denigration becomes more irritating than sympathetic. Those ready to gloss over the stereotypical characters, the presentation of an all-white, exclusively hetero future and the unfortunate subtextual implications will enjoy an elegantly written and emotionally cathartic page-turner. (Science fiction. 14 & up)

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June 1, 2013

Gr 10 Up-To get the funds she needs to jump planet and travel to the Edge, where her younger brother might be cured, Rain has only one commodity to sell: her virginity. Walker's headaches and confusion will soon identify him as Touched, and he'll be among the hundreds taken away by Earth City police each year. Attracted by Rain's unusual red hair, the starship captain agrees to transport her and Walker through the Void. Aboard Imreas, Johnny Vale controls dozens of women who work as prostitutes for passengers and crew. He will use any means necessary to make Rain totally dependent on him. Despite killing her only friend from Earth before her eyes and demoting her from serving as his exclusive mistress to having sex with whoever will pay, Johnny cannot break Rain's spirit. Her unique qualities attract the attention of Ben, whose advanced technological skills keep Imreas's complex systems functioning. They also help Ben bypass surveillance to develop a relationship with Rain. When she learns that the ship carries hundreds of Touched to work in asteroid mines, she reluctantly agrees to help him and the K-Force stop Johnny and his brother, an even-more-sadistic slave trader, who enjoys lobotomizing the Touched personally. The hopeful ending seems highly improbable. Having survived beatings and rape, witnessed torture and murder, and made choices that sent others to their deaths, Rain seems unlikely to emerge unscathed, ready for a conventional romance with Ben, who carries his own share of guilt. McCarthy's dystopian future in which "deranged people with power" control others through violence and degradation makes for bleak reading.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato

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